Congress Has Limited Means to Punish Russia

The bodies of at least 50 people, including five children, killed by a Russian missile strike at a railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, were laid out in green tarps by Ukrainian military personnel, police and volunteers.

The House and Senate have been at a standstill over how to deter Russia's military aggression, even as the number of Ukrainian casualties swells to more than 3,400, according to the latest report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Congress has passed mostly symbolic legislation as federal agencies, including the Departments of Commerce and Justice, work to execute sanctions.

Lawmakers sent two bills to the president. Russia and Belarus were removed from a list of countries that benefit from normal trade relations with the United States. The bill requires the U.S. Trade Representative to persuade other World Trade Organization member countries to suspend Russia's trade status. The second bill codifies the ban on Russian energy imports.

Lawmakers were quick to talk about the importance of the legislation. The package will send a message to a dictator in Russia, according to House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal.

The bills don't do much. Biden has issued executive orders banning imports of oil, gas, coal, seafood, alcoholic beverages, and diamonds from Russia. He imposed restrictions on U.S. energy investments in Russia.

The U.S. is not a primary destination of Russian products, so those moves have had limited effect. The bill that Congress passed Thursday that increases the tariffs on Russian goods isn't a crushing punishment. Biden's executive orders banned the few key imports between the U.S. and Russia.

The House passed another bill Wednesday that directed Biden to authorize a report on war crimes against Ukraine by Russia. The bill needs to go through the Senate.

The U.S. government is mostly being done by the administrative state. The Commerce Department banned companies from providing any services to three Russian airlines. The first seizure of an asset belonging to a sanctioned individual with close ties to the Russian regime took place today.

Congress is partly structural. The executive branch can issue sanctions on its own, but the legislative branch has the power of the purse. Congress sent a package of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine in March. The result of national politics is what Congress does. Lawmakers from both parties are trying to balance their preferences just months before the November elections.

One pressure point? According to Gallup polling, rising inflation is the most important issue to voters, and economic restrictions on Russia may increase already sky-high inflation. Americans are still committed to backing Ukraine. A recent poll found that a majority of Americans were willing to label Russian President Vladimir Putin as mentally unstable; the same poll found that Americans had overwhelmingly positive opinions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Six House Republicans voted against the bill that would have asked Biden to look into whether or not Putin is engaging in war crimes. Three House Republicans opposed a motion for the trade bill to proceed, and nine House members opposed a motion to allow the oil embargo bill to progress to Biden's desk.

Ten House Republicans signed onto a bill in February that would have prevented military aid to Ukraine until a border wall was built.

As bodies continue to pile up at Ukrainian railway stations, Mariupol movie theaters and maternity hospitals, America's legislative body will return from recess in the same position they were when they left town: with limited ability to penalize Russia and a lack of unity.

Write to abby.vesoulis@time.com