Congress
But some centrists left the room noncommittal on Sen. Ted Cruz’s push to block a gas pipeline that would benefit Moscow.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is lobbying Democrats against the bill. | Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images
By ANDREW DESIDERIO
01/10/2022 07:09 PM EST
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The Biden administration on Monday deployed top officials to Capitol Hill in a bid to lock in wavering Senate Democrats against a GOP push for sanctions on a Russian gas pipeline.
Democrats are poised later this week to reject Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) sanctions bill that would cripple the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is in the final stages of approval and will send cheap natural gas from Russia to Germany. Cruz’s plan, Democrats argue, would undercut President Joe Biden’s ability to use the pipeline as leverage over Moscow as it threatens to invade Ukraine again.
But some moderate Democrats emerged from the Biden administration briefing Monday evening noncommittal about Cruz’s legislation, even as they seemed to parrot the chief argument against the bill — that it would undermine unity with U.S. allies, in particular Germany, in the face of Russia’s aggression.
