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Musicmystery -> World Leaders Wary of Trump Have an Ally: Congress (6/19/2017 8:46:52 AM)
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WASHINGTON — President Trump threatens to upend the post-World War II foreign policy order, but Congress is working to ensure that American foreign policy remains rooted in the trans-Atlantic alliance against traditional rivals like Russia.
Republicans have been careful not to frame their foreign policy moves as a counterweight to the president, who has doled out insults to foreign leaders on Twitter, bailed out of international trade and climate accords and turned on Qatar, an important American ally, as a sponsor of terrorism.
But as the Republican efforts pile up, they are leaving a definite impression of advancing an anti-Trump foreign policy. Last week, after months of hand-wringing, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to strengthen sanctions against Russia. Senators also voted unanimously to affirm American support for the mutual defense doctrine articulated in Article 5 of the NATO charter.
It was a clear rebuke to Mr. Trump, who has waffled on his support for Article 5 since he was a candidate.
And on Tuesday, a measure that would have blocked part of a $500 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia — only weeks after Mr. Trump was received with adulation in the kingdom — had so much bipartisan support that Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson and Vice President Mike Pence had to make a panicked scramble to defeat it. Four Republicans voted to block the sale, and Mr. Trump was saved by Democratic senators who backed him.
Next week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will move after years of resistance to draft a new war authorization to fight the Islamic State, asserting more power over troop deployments as Mr. Trump publicly cedes that authority to the Pentagon.
Not least, the Trump administration’s budget request that would gut the State Department was met by an instant rebuke from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who won’t even consider it.
In the meantime, a number of senators have formed a kind of parallel operation to the State Department by visiting allies to assure them of America’s commitments.
“One of my goals as the leading Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is to recapture much of the Senate prerogatives on foreign policy,” said Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the committee chairman. He added that the panel had “dissipated for a long time into a debating society.”
Congress has struggled with what to do about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and aggression in Eastern Europe since Mr. Trump was elected. Some early efforts at new sanctions on Russia were considered too tough by some Republicans. After the election, Mr. Corker waited for Mr. Tillerson, at Mr. Tillerson’s request, to attempt a relationship with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
But Mr. Corker decided the effort was fruitless and called Mr. Tillerson from a secure location in the Capitol to let him know that he was proceeding with a strong Russia sanctions bill. That was not an option Mr. Tillerson preferred, Mr. Corker said in an interview.
“What went into passing that bill was incredibly intense,” Mr. Corker said. “Our staff worked around the clock to get us where we are, in a place where the election passions had dissolved into significant policy discussions.”
Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee, agreed. “This is a very important moment for this Congress,” he said. “What we recognized as we were working on this is we were not really talking about President Trump, we were talking about American values. If you don’t say, ‘This is to counter Trump,’ even if you are in fact countering Trump, that’s how you get Republican partners.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/us/politics/world-leaders-wary-of-trump-may-have-an-ally-congress.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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