Top Democrats, Republicans say they have deal to ban Russian energy imports as U.S. stock markets se

Source: Washington Post

Top Democrats, Republicans say they have deal to ban Russian energy imports as U.S. stock markets sell off sharply

The agreement, reached between leaders on House and Senate tax committees, would still need to be approved by the full House and Senate

By Tony Romm
Today at 10:09 a.m. EST|Updated today at 3:34 p.m. EST

Senior congressional Democrats and Republicans on Monday announced they had reached a deal on a bill that would punish Russia for invading Ukraine, as they seek to ban U.S. imports of Russian oil while further empowering President Biden to impose tariffs on the country’s products.

The announcement evinced the vast and fast-moving flurry of legislative activity on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have looked to couple their penalties on the Kremlin with a related push to bolster Ukraine with billions of dollars in humanitarian, military and economic assistance.

In seeking to inflict pain on Russia, however, the U.S. strategy threatened to have wider economic consequences. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down around 800 points on Monday, a drop of about 2.4 percent, as the war unleashed another tumultuous day of trading on Wall Street. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell around 480 points, or 3.6 percent.

Oil and gas prices also remained high, with the national, per-gallon average at the pump exceeding $4, according to AAA. The tracking service GasBuddy, meanwhile, estimated Monday that prices actually broke the existing U.S. record set in 2008.

It is unclear how the newly proposed U.S. ban on Russian crude might affect the global economy. ...

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/03/07/congress-ukraine-gas-prices-aid/

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