Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked Republicans from advancing legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court, arguing the bill had sweeping consequences on allies and American businesses.
Republicans failed to get the 60 votes needed to move the bill forward, with the final tally 54 to 45. Senate Democrats had sought to negotiate a bipartisan compromise on the bill to shield America’s allies and U.S. companies contracting with the court from getting swept up in sanctions, which are aimed at punishing the ICC’s pursuit of war crimes cases against Israel.
Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) was the only Democrat who voted to advance the measure.
The vote marked one of the first defeats of the GOP agenda in the Senate this session. Democrats last week also blocked a “born alive” abortion bill from passing in the upper chamber.
“The ICC bill is one I largely support and would like to see become law,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
“However, as much as I oppose the ICC bias against Israel, as much as I want to see that institution drastically reformed and reshaped, the bill before us is poorly drafted and deeply problematic.”
Republicans rejected efforts by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to change language in the text that would exempt from sanctions America’s allies and U.S. companies doing business with the court. Schumer said the language change amounted to a “small fix.”
“A bipartisan agreement is still very possible and we hope, and urge our Republican colleagues to sit down with us and come up with a bill that addresses the very real problems at the ICC without adversely affecting American companies and our allies,” Schumer said.
Senate Republicans had sought to advance legislation that passed the House earlier this month that would impose sanctions on ICC officials, entities and individuals supporting the court in retaliation for the court’s pursuit of investigations against Israel for war crimes.
Last spring, the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for the crime of using starvation as a weapon of war, amid Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where more than 40,000 people have died. The court also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas’s military commander Mohammed Deif, as responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel – killing an estimated 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.
Critics of the sanctions said they represented a false equivalence between Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by the U.S., European Union and others, and Israel’s right to act in self-defense.
But Democrats largely opposed Republican efforts to sanction the court over its actions, saying the bill’s language would block the U.S. or allies from engaging with the court over other efforts to exact justice for war crimes and atrocities across the globe.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was the Senate Republican lead co-sponsor. Shaheen, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she was hoping to achieve an agreement with Cotton in editing the language of this bill.
“I know we share most of the same concerns he does, in drafting the bill, but I think it’s overly broad, it’s not drafted in a way that addresses the unique concerns that we have with respect to the International Criminal Court,” she said.
Updated at 3:18 p.m.
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