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President Biden, heeding pressure to cut Russia off from doing business with the United States, announced an immediate U.S. embargo on imports of the country’s oil, gas and coal, applauding House and Senate bipartisan efforts to follow with legislation and similar action announced on Tuesday by the United Kingdom.
Biden, who considered the move for days in consultation with European allies, labeled oil and gas the “main artery” of the Russian economy and proceeded to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin directly for gas price increases that are taking hold across the U.S. (The Hill).
“The decision today is not without cost here at home. Putin’s war is already hurting American families at the gas pump,” Biden said, adding that he will take steps to “minimize Putin’s price hike here at home” (The Hill).
Lawmakers on Tuesday were set to pass a legislative ban on Russian oil and gas imports. The measure was quickly amended to reflect the president’s order. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had initially planned to vote on the proposal on Tuesday, but scrapped that plan in favor of a vote later today.
On top of the fuel directive, the House’s bill would also call for a new review of Russia’s status as part of the World Trade Organization and expand the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, an existing human rights law that empowers presidents to apply sanctions to those regimes that commit human rights violations. She argued it is a complement to Biden’s executive order (The Hill).
The White House fact sheet: United States bans imports of Russian oil, liquified natural gas and coal.
The Associated Press: What does a U.S. ban on Russian oil accomplish?
Amie Parnes and Morgan Chalfant, The Hill: How Biden came around to banning Russian gas and oil.
The Wall Street Journal: Saudi, Emirati leaders decline calls with Biden during Ukraine crisis, accept calls from Putin.
The Hill: U.S. looks to bridge petroleum needs with supplies from Latin America, Middle East. The Hill’s Saul Elbein reports how much will be needed.
The Hill: The United Kingdom says it will phase out Russian petroleum purchases by the end of the year.
On top of the oil ban, Congress struck a deal on Tuesday on a $14 billion package to deliver humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced the agreement, having been a driving force to bring the price tag up to its final number. The White House in late February initially requested $6.4 billion; the request rose to $12 billion on Monday.
The bill is expected to be attached to the $1.5 trillion spending proposal to keep the government’s lights on through Sept. 30 before Friday’s deadline.
“The quickest way to get this done is through the omnibus,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said about GOP criticism that the aid had moved too slowly (The Hill).
House Democrats are expected to pass the omnibus later today. House Democrats are set to depart tonight for their three-day retreat in Philadelphia, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told members of his caucus that they should be prepared in case they have to return to Washington on Friday to pass a funding bill again in order to avert a government shutdown. As a failsafe, House Democrats are also set to pass a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open until Tuesday, giving the Senate more breathing room to pass the massive year-end spending bill.
“To provide time for the omnibus to be considered in the Senate and enrolled for the president’s signature without a lapse in appropriations, the House Appropriations Committee will introduce a continuing resolution through March 15,” a House Democratic aide told The Hill shortly after midnight.
Senators are still pushing to pass the year-end package by Friday’s deadline (The Hill).
The Associated Press: Top lawmakers reach deal on Ukraine aid, $1.5 trillion spending.
The Hill: Democrats look for cover on rising gas prices.
America’s ban on Russian oil during what Biden called “Putin’s war” is not widely emulated by most European nations because dependence on Russian energy is extensive there. The United States, however, can cut Russia off and make up the supply differences elsewhere. “We can take this step when others cannot,” Biden said in remarks from the Roosevelt Room.
The president, a car enthusiast who enjoys driving, acknowledged however, that the embargo will raise costs for U.S. consumers, who are slammed by the dramatic surge in gas prices ahead of the spring and summer driving seasons as world markets react to war. “They’re going to go up,” he said of driving costs.
Higher fuel prices add to rising inflation in the United States just as the Federal Reserve next week is poised to announce the first in a series of interest rate hikes to try to keep the U.S. economy from overheating. Americans have thus far given Biden relatively high marks for his handling of the crisis in Ukraine but lower evaluations of his economic policies. Republicans are generally supportive of increasing U.S. oil and gas production and critical of the administration’s policies to wean the United States away from fossil fuels toward alternatives such as wind and solar power, and electric vehicles.
The Associated Press: Record gas costs pose fresh political challenge for Biden.
The Hill: Poll: 79 percent of Americans back Russian oil ban.
Stocks fell Tuesday as energy prices rose in global markets (The New York Times). Since Feb. 24 when Russia — one of the world’s largest energy producers — invaded Ukraine, oil prices have risen about 30 percent. The average per-gallon price of gasoline on Tuesday in the United States was $4.17, according to the American Automobile Association. A month ago, the average was $3.46.
Biden warned companies not to gouge U.S. consumers under the guise of an embargo and encouraged consumers to view the damage to their wallets as investments in democracy everywhere. “Putin may be able to take a city, but he’ll never be able to hold the country,” Biden said while praising Ukrainians for their bravery. “And if we do not respond to Putin’s assault on global peace and stability today, the cost of freedom and to the American people will be even greater tomorrow.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Tuesday in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron for more than an hour, as well as with the French foreign minister, to discuss Putin and the escalating situation in Ukraine. Macron, who is keeping diplomatic channels open, earlier spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Vice President Harris departs Washington today for Poland and Romania to bolster U.S. support for NATO partners.
On Tuesday, the Defense Department rejected Poland’s offer to give the United States its MiG-29 fighter jets for use by Ukraine, to be delivered to the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The Biden administration, in a rare public split with NATO partners, rejected Poland’s idea as an “untenable” option that could widen the war with Russia (The Associated Press).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday implored the West to label Russia a “terrorist state” while urging British lawmakers to impose more penalties on Moscow and send military assistance to Ukraine (The Hill). Zelensky on Twitter expressed his gratitude for Biden’s “personal leadership in striking in the heart of Putin’s war machine and banning oil, gas and coal from US market. Encourage other countries and leaders to follow.”
An attempt failed on Tuesday to evacuate civilians from the surrounded city of Mariupol and deliver badly needed basic supplies through a designated safe corridor. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had fired on a convoy before it reached the city (The Associated Press). There were reports of corpses in the streets and desperate, trapped Ukrainians forced to forage for food, melt snow for water and hide from the shelling in the cold and darkness underground.
Defying predictions, apparently including those inside the Kremlin, Ukraine has nevertheless held Russian forces at bay into a second week. More than 2 million Ukrainians — the largest tide of fleeing refugees since World War II — continue to move into neighboring nations with no idea when they might return. In a nation with 44 million people, at least 1 million children have fled, according to the United Nations (The Washington Post).
The international strategy to end the war continues to focus on punishing Russia into eventual economic and political submission and retreat, which Putin has shown no signs of entertaining.
The U.S. and NATO partners have gradually escalated their approaches to isolating Russia’s economy, cutting off its access to global finances and sources of revenue and goods. On their own, iconic U.S.-based companies are deciding to halt sales in Russia. Biden on Tuesday saluted corporations for decisions increasingly seen as getting on the right side of an unprovoked war. Some of the names: McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Starbucks, PepsiCo.
The Wall Street Journal: NATO members mount huge operation to resupply Ukrainian fighters.
NEWS from The Hill: Our talented colleague Steve Clemons next month shifts from editor-at-large to become a contributing editor as he jumps ship to help create a new globally focused digital media platform being launched by journalist entrepreneurs Ben Smith and Justin Smith. Clemons last year hosted 70 policy discussions for The Hill and its audiences, featuring 92 members of Congress and 88 industry leaders. Bravo!
GET IN THE KNOW
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LEADING THE DAY
COURTS & JUSTICE: Senate Judiciary Committee Republican Lindsey Graham (S.C.) may vote against the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to be a Supreme Court justice and the nominee of Biden, a former Judiciary Committee chairman. Graham, an ally of former President Trump and veteran of high court confirmation battles, urged Biden to select South Carolina District Judge J. Michelle Childs. Graham voted to confirm Brown Jackson to the D.C. Circuit Court less than a year ago (The Hill).
> In a victory for the Justice Department, a jury on Tuesday convicted Guy Wesley Reffitt of Texas in Federal District Court in Washington of obstructing the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, wearing an illegal pistol during the attack on the Capitol, and later threatening his teenage son and daughter to keep them from turning him in to authorities. Reffitt, 41 (bottom right in the sketch), faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on the obstruction count alone. It was the first criminal trial to stem from the violent, pro-Trump mob attacks. The jury needed just three hours to find Reffitt guilty after a weeklong trial that included testimony from police officers, a Secret Service agent, one of Reffitt’s compatriots in the Texas Three Percenters militia group and Reffitt’s son. Reffitt on Jan. 6 documented his actions at the Capitol with a camera mounted on a helmet (The New York Times).
> The Justice Department charged Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio of conspiracy on Tuesday for his alleged role in plotting Jan. 6 Capitol attacks (Reuters). “Tarrio and his co-defendants … conspired to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede an official proceeding, the certification of the Electoral College vote,” the government said (CNN). Tarrio was not in the nation’s capital during the riot but previously met with Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes in a Washington, D.C., parking garage leading up to the riot, the government alleges in its description of events. Tarrio appeared in court Tuesday in Florida and will remain in jail until a detention hearing Friday.
A MESSAGE FROM EMERGENT
We Go to protect those who protect us. For more than two decades, Emergent has developed, manufactured, and delivered protections against critical health threats.
The vaccines and treatments we manufacture have protected millions, including US service members. Learn more about how our life-enhancing products help create a better, more secure world: www.emergentbiosolutions.com
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
POLITICS: The GOP-held Florida Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that bars school instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten until third grade despite heavy opposition from Democrats and LGBTQ advocates.
The legislation will now head to the desk of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), and it is expected to be signed into law. The proposal is known among opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, as they argue it will marginalize LGBTQ individuals.
“This bill, from its introduction, has been used as vehicle to marginalize and attack LGTBQ people,” said state Rep. Carlos G. Smith, a Democrat who is gay. He added that the legislation “sends a terrible message to our youth that there is something wrong with LGBTQ people, that there is something so dangerous or inappropriate about us that we have to be prohibited and censored from the classroom.”
State Republicans have defended the bill, saying that parents and family should be having these discussions with their children rather than teachers and educators (The Associated Press).
Politico: Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Trump’s man in North Carolina, struggles in Senate primary.
Reid Wilson, The Hill: Up for re-election, Democratic governors dole out checks.
> International: South Korean voters have been casting ballots on Wednesday to elect a successor to President Moon Jae-in, who was ineligible to serve another term. Polls are about to close there as of this writing. Surveys have shown a tight contest between Lee Jae-myung, of Moon’s Democratic Party, and Yoon Suk-yeol, a former prosecutor representing the conservative opposition, the People Power Party. (Live election updates at Financial Times, The New York Times).
The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@digital-staging.thehill.com and aweaver@digital-staging.thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE!
OPINION
Biden’s U.S. oil embargo, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board. https://on.wsj.com/3tzFTfK
How the U.S. could show it’s finally serious about the geopolitics of energy, by Charles Lane, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3sTGPfT
WHERE AND WHEN
The House meets at 9 a.m.
The Senate convenes on Thursday at 10 a.m.
The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 11 a.m. He will meet at 2 p.m. with business leaders to tout pending legislation aimed at improving U.S. manufacturing and competitiveness. Biden will address Democratic senators at 6:15 p.m. at a political retreat at Howard University.
The vice president departs at 7:30 a.m. for Warsaw (The Hill).
Blinken will meet at 10 a.m. at the State Department with British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss. He will hold a joint news conference with Truss at 11:15 a.m. At 4:30 p.m. the secretary will meet with Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov.
First lady Jill Biden will depart from Tucson, Ariz., at 8:45 a.m. to fly to Reno, Nev., for a job-training and educational event at the Truckee Meadows Community College at 10:15 a.m. She will be accompanied by Acting Labor Assistant Secretary Angela Hanks. Dr. Biden will depart Reno at noon.
The White House daily briefing is scheduled at 1 p.m.
Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://digital-staging.thehill.com/hilltv and on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. ET. Also, check out the “Rising” podcast here.
ELSEWHERE
➜ CORONAVIRUS: The World Health Organization, in a reversal, now recommends COVID-19 booster doses, particularly for those at highest risk of serious illness (The Hill). … The Washington, D.C., Health Department on Tuesday said students no longer need to wear masks indoors. Its guidance will be weighed by D.C. Public Schools, charter schools and private schools as well as child care facilities (The Washington Post). … Which states ban mask mandates in schools and which states require masks? (Education Week updates a list). … Hawaii became the 50th and final state to lift its indoor mask mandate (The New York Times).
➜ OVERDUE MAIL: The Senate on Tuesday followed the lead of the House to approve a $107 billion financial overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service. Biden is expected to sign the Postal Service Reform Act into law (The Washington Post).
➜ INTERNATIONAL: Venezuela late on Tuesday released at least two American prisoners, Gustavo Cárdenas, an executive at the American branch of Venezuela’s state oil company, who was detained in 2017, and Jorge Alberto Fernández, a Cuban American tourist who was accused of terrorism for bringing a drone into Venezuela in February 2021, according to Biden and Fernández’s lawyer (The New York Times and The Associated Press). The release followed a recent trip by a high-level U.S. delegation to Venezuela to meet with President Nicolás Maduro, part of a broader Biden administration agenda in autocratic countries with ties to Russia. At least eight other U.S. nationals remain jailed in Caracas on charges ranging from embezzlement to terrorism.
➜ TECH: Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is set to acquire Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm that uncovered the SolarWinds hack, for $5.4 billion, the tech giant announced Tuesday. Mandiant will join Google’s Cloud business following the close of the acquisition, having also been a target of Microsoft before talks broke down (The Hill). … Apple on Tuesday announced a new 5G iPhone SE priced at $429 and other product changes including a new iPad Air, Mac Studio desktop computer and a new 27-inch monitor (The Washington Post).
➜ SHIP “ENDURANCE” FOUND: National Geographic and The New York Times report that the scientific expedition to locate the famed wreckage of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s vessel Endurance, which sank in the icy Weddell Sea in the Antarctic in 1915, has been located. The footage will be shown as a National Geographic documentary in the fall. (More than a minute of video provided by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust can also be seen at the Times link.)
A MESSAGE FROM EMERGENT
We Go to protect those who protect us. For more than two decades, Emergent has developed, manufactured, and delivered protections against critical health threats.
The vaccines and treatments we manufacture have protected millions, including US service members. Learn more about how our life-enhancing products help create a better, more secure world: www.emergentbiosolutions.com
THE CLOSER
And finally … When millions of Ukrainian families make heart-rending decisions to flee to neighboring countries with their children, aging relatives, the clothes on their backs and the bags they can carry, many beloved pets get left behind.
Many Ukrainians have refused to try to escape Russia’s siege unless their animals come with them to shelters and temporary stops along the way, a reaction familiar to any American who has watched the aftermath of U.S. natural disasters.
Animal welfare workers have put their organizations and workers at significant risk while caring for thousands of Ukrainian pets now in rescue facilities, some under increasing Russian bombardment (New York Post).
Volunteer Anastasiia Yalanskaya, 26, was allegedly shot and killed while in a vehicle targeted by Russian troops last week while trying to deliver supplies to an animal shelter in Bucha, outside Kyiv (Newsweek).
James Sawyer, U.K. director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), told the BBC his group remotely operates two animal shelters in Ukraine with more than 1,100 dogs and provides food and supplies under harsh circumstances as supplies dwindle there.
“The devastation caused by some of these rocket attacks, that open environment full of glass, concrete and metal is dangerous to people but also to animals,” Sawyer said.
Katya Kurletz, with her group “Transform a Street Dog,” is moving pets and street animals from Ukraine across the border to safety in facilities set up in Poland and Romania (TMZ). Rasma Krecia, a Latvian volunteer, is helping move pets out of Ukraine to safety in Lviv with her group “Home for Rescued Animals,” hoping there can be reunions between owners and animals later on (Reuters).
