"We don’t have very much time [to pursue legislation]. It’s going to be a real race, unless everyone wants to stay here for Christmas," Republican John Cornyn of Texas said, as quoted by the outlet.
READ MORE: Russia-US Trade Raises 8.5% Year-on-Year Despite Sanctions — Customs Service
New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez shared the opinion that there was no time left for the new legislation to be approved.
"The clock is running out on us… We don’t have an administration that’s actually embracing it," Menendez said.
On August 2, a group of US senators led by Lindsey Graham introduced an extensive sanctions bill against Russia in response to its alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as "malign influence in Syria, aggression in Crimea." Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported that the senators aimed to block dollar-denominated transactions by Russian banks and US nationals’ operations with the country’s sovereign debt.