WASHINGTON, July 18. /TASS/. Democratic members of the US House of Representatives Brad Schneider of Illinois and Don Beyer of Virginia spoke out against a bill on anti-Russian sanctions.

"The American people do not want and cannot afford more of President [of the US Donald] Trump’s illegal, cost-raising tariffs. Unfortunately, the Sanctioning Russia Act is nothing more than a backdoor attempt to greenlight tariffs of up to 100 percent on our major trading partners while surreptitiously handcuffing Congress’ ability to stop Trump from further escalating his global trade war," Beyer said in a statement published on his website on Friday.

"We urge our colleagues to block this effort to hand over more tariff power to a President who is hellbent on spreading chaos and corruption, raising costs on American families, and destroying our most vital trade relationships," the congressmen said, while expressing support for other legislative initiatives targeting Russia.

An updated bill providing for tougher unilateral restrictions against Russia, as well as tariffs on its trading partners, was formally introduced in the Senate on Thursday. Under the new version of the document, sanctions would be imposed on Russia's top political and military leadership, state companies and foreign enterprises that, according to the US side, support Russia's defense industry. The bill also provides for restrictions against the Central Bank of Russia, Sberbank, and Gazprombank, as well as major Russian energy projects, including Yamal LNG, three Arctic LNG projects and future Russian energy projects in the Arctic.

Instead of the previously proposed 500% tariffs on imports from countries purchasing Russian energy resources, the bill now calls for 100% tariffs on the five largest buyers of Russian oil and natural gas, as well as five countries that allegedly help Russia circumvent Western energy sanctions. The senators also proposed restrictions against the so-called shadow fleet.

Trump said on July 14 that the chances of the bill being passed were high but said he had not discussed some of its key provisions, which effectively concern Washington's plans to impose secondary sanctions on Russia's trading partners, including India and China. According to the US president, this issue still needs to be reviewed. Axios later reported that the timeline for Senate consideration of the initiative had not yet been determined.