The Senate Foreign Relations Committee canceled a scheduled Wednesday vote on bipartisan legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court for pursuing arrest warrants against Israeli officials, extending a committee deadlock over the bill. 

Committee leaders are trading blame about why the meeting — known as a markup — was canceled. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the committee’s Democratic chairman, said Republicans filed an overwhelming number of amendments and weren’t responsive to his efforts to discuss the situation.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the panel’s top Republican, said that lawmakers had a deal to vote on the legislation and a meeting on the schedule and that he had no warning about the meeting falling apart.

“It was kind of strange. We had an understanding. They filed their bill and I filed my amendment to it, and then they filed 30 amendments to their own bill, which would be a major expansion of the agenda of our committee for that markup, as well as political votes,” Cardin told Jewish Insider on Wednesday, adding that the GOP amendments were “not serious for getting an ICC bill to the finish line.”

“I tried to reach Sen. Risch for several days and was unable to get him, literally was not able to talk to him for several days, in an effort to try to find a way that we could either have an orderly markup or a bipartisan bill, either one. I was prepared to try to find a way forward just to have a markup that was not just a political gotcha,” Cardin said.

Cardin added that he “had to give notice to members” about the meeting the night before, and “the agenda fell apart” as a result.

After months of gridlock, Democrats had agreed to allow a vote on the House-passed ICC sanctions bill, demanded by Republicans; Cardin opposes the House bill as passed, and the White House opposes sanctions on the ICC.

“We’d like to get a bill done if we can. It requires a give and take, but it always should be bipartisan. Look, we’re going to be stronger if we’re together with the Biden administration on the ICC issues,” Cardin said. 

Risch said that he and Cardin had been in discussions about the markup for weeks, and had agreed to process 40 nominations at the markup alongside the ICC bill. Republicans have refused to agree to confirmation and other committee votes until the committee votes on the ICC bill. The markup was set to be the committee’s first since April.

“We had the agreement. There was a notice sent out. I had my speeches ready, my new suit on, ready to go to the meeting, and I got word that they canceled it,” Risch said. “I’ve been trying to pass this ICC bill for months. They have the votes to kill it. I don’t know why they didn’t go to the [meeting] and just kill it. I suspect every one of those nominations would have [passed].”

A Republican committee spokesperson disputed Cardin’s characterization that Risch had been unresponsive, and said that Risch had responded to a call from Cardin this week.

“The Foreign Relations Committee can do hard things and has worked on much broader legislation with more amendments during markups past,” the spokesperson added. “It’s unfortunate to see blame laid with administrative issues.”

“This committee has a long history of wading into difficult issues and letting every member have a vote, but in the last 12 months the majority has refused to hold hearings on difficult issues and muted committee members by refusing to move legislation that is not in lockstep with a Biden-Harris Administration whose foreign policy legacy is already in tatters,” the spokesperson also said.

Multiple Democratic committee members who JI asked about the situation on Wednesday said they weren’t clear on why the meeting did not occur as planned.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who had been negotiating with Cardin about a bipartisan ICC bill, urged action on the House legislation. “You either want to rein in the ICC or you don’t,” he said.