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Senate Democrats block ICC sanctions bill

Every Senate Democrat except for John Fetterman voted against the sanctions bill

Tim Graham/ Getty Images

U.S. Capitol Building

Senate Democrats blocked consideration of legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders after failing to reach an agreement with Republicans to narrow the legislation. 

Just one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), voted in favor of a procedural motion on Tuesday to advance the bill. The bill amassed substantially more Democratic support in the House, but Senate Democratic leaders rallied to keep their caucus united in a bid to force Republicans to compromise.

Talks on the bill were ongoing through Tuesday morning, with top Democrats, led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanding Republicans narrow the bill to ensure that U.S. tech companies and others that do business with the ICC and U.S. allies that are ICC members would not be sanctioned.

Democrats’ aggressive push for unity on the ICC bill came after public fractures last week on the Laken Riley Act, a bill relating to undocumented immigration that picked up support from a number of moderate Democrats.

One Democrat told JI that they had heard from multiple tech CEOs expressing concern about the scope of the bill, specifically mentioning Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and vice chairman. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) voted against the bill despite having voted for the same legislation in the House last year. And Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) opposed it despite saying she supported sanctioning the ICC. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) did not vote on the motion (nor was he present for any other votes this week), and a spokesperson said he is currently out sick.

In a joint statement, Rosen, Gallego and Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) said they were “deeply troubled” by the ICC’s actions and said they warranted “both condemnation and severe consequences,” including “sanctions on those at the ICC directly responsible.”

But they said that the bill as written was too broad and would implicate U.S. allies and private companies, and called for Republicans to return to negotiations for a more targeted bill.

“While we are eager to support a bill that would swiftly sanction those at the ICC responsible for its anti-Israel actions, in taking up the House bill today, Senate Republicans took a flawed, partisan approach,” the statement reads. “Despite our efforts, the bill’s sponsors did not allow us to make this bill stronger and more targeted. This is why we made the difficult decision to vote against a procedural motion on their bill, after serious consideration of the far-reaching, unintended consequences it would have.”

Slotkin said in a statement that she continues to support legislation to counter the ICC’s anti-Israel bias, but that she changed her vote because “in recent weeks, our U.S. businesses and allies have raised serious concerns over the text of the bill.” Slotkin said that if talks about changing the bill’s language to “do less harm … restart in good faith, I will vote to move the bill forward.”

Senate lawmakers had worked, at various points last year, to find a bipartisan path forward to respond to the ICC, but talks repeatedly collapsed.

It’s unclear whether Senate Republicans plan to make any further attempts to pass the bill or continue negotiations. Two sources predicted that leadership would need to pivot to nominations and other priorities on the agenda.

Republicans have been reticent to allow amendments to the bill given that the Trump administration can implement the sanctions unilaterally, though it is unclear if or when the White House plans to do so. 

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the No. 2 Senate Republican, told Jewish Insider that he expected Republicans to encourage the White House to implement these sanctions by executive order. The first Trump administration did implement similar sanctions, which the Biden administration rolled back. The National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment if Trump intends to reimplement the sanctions unilaterally.

Fetterman said he was “deeply disappointed by the outcome of the ICC sanctions bill,” adding, “My vote follows Israel — not the ICC that equivocated the democratically elected leader of our special ally to the terrorists and rapists of Hamas.”

The ICC issued its arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant alongside long-shot warrants for Hamas officials.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a floor speech that the ICC’s “anti-Israel bias has taken over and become too much to ignore.” But he cited concerns about sanctions on U.S. companies that provide technological support for the ICC, such as protection from Russian hacking, but are not involved in prosecutions.

He claimed that the heads of state of U.S. allies also “all called and complained” that the bill would allow the administration to unilaterally decide to sanction them for being members of the ICC. He said it would also hamper the ICC’s efforts to pursue Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Schumer urged Republicans to resume talks, and said that a “bipartisan agreement is still very possible.”

Shaheen claimed that the legislation would not have the intended effect of convincing the ICC to withdraw warrants against Israeli officials, but might have hardened the court’s position. She said the bill would have made it nearly impossible for the U.S. to engage the ICC on issues like Ukraine, Sudan and Venezuela; impacted low-level service workers and their families; targeted U.S. tech companies; and hurt U.S. alliances.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, told JI that Democrats opposed the motion to proceed “because they [Republicans] made no changes” to the bill. “We were not able to achieve any narrowing” of the language, he said, adding, “There’s a back and forth. I mean, this is simple. They weren’t willing to negotiate on anything.”

Republicans blasted Democrats for tanking the legislation, and said Democrats were misrepresenting the supposed issues with the bill.

Speaking to JI just off the Senate chamber, Barrasso, who is Senate majority whip, said that the outcome “shows which party is supporting our friends and allies in Israel and which party is opposing it.” “The Democrats are clearly lining up here with Iran and not our colleagues, our friends in Israel,” Barrasso said. 

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the bill’s lead sponsor, said in a statement, “Democrats voted against protecting American troops from a corrupt kangaroo court. They had 10 months to negotiate this bill, but instead waited until the last minute to demand unworkable changes that would give carve outs to big tech. Make no mistake — Democrats weakened our national sovereignty and Israel’s ability to defend itself today.”

Cotton emphasized in a floor speech that the ICC poses a threat to U.S. service members. He called the ICC’s pursuit of Israel a “trial run” for a move against the United States.

He emphasized that the legislation does not target U.S. allied nations, but said that citizens of allied nations should face sanctions if they’re involved in the ICC’s prosecutions of Israel and the U.S. 

He praised Shaheen for working with him to address concerns about companies that would be targeted, but said that “it became clear that these American subsidiaries don’t want a narrow carveout, they want a massive carveout, that would … allow them in the future to continue providing information, say, about American troops’ actions in Afghanistan.”

Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the Senate majority leader, accused Democrats of abandoning Israel in remarks at a press conference.

As did the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, which put out a statement accusing Shaheen of having “rallied her fellow Senate Democrats to oppose bipartisan legislation that would have sanctioned the illegitimate International Criminal Court.”

“New Hampshire deserves a leader in the U.S. Senate who stands with our allies and Jewish Americans across the country. Instead, Jeanne Shaheen has aligned herself with antisemitic terrorist sympathizers at the corrupt ICC,” said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Nick Puglia.

Shaheen is up for re-election in 2026, and will be a top target for Republicans.

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