Ten of Indiana's 11 Members of Congress Voted to Squeeze Putin's Oil Money. A Pennsylvania Republican Wants Them on the Record Again.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), official portrait, 115th Congress. Photo by Kristie Boyd, U.S. House Office of Photography, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Ten yes votes and one no. That is how Indiana's 11 members of Congress lined up on the Russia sanctions bill that reached the president's desk last month. Sens. Todd Young and Jim Banks both voted for the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act when the Senate passed it 86–11 on Aug. 7, the Senate roll call shows. On Sept. 16, eight of Indiana's nine House members helped send it to the White House 262–159, with Indianapolis Democrat André Carson the lone Hoosier no, according to the House Clerk.

On Saturday, a Republican from suburban Philadelphia said he intends to make every one of them vote on Russian oil again.

“We will be introducing bipartisan legislation to block any and all purchases of Russian oil. It will be called the ‘Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act,’” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick wrote on X at 3:38 p.m. “It will be forced to the Floor via discharge and it will pass overwhelmingly.” Fitzpatrick co-chairs the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, Axios reported. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who is retiring, quickly signed on. “I've already agreed to be an original cosponsor,” Bacon posted. “Congress must make a stand,” The Hill reported.

The target is the diesel arrangement President Trump announced Friday after a call with Vladimir Putin: 300,000 tons right away, 500,000 more in November, then a million tons, with millions more depending on the condition of Russia's refineries, CNBC reported. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 135 the same day, clearing the sale and import of Russian-origin diesel. The license runs through April 7, 2027. The Hoosier Enquirer laid out the terms of the deal Friday night.

Sanctions yes, discharge no: the Indiana pattern

A discharge petition is the House's emergency exit. With 218 signatures it forces a floor vote without the blessing of Speaker Mike Johnson, Axios noted, and lawmakers have been reaching for it more often this Congress.

Indiana's Republicans have not liked that exit when Ukraine was involved. In June, Fitzpatrick and Bacon's petition for the Ukraine Support Act, a package of military aid plus new sanctions, came to the floor as a motion to discharge. It passed 218–204 with only six Republican votes. All seven Indiana Republicans (Jim Baird, Erin Houchin, Mark Messmer, Jefferson Shreve, Victoria Spartz, Marlin Stutzman and Rudy Yakym) voted no, while Democrats Carson and Frank Mrvan voted yes, the Clerk's tally shows.

Spartz is the member to watch. She grew up in Ukraine, her House biography says, and she has drawn a sharp line between aid and sanctions. She voted against the Ukraine Support Act on June 4 and never signed that discharge petition, but she backed the Sept. 16 sanctions package, according to the American Coalition for Ukraine's vote tracker and the Clerk's roll call.

That line matters here, because Fitzpatrick's new bill, at least as he has described it, is not an aid bill. It is about oil money, the same lane in which Indiana Republicans voted yes a month ago. The September law was sold on exactly that point. “The economic lifeline that keeps Putin's war machine moving must be restricted,” Rep. Michael Turner of Ohio said during floor debate, Roll Call reported.

There is a fair objection, too, and plenty of conservatives hold it. Discharge petitions hand control of the floor to whatever coalition can reach 218, which in practice means nearly every Democrat plus a handful of Republicans. Members who believe the majority should set its own agenda have reasons to refuse to sign on principle, whatever they think of Putin.

The farm-country math the White House is betting on

The president's case is not imaginary in Indiana. Diesel here hit a record $6.92 a gallon on Sept. 24, Hoosier Ag Today reported, right as combines and grain trucks began burning through it for harvest. Trump's Oct. 5 order on dyed diesel and deferred federal excise taxes, and Gov. Mike Braun's state emergency letting farmers haul on untaxed red diesel through Nov. 4, were both aimed at the same pain. “We need oil for the world, and this is diesel, which is what we need, so we're very happy to get it,” Trump told reporters Friday, according to CNBC.

The people who study fuel markets are not convinced Russian barrels will move the pump. The national diesel average was nearly $6.28 on Friday, up from about $3.68 a year earlier, the Associated Press reported. “It's kind of shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic,” Michael Lynch of the Energy Policy Research Foundation told the AP, arguing that diesel shipped here simply leaves Russia's other customers short. Clayton Seigle of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the deal “does certainly let Moscow off the hook in terms of revenue squeeze.”

Some of the sharpest objections are coming from the right. “Vladimir Putin is a butcher,” Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said Friday, adding that he backed the president's push to lower prices but not “his decision to import it from Putin,” The Hill reported. Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said the September law already “gave the president significant authorities and leverage” against Moscow.

Whether the license breaks that law is a separate question from whether it is wise. The 2022 ban on Russian oil imports included an exception allowing imports the president finds to be in the national interest, The Hill noted. The administration may well have the legal room. What Congress has not had is a vote on whether this is the use it had in mind.

Four weeks with the House gone

Nothing happens fast from here. The bill had not been introduced as of Saturday, and The Hill reported it was unclear which Democrats would sponsor it. The House is not scheduled to vote again until after the Nov. 3 midterm, and anything it passes would still need the Senate and could meet a veto, Axios reported. The White House had not answered Axios' request for comment.

Not every Republican is ready to commit. “Being that Congress won't be in session for another four weeks, any prudent lawmaker would probably not make a commitment to this prematurely,” one House Republican told Axios on condition of anonymity. A House Democrat told the outlet that most Democrats would probably sign, though not all were guaranteed.

From Indiana, there has been quiet. We found no posts about the diesel deal or Fitzpatrick's bill on the delegation's official X accounts as of Saturday night.

A press release can be worded around a hard choice, and a floor speech can be hedged. A discharge petition can't. The House Clerk posts the name of every member who signs one. If Fitzpatrick files, Hoosiers will be able to check for themselves how many of September's ten yes votes still apply when the barrels are Russian and the pitch is cheaper diesel.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.