Battle brewing over Syria sanctions repeal in Congress

The Hill ^ | 09/16/25 | Laura Kelly

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The Senate and House are on a collision course over whether to repeal comprehensive sanctions on Syria, a rare area where there are bipartisan coalitions on both sides of the debate.

Discussion centers on whether to completely repeal the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, a severe sanctions mechanism that blocked nearly all U.S. and international cooperation or engagement with the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Legislation to repeal Caesar is included in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2026. But an amendment to the House version of the NDAA to repeal Caesar was voted down last week.

Senate and House lawmakers will spend weeks reconciling their two versions of the NDAA, which is considered must-pass legislation. It’s not clear if the Caesar provision will survive that process. Lawmakers will look to come out with a product that will gain a majority of votes and something that all Republicans can get behind.

While President Trump has said he wants to lift all U.S. sanctions on Syria, he hasn’t given explicit marching orders to Congress to fully repeal Caesar or indicated if he is happy with his current ability to suspend sanctions for six months at a time.

GOP opponents of repealing the sanctions legislation say the government headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a U.S.-designated terrorist, has more to prove in demonstrating commitments to inclusive governance, protection for minorities, religious freedom and justice.

But the movement to repeal has powerful supporters. This includes the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sens. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), respectively; Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

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Of course Rand Paul wants the money flow to jihadists to start back up. What a, um, surprise.