US Senate must act now on Russia sanctions to deter Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine

But both Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez and ranking Republican James Risch have now acknowledged that the much-delayed sanctions package has hit an impasse. Their inability to get this sanctions package done in a timely fashion undercuts the Biden administration’s desire to send a united and powerful message in order to deter Putin.

One of the most important aspects of that effort would be denying Russia the ability to deliver natural gas to Western Europe through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea from Siberia to Germany. Owned by Russia state-backed Gazprom, the pipeline would let Russian natural gas flow to Western Europe without paying the transports fees that Ukraine charges for gas that moves via pipeline through that country.

Despite the opposition of Ukraine and Poland and the Baltic states, President Biden had given his reluctant okay to the Nord Steam 2 pipeline last spring in exchange for a promise that Germany would join an effort to sanction Russia if Putin used natural gas for geopolitical leverage, as he has before.

Last week, however, President Biden warned that if Russia does invade Ukraine, the new pipeline, which is complete but not yet operational, would not open. “If Russia invades – that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again – there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2,” Biden declared. “We will bring an end to it.”

Biden hasn’t said how he will keep that from happening, but his hand would obviously be strengthened if Congress were united behind him on the matter. That would seem to be an area of ​​relatively easy agreement, since even before this crisis, both Menendez and Risch had been highly critical of the pipeline, which they accurately see as giving Russia excessive energy leverage over Europe. Yet what to do about the pipeline, along with secondary sanctions on Russian financial institutions, has apparently emerged as one of the biggest friction points. And so what was once touted as the “mother of all sanctions” packages is stuck.

In general, Republicans have favored imposing sanctions targeting Nord Stream 2 regardless of whether Russia invades, while Democrats have generally come around to the view that pipeline sanctions should take effect only if Russia moves against Ukraine. Given the current circumstances, the latter approach makes more sense, since it increases the pain Putin and Russia would feel in the event of an invasion and so creates a disincentive against going that roguish route.

If they simply can not work out their disagreements, senators should vote on rival approaches – with an agreement that a decision must be made one way or another, meaning the legislation can not be allowed to fail because of a filibuster. And if filibuster-addicted senators can’t keep from leveraging their power of obstruction by invoking the so-called 60-vote threshold? Then the GOP must find 10 senators to end such a filibuster and allow the measure to come to a decisive vote.

The US Senate is often considered the broken branch of the United States government, where individual willfulness too often stands in the way of collective accomplishment. But this is an extraordinary international challenge, one that requires a heightened level of seriousness. Senators must put partisanship and pride of prerogative aside and strengthen President Biden’s hand in the West’s war of wills with Putin.

Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us on Twitter at @GlobeOpinion.