When the POTUS can disregard a veto proof majority vote in Congress. Does the Congress still have any power? By extension do we the voting public have any voice anymore.
After going to Wikileaks and reading the hacked DNC emails and Podesta emails, it's obvious that Democrats don't have any voice anymore. If the RNC were just 1/10th as corrupt as the DNC, it would be President Jeb Bush today.
Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act If you read the act it is very specific that the President "may" impose sanctions on those he feels qualify. It also says he "may" choose to lift them as well. Perhaps next time they should write a better worded bill that does not give the President discretion on those matters. Of course in doing that they "may" be infringing upon the executives branches authority to determine and protect against threats. Sections 234 down cover the sanctions and how they are applied. The law gives him the power to do things it does not demand he do something other then release the report on the oligarchs which he did. In the end they gave Trump to much wiggle room.
I've said this before (maybe not here), Congress is so inept and the American Public so fed up, Obama could have proclaimed himself Emperor and aside from angry words from Repubs and genuine supporters of democracy nobody would have done ****. If Trump wasn't so inept, the same would be true of him and it'll be true of the next president as well. The Republic has fallen, it's just not official yet.
No, your representation of the bill by Congress is outright false. What it says, put simply, is the President can impose or not impose sanctions whenever - if ever - he believes it is the right thing to do. The bill not only does NOT require the President does anything, it specifically says the President does not have to do anything. One way Russia could offset monetary loses by sanctions is to sell advanced military hardware, ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons to Iran, Syria and N. Korea. This would bring in at near as much or more than lost by sanctions. Russia also could do a discount sale on oil and natural gas to tank American and European oil and gas industries.
This is just like the Israeli embassy thing Congresses voted for it to move but every President used the waver within the bill to not do it. That is until Trump.