The PNTR bill the Senate Finance Committee approved on July 18 is viewed as having broader sanctions than those contained in a measure the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved on June 7.

Lobbyists say the House will take up the Russia trade bill under a procedure called "suspension of the chamber’s rules." That limits debate, “prevents chicanery” by the bill’s opponents and provides for a clean up-or-down vote, says Bill Lane, director of Caterpillar Inc.’s Washington, D.C., office.

But it also requires a two-thirds majority—286 votes—for approval, which Lane notes is “a high threshold” compared with the simple majority of 218 votes needed for approval under the House’s usual rules.

Business interests plan a major drive to get the Russia PNTR bill through the House. “It’s full throttle,” says J. Daniel O’Flaherty, vice president of the National Foreign Trade Council.

If the House approves a Russia trade package, that bill then would move to the Senate for consideration. In that chamber, it would be up to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to decide whether and when to bring it up on the floor.

O’Flaherty says, “We think that if it comes out of the House with momentum and it’s got the [Obama] administration’s hand in [formulating the human-rights provisions], it’ll go through.”