Exactly one year after Saudi Arabia murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its consulate in Istanbul, Congress has yet to pass legislation holding Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accountable for his alleged role in the murder.

House Democrats are wrangling with the Republican-held Senate to keep a Saudi sanctions provision in the annual defense authorization bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has refused to put another bipartisan Saudi sanctions package that goes even further on the floor in the face of a veto threat from the White House. And last week, CNN reported that the White House took the highly unusual step of moving the rough transcript of President Donald Trump’s call with the crown prince in the wake of the Khashoggi murder last year to a highly restricted, top-secret server.  

The lack of tangible progress has prompted Democrats to introduce increasingly stringent legislation cracking down on Saudi Arabia for the Khashoggi murder. The latest effort to do so is the Protection of Saudi Dissidents Act, introduced last week by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who represents the district Khashoggi lived in before his assassination.

“Sadly, we have an administration here in the United States that’s decided that a political and military relationship with Saudi Arabia trumps the murder of a legal resident, a member of the press who was simply doing his job,” Connolly said at a Capitol Hill event commemorating Khashoggi’s death last week. “We will not stop. It may make time, but we will get justice for Jamal Khashoggi and we will insist on accountability from the Saudi government no matter how high up it goes.”