The U.S. Senate begins voting Tuesday on Russian energy sanctions legislation named for the late Senator Lindsey Graham, on the day of his funeral. A bipartisan group of senators agreed to attach Iran sanctions to the package, clearing the way for a first vote, though the tariff powers it hands the president have drawn objections from Democrats.
The U.S. Senate begins voting Tuesday on sweeping Russian energy sanctions legislation named for the late Senator Lindsey Graham, on the day of his funeral. A bipartisan group of senators — Richard Blumenthal, Darline Graham, Katie Britt, Jeanne Shaheen, Roger Wicker and Jim Risch — announced Tuesday they had reached a deal to combine the Russia sanctions package with sanctions on Iran, which allows a first vote to be expected Tuesday night while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington for Graham's funeral services.
What the sanctions bill targets
The legislation pairs sanctions with tariff authority aimed at Russian oil sales. Its sanctions target Russian officials, oligarchs, their family members, foreign persons, Russian banks and financial institutions and the Russian shadow fleet. Proponents say oil is the top commodity Moscow uses to fund its war machine, and that targeting it now will help Kyiv turn the tide on the battlefield.
Beyond the sanctions, the bill gives the president new authority to impose tariffs on imported goods from countries that buy Russian oil or enable Russian sanctions evasion. Those tariffs would be limited to the top five importers of Russian oil or gas and the top five enablers of energy sanctions evasion. If it becomes law, the measure would let Trump impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that are major consumers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some countries in the European Union, and leave it to his discretion to lift them.
Tariff powers cloud the bill's prospects
Democrats are broadly supportive of the sanctions, yet the tariff authority for Trump has raised concerns about potentially higher import costs. Those concerns threaten the legislation's prospects for passing the Senate, as well as the House of Representatives when it resumes in September.
According to Reuters, Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the measure is "not so much a sanctions bill as it is a massive backdoor authority" for Trump to impose more tariffs.
A bill more than a year in the making
Graham announced shortly before his sudden death on July 11 that he and Trump had agreed to move forward with the legislation, more than a year after it was introduced. Trump has said he would support the measure, after asking that sanctions on Iran be added.
That addition also extends sanctions authority restricting funding for Iran's energy and weapons sectors, a crucial component of getting an agreement while the U.S. continues to wage a war with Iran. The package now carries its author's name: the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.
Sources: US Top News and Analysis, Commodities & Futures News
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