The Senate passed a sweeping Russia sanctions bill that would give President Donald Trump new power to punish countries that buy Russian oil and gas.
The bill, which passed 86-11, would impose sanctions on Russian officials, oligarchs, banks, state-owned companies and shadow-fleet vessels. It would also authorize tariffs of up to 100% on goods from the five largest importers of Russian oil or gas and the five leading facilitators of Russian oil sanctions evasion. China and India will likely be among the countries that could be affected.
Despite the overwhelming support for the bill, it faced opposition from senators who backed stronger sanctions on Russia but said its tariff provisions gave Trump too much control over trade.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune agreed to hold a vote on a bipartisan amendment from Sens. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) to limit that authority. But Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) sought changes to the tariff language and held up an agreement to expedite the bill, forcing Senate leaders to negotiate a deal before the August recess.
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Warnock ended his holdout after securing a commitment from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that tariffs could not remain in place if a country no longer qualified as a top-five buyer of Russian energy or a facilitator of sanctions evasion. The agreement cleared the way for amendment votes and final passage. Warnock plans to enter Greer’s letter into the Senate record.
The Senate rejected the Paul amendment 32-64, preserving the tariff authority backed by the White House. Trump would retain the power to impose tariffs of up to 100% on nearly all goods from major buyers of Russian energy, not just the oil and gas they purchase from Moscow.
The final bill allows the president to waive any sanction, restriction or tariff. Before issuing a waiver, the president must certify in writing that it’s in the national interests of the U.S. and submit a report to Congress explaining the decision.
Some pro-Ukraine Democrats said the waiver was too broad and warned that Trump could set aside the penalties during talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The bill would also extend the Iran Sanctions Act through 2031. The law gives the president authority to penalize activity tied to Iran’s energy and weapons sectors.
Most of the bill would expire five years after enactment. The Iran sanctions extension would remain in place through the end of 2031.
The bill had stalled while Trump pursued talks with Putin and sought more control over the sanctions. It began moving after Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) reached a White House deal that cut the proposed tariffs on Russian energy buyers from 500% to 100%, narrowed their reach and added the national-interest waiver.
The effort gained momentum after Graham’s death. Senators advanced the bill in an 86-12 procedural vote hours after his funeral, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy watching from the Senate gallery after meeting with lawmakers.
The bill was named for Graham, who had spent more than a year building support for it with Blumenthal.
Ahead of the vote, supporters were trying to head off amendments that could unravel the painstakingly crafted deal for Trump’s support as part of negotiations to ensure the bill would make it to the Senate floor for a vote.
The bill now faces an uncertain path in the House, which is out until the end of August.
Supporters of an emerging companion bill in the House have expressed confidence it would pass. That bill would be identical to the Senate-passed bill and would be introduced this week with solid Republican backing, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.
That bill was on track this week, the person said, to have eight Republican co-sponsors and eight Democratic sponsors, including Reps. Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio.
Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said he wouldn’t support “handing President Trump a Trojan horse for tariff authorities he has repeatedly abused,” but the lawmaker said he remained “open to negotiating a good faith compromise.”
In June, the House passed a separate measure, sponsored by Meeks, that paired Russia sanctions with new aid and loans for Ukraine. It sanctions parts of the Russian economy but does not give Trump the same tariff authority as the Senate bill. The Senate does not plan to take up the measure because it lacks White House backing and drew limited Republican support.
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