SCHUMER STUNNED: THE UNEXPECTED SUNDAY SENATE VOTE YOU NEED TO SEE
Senate Passes Graham’s Russia Sanctions Bill 86-11. The Harder Fight Is Over Trump’s New Tariff Power.
WASHINGTON — For more than a year, senators pushing tougher economic pressure on Russia had something unusual in Washington: broad bipartisan support, a powerful list of cosponsors and still no final vote.
The measure was supposed to squeeze the revenue helping finance Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. But as negotiations dragged on, one provision became increasingly important — and increasingly controversial — because its impact could reach far beyond Moscow.
On Friday, the Senate finally acted, approving the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 by an overwhelming 86-11 vote.
That settles one question.
It leaves a much bigger one.
If the House also passes the legislation, how aggressively will President Donald Trump use the new tariff authority Congress is preparing to hand him?
The bill does far more than target Russian officials. It would impose or expand sanctions on senior Russian figures, oligarchs, banks, financial institutions, energy interests and entities tied to Russia’s efforts to evade existing restrictions, including parts of the so-called shadow fleet used to move Russian oil.
But the provision with the greatest potential to reshape U.S. trade policy is aimed at countries that keep buying large amounts of Russian energy.
Under the legislation, the president could impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on imported goods from countries that rank among the five largest purchasers of Russian crude oil or natural gas, as well as leading countries that facilitate Russian energy sanctions evasion.
That means the economic pressure would not stop at Russia’s border.
Major U.S. trading partners — potentially including China, India, Japan and some European countries — could find themselves facing a new choice between Russian energy and access to the American market on existing terms.
That is where the Senate’s seemingly simple bipartisan victory becomes more complicated.
The bill carries the name of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of its most persistent Republican champions. Graham died suddenly on July 11, shortly after returning from a trip that included Ukraine, where he had continued pushing for tougher measures against Moscow.
In the days before his death, Graham had also reached an agreement with the White House that helped clear a political obstacle that had stalled the sanctions effort for months.
The legislation had been in development since 2025, but Senate leaders had stopped short of a final vote while the Trump administration resisted having Congress dictate the timing and structure of new Russia sanctions. Graham announced shortly before his death that he and Trump had finally reached an understanding allowing the effort to move forward.
After Graham’s death, the politics changed quickly.
On July 28, hours after senators gathered in Washington to honor him, the Senate voted 86-12 to advance the package. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was in Washington for Graham’s funeral, also met with senators supporting the legislation.
Friday’s 86-11 vote was different.
It was final Senate passage.
The emotional symbolism was unmistakable, but the policy fight never disappeared.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the only Republican to oppose the final bill, joined Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon in trying to strip out the new tariff authority.
Their amendment failed 32-64.
Paul’s objection went to the central tension inside the legislation: sanctions on Russia had overwhelming support, but giving the president another powerful tariff tool did not.
Several Democrats raised similar concerns.
Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia had sought changes to the tariff language, arguing that Congress should be cautious about expanding presidential trade powers. He later withdrew his amendment after receiving a written commitment from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer outlining guardrails for how the authority would be used.
That concession helped preserve the coalition.
But it did not eliminate the underlying dispute.
The tariffs are not automatic.
Even if the bill becomes law, the president would retain significant discretion over when to impose them, how high to set them within the authorized range and when to lift or waive them under provisions in the legislation.
And that is the detail that changes how the entire bill should be understood.
A package frequently described as an effort to punish Russia could place some of its most immediate pressure on countries that trade extensively with the United States.
Its effectiveness would also depend heavily on decisions made inside the White House.
In other words, Congress can authorize the weapon.
Trump would decide when — and against whom — to use it.
Supporters say that is precisely the point.
Russia has continued to generate revenue from oil and gas despite years of Western sanctions, in part by redirecting energy exports toward countries willing to continue buying them.
The Senate legislation attempts to change that calculation by making continued reliance on Russian energy potentially far more expensive for those purchasers.
Instead of targeting only the seller, Washington would threaten the buyer.
The package also contains another provision that has received less attention.
It extends sanctions authorities aimed at restricting funding for Iran’s energy and weapons sectors, preventing authorities scheduled to expire from lapsing. The revised package was negotiated with the Trump administration, and reporting indicates the Iran provisions were among the changes sought by the White House.
So what began as a Russia sanctions push has evolved into something broader: a foreign-policy package connecting pressure on Moscow, pressure on Tehran and a potentially significant expansion of the president’s ability to use tariffs as a national-security tool.
Now comes the part the Senate cannot control by itself.
The House.
Republicans hold only a narrow majority there, and lawmakers have already raised concerns that the tariff language could raise costs for U.S. importers and consumers or give Trump too much discretion over which countries are punished and which receive exemptions.
Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York and Don Beyer of Virginia, two senior House Democrats, have warned that the measure grants expansive new tariff authority that they fear could be used beyond the narrow Russia policy Congress is trying to pursue.
That means an 86-vote Senate coalition does not guarantee the bill will arrive on Trump’s desk unchanged.
The House is scheduled to return from its summer recess on August 31. Lawmakers could accept the Senate package, try to rewrite the tariff provisions or force another round of negotiations before anything reaches the president.
And even passage would not answer the final question.
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The Senate has now demonstrated that there are more than enough votes for tougher economic pressure on Russia.
What it has not demonstrated is how much of that pressure will actually be used — or whether the threat of tariffs approaching 100 percent will be enough to force major Russian energy buyers to change course before Trump ever imposes them.
