U.S. Senate Passes Russia, Iran Sanctions Bill
The United States Senate has passed a sweeping bill to impose new sanctions on Russia and Iran, sending the long-delayed legislation to the House of Representatives for consideration.
The bill, named the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026,” passed by a vote of 86 votes, while 11 against of this bill. It is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine and expanding sanctions on Iran.
The legislation would sanction Russian officials and authorize the U.S. president to impose steep tariffs on countries like India, Japan, China and some other European countries that continue to rely heavily on Russian oil and gas.
If approved by the House and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the measure could allow tariffs of up to 100% on major buyers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some European Union countries.
The Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed the Senate vote, calling it a significant step toward increasing pressure on Russia.
However, the bill could face resistance in the House. Some lawmakers and industry groups have raised concerns that expanded tariff powers could increase costs for U.S. importers and consumers.
Republican Senator Rand Paul was the only Republican senator to vote against the bill, arguing that tariffs would effectively act as a tax on American consumers.
The House is expected to consider the legislation within the coming weeks.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died last month, was among Kyiv’s most outspoken allies in Congress in its four-year-long war with Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The Senate’s Republican leaders had not brought the bill up because of resistance from Trump, who had kept decisions on sanctions at the White House, not Congress, since starting his second term in January 2025.
SKEPTICISM IN THE HOUSE
Representatives Gregory Meeks of New York and Don Beyer of Virginia said in a statement they still had “fundamental concerns” about the tariff powers for Trump, who has made them a central piece of his “America First” approach to foreign policy.
“What the bill does grant … are sweeping new tariff authorities that the president could weaponize with abandon, as he has repeatedly done in the past,” said Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Beyer, the senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee.
According to Reuters, only one Senate Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the bill, likening tariffs to taxes on American consumers.
The Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Paul and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon that would have removed the tariff powers.
Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who also sought to change the tariff language, said he had received a written commitment from Trump’s U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, to put guardrails on the tariff authorities.
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