President Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act into law Friday, ending months of delay and handing the White House sweeping new authority to impose tariffs on countries that keep buying Russian energy.
The bill, H.R. 5334, cleared both chambers by wide margins before reaching Trump's desk. It authorizes tariffs of up to 100 percent on the top five purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas, and on any country caught helping Moscow evade existing sanctions. It also extends current sanctions on Iran, a provision Breitbart reported helped secure Trump's support after the president had stalled the legislation for months, arguing he wanted more flexibility to negotiate directly with Vladimir Putin.
The signing caps a bipartisan push that began as a legacy project of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who championed Ukraine's cause until his death in July. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, co-drafted the legislation.
The Senate passed the bill 86, 11. In the House, Fox News reported the final tally was 262, 159, with 53 Democrats crossing the aisle to join 203 Republicans. That margin reflected a reality Democratic leaders could not escape: opposing the bill meant opposing sanctions on Russia in the middle of an active war, a vote few members wanted to explain back home.
The legislation goes further than tariffs on energy buyers. It sanctions Putin personally, along with other Russian officials, banks, and a shadow fleet of tankers that has kept Russian crude moving to willing markets despite years of Western pressure. The law also targets key Iranian officials and entities, broadening its reach well beyond the original Ukraine-focused framework.
Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, framed the moment in terms Graham himself had used. "This is a critical time in history, a time my friend Lindsey Graham described as a magic moment, a moment that we cannot afford to waste," McCaul said. He added a blunt argument for the tariff mechanism over traditional sanctions alone:
"You can evade sanctions, which the Russians have done for years. But you cannot evade tariffs."
McCaul's point cut to the core of why the bill's drafters chose tariffs as the enforcement tool. Sanctions regimes depend on cooperation from foreign governments and financial institutions, cooperation that has been spotty at best. Tariffs, by contrast, hit at the U.S. border and are enforced by American customs authorities, making them far harder for third-party nations to dodge.
The Senate's lopsided vote had already signaled that the bill would reach the president's desk with enough momentum to make a veto politically costly. Trump's decision to sign rather than block the measure ended a standoff that had stretched for months.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York led Democratic opposition, but his argument had nothing to do with going easy on Moscow. Jeffries cast his "no" vote as a check on presidential tariff authority, warning that the bill's broad language could boomerang on American consumers.
The Hill reported Jeffries told colleagues:
"Life is way too expensive in the United States of America. Why in the world would this Congress or the People's House give this president unfettered authority to visit more tariffs on the world that will have an adverse economic impact on the American people? I can't do it."
Jeffries's framing was politically convenient. By turning a Russia sanctions vote into a cost-of-living argument, he avoided the awkward optics of opposing pressure on Putin while still rallying his caucus against handing Trump new trade powers. It did not work well enough: 53 Democrats broke ranks and voted yes anyway, handing the president a bipartisan win on foreign policy.
The House vote itself exposed a fault line inside the Democratic caucus. Members representing districts with large Ukrainian-American populations or hawkish foreign-policy leanings had little appetite for following Jeffries into a "no" vote on Russia sanctions, regardless of the tariff provisions attached.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded on social media shortly after the signing, thanking lawmakers and invoking the senator whose name the bill now carries.
"I thank all the senators and members of the House of Representatives who supported it. The best way to honor Lindsey's memory will be to implement the provisions of this law fully and swiftly."
Zelensky added a broader appeal, tying enforcement of the sanctions to the prospect of ending the war:
"And the best reward for everyone helping us put pressure on Russia to end its war will be peace. Peace, and an end to all the problems and challenges this war has brought."
Darline Graham, the late senator's sister, struck a personal note. "I wish Lindsey were here to celebrate this historic day. I know he would be so proud," she said.
Blumenthal, the bill's Democratic co-author, left no ambiguity about the target. "Putin is a thug who understands only force and strength, which is what we must show clearly and unequivocally," he said.
The signing came against a backdrop of renewed violence. Earlier in the week, Russia struck targets in Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian officials told Reuters that more than 20 people were injured in the attacks, a reminder that Moscow's war effort has not slowed despite months of diplomatic maneuvering.
Special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had visited both Moscow and Kyiv in September as part of ongoing peace efforts. A weekend-long ceasefire was called during their trip, and Witkoff told reporters afterward that the U.S. remained confident trilateral talks would produce a "good resolution" to the conflict. The strikes that followed days later tested that optimism.
The legislative journey of the Graham sanctions bill stretched over months, surviving Trump's initial resistance and a concerted effort by Democratic leaders to strip the tariff provisions. In the end, the bill's bipartisan momentum proved too strong for either faction to derail.
The Washington Examiner noted that the law also sanctions Putin personally, a step previous rounds of Western sanctions had taken but that the new legislation reinforces with the added tariff mechanism. The combination of direct personal sanctions on Russian leadership and trade penalties on their customers represents the most aggressive economic pressure package Congress has passed since the war began.
Several questions remain unanswered. Which five countries will face the steepest tariffs as top purchasers of Russian energy? How quickly will the administration move to implement the law's provisions? And will the tariff threat actually change buying behavior among nations, including some nominal U.S. allies, that have quietly continued importing Russian oil and gas throughout the war?
The bill's path through the Senate began with an emotional push in the weeks after Graham's death, when colleagues from both parties rallied behind the legislation as a tribute to the senator's years of advocacy for Ukraine. That momentum carried the bill through a procedural landscape that might otherwise have stalled it indefinitely.
Now the hard part begins. Signing a sanctions bill is a ceremony. Enforcing one, against countries that profit from cheap Russian energy and have little incentive to stop buying, is the work that will determine whether the law honors Lindsey Graham's legacy or just bears his name.