The Senate overwhelmingly approved a sweeping Russia sanctions package bearing the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's name, delivering a bipartisan rebuke to Moscow and handing President Trump new tariff authority aimed at countries still buying Russian energy.
The vote Friday was 86, 11, with opposition coming mostly from progressive Democrats. The legislation, the product of a yearlong campaign Graham waged before his sudden death last month, would penalize nations purchasing Russian oil, gas, and other exports, targeting the revenue stream that funds Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. It now moves to the House, where lawmakers are expected to take it up when they return from summer recess.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat who co-authored the bill with Graham, framed the moment in personal terms on the Senate floor. Blumenthal told colleagues:
"Today, President Zelenskyy is watching from Ukraine, and Putin is watching from Moscow. I would like to think Lindsey Graham is watching, too. Today we say to the people of Ukraine: You are not alone. And today we say to Vladimir Putin: You will not conquer Ukraine."
Graham's sister, Sen. Darline Graham, appointed by South Carolina's governor to fill her brother's seat, cast her own vote for the package. She called the legislation a direct strike at Moscow's finances.
"This legislation hits Putin where it hurts."
The bill's path to a floor vote carried an unusual weight. Graham and Blumenthal announced a deal with the White House on the sanctions package on July 10. Graham had just returned from a trip to Ukraine. The next day, he died suddenly, likely from an aortic tear.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the Capitol hours after Graham's funeral. He met privately with senators from both parties and watched from the Senate gallery as the first procedural votes advanced the legislation the prior week. During that private meeting, Zelenskyy told lawmakers that Ukraine is making gains in the war but still needs more help from the United States.
Zelenskyy publicly thanked senators for the sanctions package, calling it a "big signal" to Ukraine and its allies of continued American support. The war has now ground on for more than four years, longer than World War I.
The bill's centerpiece is a provision allowing the president to impose tariffs on the world's top five purchasers of Russian oil or natural gas. China and India are among those nations. The New York Post reported that tariffs could reach as high as 100 percent on the largest importers of Russian crude oil or natural gas by volume.
Countries that import less than 15 percent of their natural gas from Russia and are actively reducing those imports would be excepted. The legislation also includes direct sanctions on Putin, senior Russian political and military leaders, Russian financial institutions, and Russian energy projects. And it would expand U.S. sanctions to target older, reflagged oil tankers that Russia uses to skirt existing restrictions on its energy revenues.
The bill gives the president waiver authority, the White House can set aside sanctions or restrictions if the president certifies to Congress that doing so serves the national interest. That provision became a flashpoint during debate.
The Trump administration has signaled support for the package. Trump is now expected to press the House to take it up and send it to his desk for a signature.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Georgia Democrat, had delayed the package over worries about the new tariff authority. He relented after receiving a written commitment from the Trump administration through U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Warnock said the commitment "ensures guardrails", tariffs would be lifted once countries are no longer on the lists of those purchasing Russian oil and gas, or helping to evade sanctions.
But Warnock made clear he was not giving the White House a blank check. He told reporters:
"We should not have to choose between putting a check on Putin's aggression and putting a check on this president's tariffs regime."
If Trump "oversteps his power, we will see him in court," Warnock added.
An amendment from Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, and Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat, would have stripped the tariff authority entirely. The Senate defeated it. Paul argued the provision would be too costly for taxpayers. Wyden said he did not want to hand Trump any new power to impose tariffs.
Wyden framed his concern in kitchen-table terms:
"We've got folks who are walking an economic tightrope here in America."
Sen. Todd Young, the Indiana Republican who attended the private meeting with Zelenskyy, described the bill as a statement of resolve. The sanctions legislation, Young said, "is important as a moral signal to a country that is weary and tired, though holding its own."
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the New Hampshire Democrat who leads her party on the Foreign Relations Committee, argued that advancing the bill ahead of Russia's own elections would pressure Putin to revisit prospects for a peace deal. She warned that every time the U.S. backs away from tough action, Russia ramps up its attacks.
"If we can't shut down the funding for the war machine that Russia is using against Ukraine, then they're going to keep at it."
Sen. Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat, acknowledged wariness about expanding presidential tariff power but said the stakes for Ukraine outweighed that concern.
"Weighing that against the boost for Ukraine, I think it's important to support Ukraine right now."
The Senate had advanced the bill in procedural votes the prior week, shortly after Graham's funeral. That sequence, a funeral, a foreign leader in the gallery, and a rare show of unity on the Senate floor, gave the legislation a momentum that few recent measures have enjoyed.
The House passed a separate measure in June that would provide security and reconstruction aid to Ukraine and sanction key segments of the Russian economy. Democrats pushed that bill with some bipartisan Republican support, though GOP leaders warned at the time that it would undermine negotiations aimed at producing a stronger result.
The Senate's 86, 11 vote gives the Graham sanctions package considerable weight heading into a House debate. Lawmakers are expected to return to session at the end of the month, and Trump's backing makes a floor vote more likely.
Just The News reported that the bill, formally titled the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, also renews Iran sanctions set to expire at the end of the year, adding another layer of urgency for House action.
Sen. Darline Graham, in her first major legislative moment since replacing her brother, captured the mood on the floor. She said she was honored to carry on his work, and she called on every senator to choose courage over the status quo.
Open questions remain. The exact contents of the written commitment from Trade Representative Greer have not been made public. The identities of the 11 senators who voted no have not been fully detailed beyond the description that most were progressive Democrats. And whether the House will move the Senate bill as written or attempt to merge it with its own June measure is unclear.
Lindsey Graham spent his final days doing what he had done for a year, pushing Washington to squeeze the money out of Putin's war machine. On Friday, 86 of his colleagues finished the job. Now it falls to the House to decide whether that work crosses the finish line or stalls in a committee room.