One after another, lawmakers approached the podium to remember the South Carolina Republican, who died suddenly over the weekend, recalling his persistent push over more than a year to forge a bipartisan compromise that could win President Trump's support. Sen. Katie Britt, Republican of Alabama, said Graham had worked "tirelessly, relentlessly" to bring the measure together and believed it would become the most consequential legislation of his career. Sen. Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, called it Graham's greatest achievement in the cause of preserving peace in Europe. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, urged Congress to seize what she called a narrow window to pass the legislation.
Its most novel provision would authorize Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas—currently China, India, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan. Countries that buy less than 15% of Russia's natural gas exports and are demonstrably reducing those purchases would be exempted from the tariffs. The legislation would also allow penalties on those helping facilitate Russian energy sales.
"It's been referred to as a tariff bill," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and Graham's chief Democratic partner on the legislation, said Tuesday. "But actually, it imposes full blocking sanctions on wide swaths of the Russian economy." The tariffs, he said, were "targeted, narrowly limited" and carefully crafted to avoid penalizing European allies supporting Ukraine.
Since returning to office, the President has repeatedly relied on tariffs against allies and rivals, often invoking national security or emergency authorities to justify sweeping import taxes. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that Trump exceeded his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping global and reciprocal tariffs.
Trump said earlier Tuesday the legislation had "a good chance" of advancing, but he also suggested expanding it to target Iran and Hezbollah. Blumenthal urged against reopening the carefully negotiated measure. "With all due respect to the President, he has approved this bill, and we should move forward with this bill rather than opening it," he said, emphasizing that the current version is the product of nearly two years of negotiations. However, he conceded: “If there are other bills that he wants to propose, we'll consider them.”
Despite broad bipartisan backing, the measure's legislative path remains uncertain. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said Monday that passing the bill would be a fitting way to honor Graham but stopped short of committing to bringing it to the floor, saying leaders were still evaluating a path forward. The measure would also have to pass the House, which may have objections, particularly by the chamber’s Republicans if Trump continues to insist the bill should be expanded.
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