Named in honor of Graham, who died unexpectedly earlier this month, the bill advanced by a 86-12 vote late Tuesday, with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky the only Republican to vote against it.
“This legislation is a tariff bill that seems to have been written with such blind rage that, rather than compel a change in Vladimir Putin’s behavior, its punitive measures would make American families poorer and undermine our national interests,” he said last week, in an opinion piece for Fox News.
Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire said she couldn’t pledge her support for the bill as it “gives the President new authority to impose tariffs, even on our allies. I do not think tariffs, which are paid for by American businesses and consumers, will help Ukraine win this war.”
“Sen. Ossoff continues to support Ukraine’s valiant self-defense against intolerable Russian brutality and aggression,” the statement read. “He does not support the provisions of this bill that delegate massive new tariff authorities to a President who has demonstrated he will wield tariffs recklessly and destructively.”
Graham—a longtime supporter of Ukraine and one of the Senate's most outspoken foreign policy hawks—spent more than a year negotiating the legislation, which stands to impose tougher sanctions on Moscow and penalize countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, and other exports. Essentially, it's intended to cut revenues from the sale of Russia's energy for its war on Ukraine.
Regarding the President’s tariff authority, if the bill were to become law, it would allow Trump to place tariffs of up to 100% on the top five purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas, among other penalties.
The latest iteration also includes a last-minute addition of extended sanctions against Iran, at the request of Trump. Following Graham’s passing, and amid the resumption of the Iran war, Trump said on July 19: “Republicans should add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill. That’s what Lindsey wanted to do, and it was going to happen.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had earlier sat down with Trump in the Oval Office, was hosted by the bill’s bipartisan leaders in the evening.
Before watching the bill advance inside the Senate chamber, Zelensky told reporters: “Sanctions pressure on Russia is very important and it's not only about money. It's also a big signal to Europe and a big signal to Ukraine, a big support of our people.”
Paul argued those provisions would "cause an economic calamity on a scale never before seen in" America.
Democratic Rep. Gregory W. Meeks of New York, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has already raised "serious” concerns.
“This is not so much a sanctions bill as it is a massive backdoor authority for President Trump to impose more tariffs, including on our European allies, that hurt American families,” he said upon reviewing the text earlier this month. “The sanctions the bill does contain are entirely at Donald Trump’s discretion, and he has made clear repeatedly that he would rather waive sanctions on Russia than impose new ones.”
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