The House passed a sweeping Russia sanctions bill Wednesday, giving President Donald Trump new power to punish countries that buy Russian energy.
The House voted 262-159 to approve the Senate-passed legislation without changes. The bill, backed 58 Democrats and all but seven Republicans, now goes to Trump, who is expected to sign it.
The measure, dubbed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, was named for the South Carolina senator, who spent more than a year championing it. His death in July gave the bill new momentum, helping to propel it through the Senate.
The package targets Russia’s energy and defense industries, financial institutions, senior officials and the “shadow fleet” of tankers used to evade existing restrictions on Russian oil.
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It also allows Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on goods from the five largest purchasers of Russian oil or natural gas. China and India are expected to be on that list.
Supporters say the tariffs would force countries to choose between access to the American market and buying Russian energy that helps finance President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
“You can evade sanctions, which the Russians have done for years, but you cannot evade tariffs,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who helped shepherd the bill’s passage, said ahead of the vote. “That’s why they are the teeth of this bill.”
The measure also gives Trump broad authority to waive the sanctions, restrictions and tariffs after certifying to Congress that doing so is in the country’s national interests.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-New York) opposed the bill alongside other senior Democrats, including Reps. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, and Don Beyer of Virginia, the senior House Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee.
They argued the bill would raise consumer prices, give Trump another tool to target U.S. allies and grant him authority he did not need. Trump, they said, already had the power to impose tougher sanctions on Russia but had chosen not to use it.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said ahead of the vote that the legislation “fails to mandate sanctions on Russia.”
“There are so many loopholes written into the bill,” he said, “I believe that it’s very unlikely the sanctions relief contemplated in the legislation will ever see the light of day.”
Before the bill reached the floor, Democrats pushed several changes.
Meeks sought to remove the bill’s secondary-tariff authority and impose tighter limits on Trump’s power to waive sanctions. He also proposed $15 billion in direct military-financing loans for Ukraine and sought to prevent the administration from treating the European Union as a single country when calculating Russian energy purchases.
With House members preparing to leave Washington until after November’s elections, the Republican-controlled Rules Committee on Tuesday blocked the proposed amendments, keeping the Senate bill intact. Any change would have required another Senate vote and risked delaying final action. The fight then moved to the House floor for a procedural vote, where two Democrats helped rescue the rule after two Republicans defected.
Meeks said the bill would give Ukrainians “false hope.”
“This is going to be a short-term gain for long-term pain for the Ukrainians and the American people,” he said.
The bill is headed to Trump’s desk more than a year after Graham introduced it. It stalled as Trump pursued negotiations with Moscow and Graham worked to secure White House support.
Trump backed a revised version in July, shortly before Graham’s death. The compromise limited tariffs to the largest buyers of Russian energy, preserved presidential waiver authority and extended the Iran Sanctions Act through 2031 at Trump’s request.
The Senate passed it, 86-11, last month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lobbied senators and watched an earlier procedural vote from the Senate chamber.
The House had already passed a broader Ukraine package in June. The Ukraine Support Act cleared the chamber, 226-195, but stalled in the Senate. Meeks and other Democrats initially wanted to combine parts of the two bills. Supporters of Graham’s measure warned that doing so could sink legislation that had already won 86 Senate votes and presidential support.
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