Wrangling over a long-stalled Russia sanctions bill in the Senate is playing out with fresh urgency after a House bill to target Moscow’s economy and boost Ukraine aid reached a critical threshold on Wednesday.
Key players behind the dormant Senate bill — led by Republican Lindsey Graham and Democratic Richard Blumenthal — are working to secure votes by overhauling certain key provisions to push the legislation through.
Separate House legislation amassed 218 signatures needed to force a vote, but Blumenthal said the bipartisan Senate bill will have a broader appeal.
“You want to capture the momentum, and what we want is not a bill, we want a law,” Blumenthal told NOTUS. “The House bill would be largely a Democratic bill, and it’s a good bill and a strong one, but we need the White House and Republicans here.”
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The Senate signaled many times it would act on the Graham-Blumenthal bill since it was first introduced on April 1, 2025, but the movement fizzled.
Right now, the wording of provisions that would grant President Donald Trump the authority to levy tariffs and waive sanctions remain the sticking points, according to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat and a central negotiator.
“I think it’s not accurate to talk about a state-of-play, because there isn’t an agreement on language,” Shaheen told NOTUS. “It feels like we ought to be able to get some agreements, and it would be a really important time.”
Graham expressed hope that a deal would emerge, but pointed the finger at Democrats for holding up action.
“It’s a really important tool to give to President Trump to help in the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” Graham told NOTUS. “I hope Democrats will close the deal. Every time we get close, it’s something new.”
U.S.-brokered peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, whose war is in its fifth year, have been on pause for months. Russia’s rate of advance has declined monthly since October, and its forces last month suffered a net loss of territory for the first time since 2024, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Still, Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz combined with the U.S. temporarily easing sanctions on Russian oil during the war with Iran, has provided Russia with a windfall. That will help Russian President Vladimir Putin sustain the war with Ukraine if he isn’t stopped, Blumenthal said.
“We need to make sure that we stop the flow of revenue to his war machine,” he said. “There’s an urgency there.”
The House legislation introduced by Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, won its 218th signature on Wednesday, a threshold that will compel the chamber’s Republican leadership to bring it to a vote.
That bill would authorize hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid for Kyiv, create financing mechanisms for postwar reconstruction and impose new sanctions on Russia and entities supporting its war effort.
The Senate bill as it was introduced would require the United States to impose a 500% tariff on Russian imports and countries buying Russian oil, petroleum products or uranium. Though it quickly attracted more than 80 co-sponsors in both parties, it languished amid White House opposition until January, when Graham said Trump offered his support.
Some Democrats say they want to be careful — citing the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Trump’s global tariffs in March — before they vote for a bill that expands the president’s tariff authority. That’s fueled negotiations to narrow the tariff provisions, with some Democrats backing away despite co-sponsoring the bill.
“There’s a difference between sending a message and crafting an actual bill,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Even if the bill’s supporters muster, the path ahead is unclear. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has said he would bring the bill to the floor when it has the votes, voiced pessimism given the Senate’s crowded calendar, which is abbreviated ahead of the midterm elections.
“I don’t see it,” he told NOTUS on Wednesday. “Look at the pileup we have already.”
Still, senators behind the effort aren’t giving up hope.
“We’ve reached agreement on some of the important issues that have been stumbling blocks,” Blumenthal said. “It’s been a long, long and windy road, but, you know, I’m not saying we’re there, but I’m hopeful we’ll have some answers very soon.”
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