Supporters of a long-stalled Russian sanctions bill hoped it would gain momentum in the Senate after the sudden death of its top champion: Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Initially, at least, it seemed like the bill was on track to pass before the August recess. Graham, a South Carolina Republican, announced before his death that he had reached a deal with the White House to move forward. The bill surpassed 60 co-sponsors, giving it a filibuster-proof majority. Sen. Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill her brother’s seat, also signed on, fueling optimism it would finally succeed.
Instead, the measure is once again at risk of stalling out.
“We’re going to screw around here and lose this bill if we don’t go vote,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) told NOTUS. “We just pissed away two weeks. Now we got a week and a half left, and I don’t know if a vote is scheduled.”
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Some Democrats are concerned the bill could harm U.S. allies. The White House has warned it wouldn’t have enough flexibility to waive sanctions. And President Donald Trump has demanded the bill include fresh sanctions on Iran, throwing another wrench into the carefully negotiated legislation.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that he hopes to get the bill “teed up” next week. He said lawmakers were “homing in on” including Iran sanctions — which Darline Graham is championing.
But Thune has not yet secured an agreement from Democrats to fast-track the bill, which would need all 100 senators to agree.
Without that, it would take the Senate days to consider the bill under its arcane rules — time that Thune cannot spare given a laundry list of legislation and confirmations he wants to plow through before they leave Aug. 6, including Jay Clayton for director of national intelligence and Todd Blanche for attorney general.
The bill, titled the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026, would penalize countries that continue to import Russian oil and natural gas. The idea has been to choke off a revenue stream Russia uses to fund its war against Ukraine more than four years after its full-scale invasion.
The revamped bill more narrowly applies sanctions to the top five purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas while reducing the tariff from a blanket 500% to 100%. It would grant exceptions for countries weaning themselves off Russian supplies.
Some of the Democrats who haven’t signed onto the bill argue the tariff provisions are still too broad, however, and worry it would give Trump unprecedented power to sanction any country he sees fit, including European allies.
“Giving Trump additional authorities to act on tariffs in a reckless way that he’s been doing is deeply concerning,” Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said.
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch said the bill’s broad language “gives the executive carte blanche to do what he wants for whatever reason he wants.”
“That actually is in conflict with every conversation I had with Lindsey about how the tariffs should be targeted to achieve the specific goal of squeezing Russia’s revenue,” Welch continued.
Backers of the revised Russia sanctions bill worked this week to maintain momentum.
One of the lead Democratic negotiators, New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, said she wasn’t opposed to adding Iran sanctions, noting they were in an earlier version of the bill and echo language Congress passed before.
“I’d like the Senate to add Iran back in to address the service members being killed by Iran, myself, but those discussions are still ongoing,” she said.
Lindsey Graham’s lead co-sponsor, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), said Darline Graham requested personally that Iran sanctions be included, so he is inclined to try. However, his preference is to proceed with the deal already reached with Trump.
Meanwhile, Blumenthal has been trying to tamp down concerns from both parties, including the Democrats who are worried about handing Trump more tariff authority.
“What we’re finding is that some of those concerns are based on a fictional notion of the bill, without an understanding of the real constraints on Trump’s authority under the bill,” he said.
Democrats are discussing tweaks to address the tariff provisions. But Blumenthal pushed back on suggestions that negotiators are preparing substantial revisions to win over skeptics.
“This bill was the result of very painstaking, often painful negotiations involving the U.S. trade representative, White House, colleagues and leadership,” he said. “My hope is it will be passed as-is. But I’m not the only one who has a say in this process. And my objective, first and foremost, is to get the bill to be law.”
With the August recess quickly approaching, the Senate is staring at the possibility of bungling its best chance yet to pass the bill. Failing to move ahead would deal a blow to Ukraine’s fight against Russia — and to Graham’s legacy.
“We should all remember the press conference we had on a bipartisan basis last week about remembering Graham’s legacy,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said. “Anybody that says they’d oppose it because it doesn’t go far enough — everything that we can drop, every straw we can drop on the camel’s back for Putin counts, and we should pass it. That should be one thing that we get done.”
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