{"id":1999,"date":"2026-07-29T20:25:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=1999"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:25:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:25:30","slug":"senate-advances-major-russia-sanctions-bill-named-for-late-lindsey-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/?p=1999","title":{"rendered":"Senate Advances Major Russia Sanctions Bill Named for Late Lindsey Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Senate voted 86-12 on Tuesday to advance a bipartisan sanctions package targeting Russia, marking one of the first significant congressional actions following the death of longtime Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The legislation, now formally known as the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026, would significantly expand the president\u2019s authority to impose sanctions on Russian government officials, foreign nationals and financial institutions linked to Moscow\u2019s war effort in Ukraine. It also authorizes a 500 percent tariff on Russian imports and permits tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries that continue purchasing large volumes of Russian oil, petroleum products and natural gas. The measure further strengthens tools to target ships in Russia\u2019s so-called \u201cshadow fleet\u201d used to evade energy sanctions.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Sen. Darline Graham, appointed to fill her brother\u2019s seat, is serving as a lead sponsor. \u201cThere is no greater way to honor Senator Graham\u2019s legacy than to move forward with this bipartisan agreement,\u201d she said in a joint statement with a bipartisan group of senators ahead of the vote.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a key cosponsor, told colleagues the bill aims to strike at the financial resources fueling Russia\u2019s military campaign. \u201cThis legislation is designed to cut off Vladimir Putin\u2019s most important resource in his war against Ukraine: his money,\u201d she said on the Senate floor.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The procedural vote is the first of several required before final Senate passage. Lawmakers must still approve the measure after returning from their August recess. The House would also need to pass the legislation before it could reach President Donald Trump\u2019s desk. The White House has indicated Trump supports the package, which also extends certain Iran-related sanctions.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Twelve senators opposed advancing the bill. Kentucky Republican Rand Paul joined 11 Democrats in voting no. Some Democrats argued the measure would give excessive tariff authority to the executive branch. \u201cIn effect, this would be a blanket delegation of congressional tariff authority to the executive,\u201d Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont said during debate.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The vote occurred hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended Graham\u2019s funeral at Washington National Cathedral. After meeting Trump at the White House, Zelenskyy visited Capitol Hill, conferred with senators from both parties and watched the vote from the Senate gallery. He later described Graham as a \u201ctrue friend\u201d of Ukraine and thanked the United States for its continued support.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Supporters say the expanded economic pressure could strengthen U.S. leverage in ongoing negotiations with Moscow. The legislation remains one of the most significant Russia sanctions packages considered since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Senate voted 86-12 on Tuesday to advance a bipartisan sanctions package targeting Russia, marking one of the first significant congressional actions following the death of longtime Republican Sen. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2001,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions\/2001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchthenews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}