Congress passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 by overwhelming margins in both chambers, and the White House says President Trump will sign it into law.
The House voted 262-159 on Tuesday to approve the sprawling sanctions package, with 53 Democrats crossing party lines to join 203 Republicans in favor. Only seven Republicans voted against it. The bill had already cleared the Senate 86-11, giving it one of the strongest bipartisan showings on foreign policy legislation in years. It now heads to the president's desk, where White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Trump intends to sign it.
The legislation targets Russia's war economy, Iran's weapons and energy sectors, and countries that prop up the Kremlin's military effort in Ukraine. It authorizes tariffs of up to 500 percent on Russian imports and up to 100 percent on goods from the top five nations purchasing Russian energy, a list that includes China and India.
Speaking on ABC's This Week, Sanders said the administration had worked directly with both chambers to reshape a bill it originally considered poorly drafted. The final product, she said, reflected those negotiations.
"We were able to work with the House and Senate, and the administration is happy with the ability to do that and make those changes that were necessary, and we support where the legislation is now."
Host George Stephanopoulos pressed for a direct answer on whether Trump would put his signature on the bill. Sanders did not hedge. Stephanopoulos himself called it news: "So the president will sign that bill. That's a little news right there."
The bill also limits the president's ability to lift sanctions on Russia unilaterally and layers new penalties on North Korea, broadening the package well beyond a single-theater response. For an administration that has emphasized leverage in negotiations with Moscow, the provision constraining future sanctions relief is notable. Trump's team evidently decided the trade-off was worth it.
The legislation bears the name of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who championed tough Russia sanctions for years before his death. Rep. Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who led the House fight for passage, framed the vote as a tribute to Graham's legacy and a test of American resolve.
"This is a critical time in history, a time my friend Lindsey Graham described as a magic moment, a moment that we cannot afford to waste."
McCaul also made the case that tariffs would succeed where traditional sanctions had fallen short. Russia, he argued, had spent years learning to dodge financial restrictions. Tariffs hit differently.
"You can evade sanctions, which the Russians have done for years. But you cannot evade tariffs."
That argument carried weight with enough Democrats to produce a lopsided result. Fifty-three House Democrats broke with their caucus to vote yes, a Fox News report described the crossover as Democrats "begrudgingly" handing Trump a victory on tariff authority they might otherwise oppose. The dynamic echoed earlier fractures within the Democratic caucus on the same legislation, when two House Democrats broke ranks with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to give Republicans a procedural win on the sanctions bill weeks before the final vote.
The Senate had already done its part. An 86-11 vote gave the bill a supermajority well beyond what was needed, signaling that opposition in either party was confined to the margins. The New York Post reported that the combined Senate and House tallies made the Graham Act one of the most broadly supported foreign policy measures of the Trump presidency.
McCaul did not hold back about the stakes. "Evil is on the march, history is calling, and now is the time to act," he told colleagues on the House floor. He added: "I can think of no better way... to honor his life and his legacy than by passing these tough sanctions."
The bill's scope extends beyond Russia. It reinserts sanctions targeting Iran's weapons and energy sectors, provisions that had lapsed or weakened under prior policy frameworks. By bundling the Russia and Iran tracks together, sponsors made it politically costly for opponents to vote no on either piece without rejecting both.
The tariff provisions may prove to be the legislation's sharpest teeth. Authorizing levies of up to 500 percent on Russian goods and up to 100 percent on energy purchases by third-party nations gives the president a tool that bypasses the banking channels Moscow has learned to navigate. Countries like China and India, which have increased Russian energy imports since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, now face a direct cost for continuing that trade.
For Trump, the signing will cap a stretch of consequential executive and legislative action. The administration has moved aggressively on domestic policy as well, including the One Big Beautiful Bill, which the GAO found drove a 17 percent surge in tax refunds after taking effect.
The 159 House members who voted no included a mix of progressive Democrats who objected to the tariff authorities and a handful of Republicans skeptical of the sanctions framework. But the opposition was scattered and lacked a coherent counter-argument strong enough to slow the bill's momentum. The Washington Examiner noted that 58 Democrats ultimately crossed party lines, a slightly higher count than some tallies, reflecting the breadth of the defection from Democratic leadership's preferred position.
The bipartisan margin stands in contrast to the partisan trench warfare that has defined much of this Congress. Just weeks ago, the House voted along sharply partisan lines to kill an impeachment resolution brought by Rep. Al Green, with 147 Democrats trying to keep it alive. On Russia sanctions, the political math flipped entirely.
Graham, who represented South Carolina in the Senate for two decades, was among the most vocal hawks on Russia in either party. He pushed for punishing sanctions long before the 2022 invasion made the issue mainstream. Naming the bill after him was both a tribute and a signal: the legislation carries the weight of a senator whose hawkish foreign policy views commanded respect across the aisle.
The Newsmax report on the bill's passage aligned with the broader coverage of a bipartisan landslide headed for Trump's signature. The president has shown a willingness to sign major legislation when the political conditions are right, as he demonstrated with executive orders targeting birth tourism and birthright citizenship earlier in his term.
Sanders's confirmation that Trump will sign removes the last real uncertainty. The question now is whether the tariff authorities change behavior in Beijing, New Delhi, and other capitals that have treated Russian energy as a discount opportunity. McCaul bet the answer is yes. Moscow's sanctions-evasion playbook, he argued, has no chapter on tariffs.
When 262 House members, 86 senators, and a Republican White House all land on the same page, the message to Moscow is plain enough: the free ride on half-enforced sanctions is over.
