The U.S. House of Representatives is due to vote on Wednesday on a sweeping sanctions bill intended to increase economic pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, nearly 1-1/2 years after the late Senator Lindsey Graham first introduced it, Reuters reports.
The bill, now called the "Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026" to honor the late South Carolina Republican, passed the Senate last month. House passage would send it to the White House, where President Donald Trump plans to sign it into law.
The legislation would target Russia's energy and defense industries, as well as its "shadow fleet" of tankers that evade existing sanctions.
It also would authorize Trump to impose stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas, as well as additional sanctions on Iran.
Supporters expect the House to approve the legislation, even though it has faced considerable opposition since Graham and dozens of other senators introduced it in April 2025. It took Trump until July 2026 — days before Graham's sudden death on July 11 — to allow Congress' Republican leaders to schedule a vote on the bill.
Since starting his second term in January 2025, Trump has generally favored keeping control over tariffs and sanctions, a central tool of his foreign policy, rather than working with Congress on legislation.
The Graham act passed the Senate last month by 86-11 with strong bipartisan support, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with lawmakers to urge its passage and took the unusual step of watching an early procedural vote from a seat in the chamber.
