By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a sweeping sanctions and tariff bill intended to increase economic pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, sending the bill to President Donald Trump to sign into law nearly 1-1/2 years after the late Senator Lindsey Graham introduced it.
The bill, now called the "Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026" to honor the South Carolina Republican, passed the Senate last month.
The House passed it by 262 to 159, as dozens of Democrats broke with party leaders to join most Republicans in favor.
The legislation targets Russia's energy and defense industries, as well as its "shadow fleet" of tankers that evade existing sanctions.
It faced pushback because it also authorizes Trump to impose stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas, as well as to extend sanctions on Iran.
The legislation had 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.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the two sides have since waged the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two.
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.
ZELENSKIY URGES PASSAGE AS WAR DRAGS ON
Zelenskiy reiterated his support for the bill in an address this week, saying it is "important that it becomes law. I thank everyone around the world who supports this approach and who knows that strength works."
Moscow and Ukraine have traded strikes in recent months on infrastructure and other economic targets, aimed at hampering each other's war effort and damaging morale. On Wednesday, Russian drones struck a passenger bus and a train in southern Ukraine, killing five people.
The bill faced opposition from House Democrats who said it gives Trump too many new tariff powers that he could use against U.S. allies. They say Trump already has the authority he needs to impose sanctions on Russia, but has chosen not to do so.
They also say the bill makes it too easy for Trump not to impose sanctions by declaring that doing so is not in the national interest.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a speech on Wednesday that the legislation had too many loopholes to guarantee that any sanctions harming Russia would be applied, while increasing Trump's tariff powers. "What this legislation will do is give Donald Trump, perhaps, unfettered authority to unleash tariffs on the American people," he said.
Some Republicans had been concerned about political blowback against more tariffs and potentially higher consumer prices ahead of November's midterm elections, in which polls show the party struggling to keep control of the House.
Backers said the bill will send an essential message to Russia — and the world — that Washington continues to support Ukraine.
"You don't have many votes like this in the Congress that impact global, geopolitical conflicts," Republican Representative Michael McCaul of Texas, a lead sponsor of the bill, said during debate. "This bill will have a direct impact on the conflict threatening Eastern Europe and NATO itself and can bring this to an end to get (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to the negotiating table."
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Andy Sullivan, Bill Berkrot, Rod Nickel, Don Durfee and David Gregorio)
