The US House of Representatives passed a major bill on Wednesday aimed at imposing sanctions on Russia and Iran. The bill will now be sent to President Donald Trump for his signature, and an NDTV report says Trump is expected to sign it. The House vote saw 262 members support the bill and 159 oppose it. The 61-page bill had already passed the Senate, Congress’s upper chamber, by a vote of 86-11 last month.
The bill has been named the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026” in honour of the late senator Lindsey Graham, who was a strong supporter of the effort before his sudden death last July.
The bill targets Russia’s energy sector. It gives the president the power to take punitive action against the countries that are the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas, and to impose tariffs on goods imported from those countries — a list that could include China and India. The bill’s goal is to sharply cut off Russia’s revenue sources, with the United States hoping to choke off Moscow’s funding for its war against Ukraine this way. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, beginning a full-scale war that continues to this day.
The non-partisan think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said: “The most significant aspect of this law is that it allows for tariffs of up to 100 percent on third countries that purchase significant amounts of Russian energy.” CSIS said the bill provides exemptions for countries that take meaningful steps to reduce their dependence on Russian energy and whose imports amount to less than 15 percent of Russia’s annual natural gas exports.
The US-based policy research organisation Atlantic Council said that if China continues buying oil from Russia, the bill would give “the Trump administration the power to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on imports from China in the interest of national security. The basis for this measure is that such tariffs would force China to reduce its energy imports from Russia.” Alongside a Russian oil pipeline, the measure would also cover Russian government officials, the country’s oligarchs, their family members, and Russian financial institutions. At Trump’s request, the package will also expand his authority to impose sanctions aimed at cutting off funding to Iran’s weapons and energy sectors.
Several senior House Democrats criticised the bill, fearing it would give Trump sweeping tariff powers that he could abuse. In the end, however, those objections were not enough to block the bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, told reporters on Monday: “I have always supported the bill sanctioning Russia. But we had to build consensus on this, and I believe we now have that consensus.”
Daniel Balson of Razom for Ukraine, a US-based advocacy organisation supporting Ukraine, called the bill’s passage a “significant development.” In a statement, Balson said: “This bill passed at a time when Russian officials are moving toward a full-scale troop deployment and intensifying bombardment of Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure. This bill sends a clear message: for as long as Putin continues to inflict suffering on Ukraine, Congress will continue taking punitive action against him.”