The House Passed the Lindsey Graham Russia Sanctions Bill 262-159 on Its Last Day Before the Midterms, Handing Trump Power to Slap 100% Tariffs on China and India. Then Everyone Went Home for Six Weeks.
Fifty-eight Democrats crossed over and seven Republicans defected. Hakeem Jeffries said Trump 'cannot be entrusted' with new tariff power. The bill now goes to a president who has spent months saying he wanted it.
The House passed a sweeping package of sanctions on Russia and Iran on Wednesday, sending to President Trump's desk a bill named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham that gives the president authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the countries that buy the most Russian oil and gas. The vote was 262 to 159, and it came on the final legislative day before lawmakers left Washington for more than six weeks of campaigning ahead of the November midterms.
The tally split both parties. According to the roll call, 203 Republicans, 58 Democrats and one independent voted yes; 152 Democrats and seven Republicans voted no. The Senate passed the same measure 86-11 in August, a far more lopsided margin. The House had already needed two moderate Democrats, Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, to cross party lines on Tuesday's procedural vote just to bring the bill to the floor.
The measure is formally titled the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Graham, the South Carolina Republican who spent months negotiating Trump's support for the package, died unexpectedly in July. The bill authorizes tariffs of up to 100% on the top five purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas, with China and India the largest buyers of Russian crude. It exempts countries that import less than 15% of their natural gas from Russia while taking "significant" steps to cut further, and it lets the president waive the penalties if he certifies doing so is in the national interest. It also extends sanctions on Iran's energy and weapons sectors, a provision added at Trump's request, and layers new sanctions on Vladimir Putin, Russian government officials, oligarchs and Russian banks.
"This is a moral issue that requires moral courage," Rep. Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who managed the bill, said on the floor. "I want us to be able to say that we did everything possible to end this war. That we understood the threat. That we had the courage to do what was right, to cripple the Russian war machine and turn the tide toward peace." McCaul, in a separate statement to CBS News, called tariffs "the teeth of this bill."
The Democratic opposition was not about Ukraine. It was about Trump. In a joint statement, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said the president "cannot be entrusted with new powers to impose tariffs that will further raise costs for American families." Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia put it more bluntly during debate. "This bill has a loophole that would allow him to define basically any country as a facilitator of evading Russian sanctions," Beyer said. "He could then hit them with tariffs of up to 100%, with no guardrails or oversight, and no expiration." Reps. Gregory Meeks and Richard Neal joined Beyer in warning that the measure would "dramatically extend presidential tariff authorities." The seven Republicans who voted no reflect a different fracture: a wing of the party that has soured on U.S. support for Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion.
The vote was the last act of a House that then shut its doors. Speaker Mike Johnson canceled Thursday's scheduled votes and sent members home until after Election Day, declaring that "the House has done its work." Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina noted the chamber has now scrubbed at least 63 scheduled voting days this Congress. The early recess also buried Rep. Thomas Massie's articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which Johnson called "a publicity stunt by someone who wants attention" and pledged to table when the House returns in November. Massie, who lost his primary after Trump campaigned against him, spent an hour on the floor objecting. "We're calling off Congress? And we're in the majority?" he said. Democrats had urged Johnson to stay in session to take up artificial intelligence regulation; he declined. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which lapsed in June, remains unrenewed.
Trump has publicly pressed the Senate for months to pass the bill "in honor of" Graham, and the White House shaped its final text. He has not said when he will sign it. Once he does, the practical question shifts to whether he will actually use the tariff hammer against Beijing and New Delhi, or hold it in reserve as leverage in his own talks with Putin over Ukraine.
Originally reported by CBS News.