By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Sept 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives will begin consideration next week of a sweeping Russia sanctions bill championed by the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, which has passed the Senate but faces stiff opposition from House Democrats.
The House Rules Committee said it scheduled a meeting to consider the measure for Monday afternoon. Approval by the Republican-majority Rules Committee would pave the way for a vote in the full chamber later in the week.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died in July, was among Ukraine’s most outspoken allies in Congress. His bill would sanction Russian officials and authorize stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Its passage would be seen as an important message to Ukraine – and Russia – of U.S. support for the government in Kyiv in its defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion. The bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow by cutting off sources of revenue used to fund the war.
The Senate voted 86-11 last month to pass the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026,” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy watching a procedural vote after a meeting urging lawmakers to support it.
House passage would send it to the White House, where Republican President Donald Trump has said he backs the bill.
However, the support from both Republicans and Democrats that propelled the legislation through the Senate might not be enough in the full House.
Critics, including some U.S. industries, argue that Trump threw his support behind the legislation more than a year after Graham introduced it because lawmakers added provisions giving him new tariff powers.
They say Trump already has the authority he needs to impose stiff sanctions on Russia without Congress, but has chosen not to do so.
MESSAGE TO RUSSIA
“This absolutely offers fairly sweeping new authority to the president to impose tariffs on a handful of countries,” said Ben Harris, vice president and director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution.
Harris, who was a senior Treasury Department official under former Democratic President Joe Biden, also noted: “One of the good things about the bill is that it shows congressional resolve towards Russia and in favor of Ukraine.”
One source familiar with the discussions said Trump’s administration had argued that passage would give the president leverage ahead of his meeting on September 24 with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The measure would allow Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries deemed to be major consumers of Russian energy, including China but also U.S. allies like Japan and some European countries, and leave it to Trump’s discretion to lift them.
Democratic critics say those tariff powers could raise costs for U.S. importers and consumers. Some Republicans view sanctions as unwarranted intervention in the free market, and others also are concerned about political blowback against more tariffs ahead of November’s midterm elections, in which polls show the party struggling to keep control of the House.
“If the House passes this bill as written, the result will not be sanctions on Russia or support for Ukraine, it will be higher costs and more inflation for the American people,” Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.
Critics also say the bill makes it too easy for Trump to waive the sanctions, especially as his administration pushes for an end to the war in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Daniel Wallis)
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