The House approved a long-awaited sanctions package targeting Russia and Iran, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk for his approval in a major bipartisan win ahead of the midterm elections.
Lawmakers voted 262-159 by a wide bipartisan margin to pass the legislation, which has been under negotiation by both parties for years — stretching back to when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. The package also includes sanctions targeting Iran, which were added in the most recent iterations of the bill in response to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
All four members of Utah’s House delegation voted in favor of the sanctions package, as did both Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis when the bill was under consideration in the Senate last month.
The sanctions package has been years in the making as former Sen. Lindsey Graham, the bill’s namesake who died unexpectedly this summer after returning from a trip to Ukraine, had consistently decried Russia’s 2022 invasion. Graham secured a deal with the White House just one day before his death on July 11.
The package seeks to impose primary and secondary sanctions against Russia as well as any other country supporting the Kremlin’s war efforts in Ukraine. Those sanctions would target Russian officials, oligarchs, their family members, foreign persons, and Russian banks and financial institutions.
Additionally, it would impose penalties against the Russian Shadow Fleet, a network of hundreds of vessels designed to evade sanctions and bypass Western price caps on oil. The bill also includes language to prevent the expiration of sanction authority restricting funds for Iran’s energy and weapons sectors.
The sanctions package includes a number of exceptions for the president to issue waivers to certain countries or individual officials if it’s “in the national interest of the United States.” That language was important to win over the White House, which was worried about mandating the president to impose sanctions while peace deal negotiations continue.
Although the concept of sanctioning Russia and supporting Ukraine has massive bipartisan support, the package on Wednesday still received opposition from most House Democrats who were concerned about the expansion of tariff powers it provides to Trump.
Roughly one-third of Democrats present on the floor voted with nearly all Republicans to approve the package, while 152 Democrats opposed. Party leaders said while they support Ukraine, they could not support legislation that does not explicitly mandate the president to apply the sanctions.
To get the president on board with the proposal, the package includes provisions allowing him to impose targeted tariffs on countries that purchase the majority of Russian oil or gas. Those tariffs would only apply to the five largest importers of Russian oil or gas as well as the top five countries that aid Russia in evading sanctions.
Countries would be removed from that list as soon as they fall out of the top five slots, according to a deal brokered by Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., ahead of the Senate vote.
Still, the provision elicited backlash from some Democrats who have accused Trump of stretching the limits of his tariff authority already during his second term.
Senate Democrats who negotiated the package defended its inclusion, noting the language is narrowly targeted and only applies to the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and gas. The concession to Trump is also the only way the sanctions will become law, they argued.
The bill’s passage on Wednesday marks a major step in U.S. support toward Ukraine during the yearslong war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has personally lobbied lawmakers to approve the sanctions in recent months, urging an end to the conflict.