Editorial: Get Graham's Russia sanctions bill to Trump's desk

Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Jul 20, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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Services for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham will take place this month in Washington, D.C., and his home state of South Carolina. In the meantime, Congress could honor his legacy by passing the bipartisan Russian sanctions bill he spent his last months working to advance.

Sen. Graham died this month of a sudden cardiac event. He had served in the upper chamber for 23 years and was a leading GOP voice on foreign policy. His final project was legislation, co-sponsored with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., intended to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

The bill would, among other things, give the president the authority to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries buying oil and gas from Russia. It would also apply “mandatory sanctions not only on Russia’s leadership and energy sector, but on secondary helpers of the Russian defense industrial base and so-called shadow fleet,” Politico reported.

Some version of this legislation has been pending for more than a year but was pushed off the agenda by political infighting and a lukewarm reception from the White House. The current version now has 60 sponsors in the Senate and includes reforms that give President Donald Trump’s leeway in applying the penalties. Trump says he supports the bill.

““It took months of bipartisan negotiations, very difficult, sometimes heated,” Blumenthal told Politico. “But we are very, very gratified that President Trump is now supporting it.”

The bill would apply additional pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who envisioned a quick and easy military operation when he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. But the conflict has turned into an economic and human disaster for his nation, which has suffered an estimated 2 million casualties and up to 500,000 deaths, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“These rates are astounding,” Seth G. Jones and Riley McCabe of the CSIS told CNN. “Russian fatalities in Ukraine are more than four times greater than all U.S. fatalities in all wars combined since World War II, and more than nine times greater than all Soviet and Russian fatalities in all wars combined since World War II.”

Sen. Graham was a vocal backer of Ukraine and of American support for the beleaguered nation. Shortly before his untimely death, he had returned from his 10th wartime visit to Ukraine, during which he had met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “to brief him on his latest push for legislation to sanction those who buy oil from Russia,” Politico reported.

The legislation now has enough bipartisan support to overcome a filibuster and the support of the Trump administration. Congress should quickly get it to the president’s desk.