The Senate is moving swiftly to advance a revised Russia sanctions package, with lawmakers from both parties treating the legislation as a fitting memorial to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. The bill, which boasts 85 cosponsors, represents a rare moment of unity in a deeply fractured chamber.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called passage "a great tribute to the legacy of Lindsey," while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged immediate action. "It will pass overwhelmingly and help our allies in Ukraine," Schumer said.
The timing carries symbolic weight. Graham spent his final days negotiating the updated sanctions framework with the Trump administration, emerging from a meeting in Ankara last week convinced he had resolved the White House's concerns. In a Saturday phone call with President Trump, Graham briefed the administration on the progress. By Monday, he, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and three other senators announced they had reached agreement to move the legislation forward.
"This would be a good way to show us in a bipartisan way coming together on something that he was literally using some of his last breaths to fight for," Sen. Cory Booker said.
The updated bill differs materially from its initial version. The original proposal would have slapped tariffs as high as 500 percent on countries, including China, that continue buying Russian oil and gas. The revised measure narrows those penalties significantly, a compromise reached after months of back-and-forth with the Trump administration.
The House passed an earlier version already, though lawmakers there also want modifications. Rep. Joe Wilson, Graham's South Carolina colleague, suggested naming the legislation the "Lindsey Graham Sanctions Act" to honor the senator's decades-long focus on constraining Russia and weakening its oligarchs through financial pressure.
As the Senate processes Graham's sudden death, the machinery of succession has moved into gear. Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham's sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to fill the seat temporarily. She will be sworn in Tuesday afternoon. Sen. Ron Johnson will take over Graham's Budget Committee chairmanship.
On the Senate floor Monday, Thune fought back tears as colleagues reflected on Graham's outsized influence on American foreign policy. Blumenthal recounted a final weekend conversation with his friend, who expressed elation over the sanctions breakthrough. "He exulted at reaching an agreement on our Russian sanctions bill and said, 'This is a big effing deal,'" Blumenthal recalled.
The rush to pass the bill captures something increasingly rare in the Capitol: Democrats and Republicans moving in tandem on a major policy question. That momentum appears genuine, driven partly by respect for a senator who spent the better part of his career fighting Putin, and partly by the knowledge that Trump, at least for now, has signed off.
Author James Rodriguez: "Graham spent his final hours fighting for this sanctions push, and the Senate honoring that work with swift passage would be the cleanest way to remember him as a serious force on Russia policy."
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