The Senate honored the late Lindsey O. Graham on Tuesday by passing the sanctions package he was still trying to lock down before his unexpected death.
The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 passed 86-12, giving the South Carolina Republican’s final foreign-policy push a bipartisan sendoff on the same day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended his funeral and pressed senators on Capitol Hill.
Graham had returned from Ukraine before his death earlier this month and spent his final days negotiating the measure with the White House.
The package takes aim at Russian political officials, oligarchs, financial institutions and the so-called Russian “shadow fleet,” which is used to evade existing sanctions.
President Trump arrives at the funeral service for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at the Washington National Cathedral. pic.twitter.com/r15QRY0VC9
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 28, 2026
It also gives the administration authority to pursue secondary sanctions and tariffs against countries still buying large quantities of Russian oil and gas.
That oil and gas revenue has been one of the Kremlin’s primary sources of wartime money.
The bill also keeps sanctions on Iran’s energy and weapons sectors in place through 2031, preserving restrictions that otherwise would have expired this year. Senators combined the Russia and Iran provisions after weeks of negotiations.
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The bill’s sponsors framed passage as a tribute to Graham’s work on Ukraine.
“There is no greater way to honor Senator Graham’s legacy than to move forward with this bipartisan agreement,” they said.
Zelensky had come to Washington for Graham’s funeral, but he also used the trip to make a closed-door pitch for the sanctions package before final passage.
After the meeting, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., one of the bill’s lead sponsors, told reporters the package was no longer just a pressure tactic.
“This bill is the one that will pass. This bill is the one that the President will sign. We want a law, not just a bill,” Blumenthal argued.
“It sends a message to Putin: your days of war are numbered. You are on the losing side,” he warned.
Only a dozen senators opposed the bill. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined 11 Democrats in voting no. Paul frequently opposes sanctions legislation on libertarian grounds, while Democratic critics objected to the tariff authority rather than the sanctions themselves.
The final vote still sailed past the 60 votes needed to pass. The House is not expected to take up the legislation until after the August recess, and approval there would send it to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Senators also confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence Tuesday evening.
Clayton replaces acting Director Bill Pulte after months of Democratic pushback against both men.
Pulte’s last day brought one more round of drastic agency cuts, announced just hours before Clayton was confirmed.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said his early reaction to Clayton’s nomination had been positive, but the confirmation process left him worried about political pressure.
“Having known and worked with Jay for years, I was encouraged when he was first nominated for the position of DNI,” Warner acknowledged.
“Unfortunately, I came away from his confirmation process with serious reservations about whether he would be willing to stand up to political pressure when it matters most.”
Warner said the intelligence community now needs Clayton to prove those doubts wrong.
“Now that he has been confirmed, I sincerely hope he proves those concerns unfounded, because the Intelligence Community deserves steadier leadership than it has received in recent months,” Warner continued.
Democrats had strongly opposed Pulte as acting DNI and initially appeared more receptive to Clayton as a permanent replacement. Once the nomination moved forward, Clayton faced heavy Democratic resistance.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune accused Democrats of dragging out the process after their objections to Pulte.
“Democrats were so worked up over the president’s temporary choice for this position, they allowed our nation’s most important counterterrorism tool to go dark for the first time ever,” Thune argued.
Clayton’s confirmation could reopen the path for the Senate to vote on reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the government to collect Americans’ data without a warrant.
Democrats are expected to be more likely to support the reauthorization now that Pulte is no longer acting DNI.
The House rejected a temporary Section 702 extension on June 11 in a 198-218 vote, with 19 Republicans joining most Democrats against it. Democrats opposed the reauthorization as retaliation for Trump putting Pulte in the acting DNI role.
Trump had complicated Clayton’s confirmation push in June.
On June 17, Trump asked the Senate to hold Clayton’s nomination until Jamie McDonald was approved as the next attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton had planned to move ahead that day before postponing the hearing.
Cotton later pushed senators to confirm Clayton.
“As U.S. Attorney, Jay Clayton has worked hand in glove with our intelligence agencies and counterterrorism personnel to lock up criminals who threaten our national security. I encourage my colleagues to join me and get Mr. Clayton’s nomination over the finish line,” Cotton said at the time.
Trump also tried to attach the Section 702 fight to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility America Act.
Trump threatened to oppose Section 702 reauthorization unless the SAVE Act was attached, then urged Senate Republicans to cancel their five-week August recess to pass the election bill or eliminate the filibuster.
“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Thune pushed back Monday as he walked into the Capitol, saying the bill had already been brought up repeatedly and the votes were not there to change Senate rules.
“If I thought there was a path to getting a result, I’m all for it. … We voted on it two, three, four, five times already, had it up on the floor for an extended period of time. Show me how this ends. What’s the picture of victory at the end?” Thune responded.
