Hours after President Donald Trump eulogized the late U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, the U.S. Senate advanced the late pro-Ukrainian senator’s Russia sanctions bill (86-12).
The bill would impose 100% secondary tariffs on countries that continue to buy Russian oil and gas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended both the funeral service and the Senate vote.
JUST IN: The U.S. Senate advanced Lindsey Graham’s Russia sanctions bill by an 86-12 vote.
The legislation would impose 100% secondary tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian oil and gas
and target Russia’s “shadow fleet”.President Zelensky was in the building and… pic.twitter.com/xi4jRKCcYI
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 29, 2026
The X account “Republicans against Trump” provided a list of the 12 Senators who voted against advancing the Russia sanctions bill, which includes one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul (KY).
The others are Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (MA), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Maggie Hassan (NH), Mazie Hirono (HI), Andy Kim (NJ), Ed Markey (MA), Jon Ossoff (GA), Alex Padilla (CA), Peter Welch (VT), and Ron Wyden (OR), along with Independent Bernie Sanders (VT).
Here’s the list of the 12 senators who voted “No” on advancing the Russia sanctions bill:
• Rand Paul
• Bernie Sanders
• Elizabeth Warren
• Lisa Blunt Rochester
• Maggie Hassan
• Mazie Hirono
• Andy Kim
• Ed Markey
• Jon Ossoff
• Alex Padilla
• Peter Welch
• Ron… https://t.co/Tx57xiWUnw— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 29, 2026
Many X users asked why the Senators voted against the bill. As one commenter wrote, “what’s buried in the bill that would have the Democrats vote against?”
Prior to the Senate vote, Paul wrote an op-ed for Fox News titled, “DC’s Russia sanctions bill won’t stop Putin — but it will hurt you,” with the subhead, “Congress should reject this misguided bill that will do nothing to bring peace to Ukraine.”
He wrote: “The Graham Sanction/Tariff bill, if passed, will likely be the largest tax increase ever passed by a Republican Congress and cost the American people half a trillion dollars. The bill would slap a 500% tariff on all U.S. trade with Russia and give the president unilateral authority to impose up to 100% tariffs on all goods imported into the United States from the top five largest importers of Russian crude oil or natural gas and countries who facilitate Russian oil sanctions evasion.”
Most of the Democrats who voted against it rejected what they saw as giving the President excessive unilateral power to apply tariffs beyond Russia.
Ossoff’s office wrote: “Senator Ossoff continues to support Ukraine’s valiant self-defense against intolerable Russian brutality and aggression,” adding, however, that “he does not support the provisions of this bill that delegate massive new tariff authorities to a President who has demonstrated he will wield tariffs recklessly and destructively.”