60+ senators unveil Russia sanctions bill named for Lindsey Graham after his death

The legislation targets Russia's war finance network on multiple fronts. It would sanction Russian officials, oligarchs, family members, foreign persons, Russian banks and financial institutions, and the Russian Shadow Fleet. The tariff provision — up to 100 percent on goods from countries that purchase the majority of Russian oil and gas — is limited to the five largest importers, a narrowing from earlier drafts that reflects the White House agreement Graham secured before his death.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who led the bill alongside Darline Graham, described his last conversation with Lindsey Graham: "When Senator Graham and I last spoke, he was absolutely exultant, calling from Kyiv with news that President Trump would support this bill to impose scorching tariffs and sanctions on purchasers of Russian oil and stop them from fueling Putin's war machine. Now is the time to push Russia toward peace."

The cosponsor list spans the ideological spectrum and includes committee chairs with direct jurisdiction: Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch, R-Idaho; Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine. Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, a Foreign Relations Committee member who cosponsored an earlier version of the bill in April 2025, called it "a powerful tool to increase pressure on Russia, hold its enablers accountable, and ensure Russia does not win this war."

Two Democratic senators used a Senate Banking Committee hearing Thursday to press OMB Director and acting CFPB chief Russell Vought over decisions they say have stripped consumer protections from vulnerable Americans. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., focused on a canceled $95 million consent order against Navy Federal Credit Union for illegal overdraft fees — a payment the credit union had already agreed to make. "The last CFPB ordered Navy Federal to pay a $15 million penalty and refund more than $80 million back to those service members' pockets. I think that is a very just outcome. But you tore up that consent order," Gallego said.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Ranking Member of the Banking Committee's Economic Policy Subcommittee, pressed Vought on his reversal of a finalized CFPB rule that would have removed nearly $50 billion in medical debt from the credit reports of tens of millions of Americans. "CFPB, by its nature, is advocating for everyday consumers, and I don't see how any of your actions suggest that you've been advocating for the people that I represent," Warnock said. He added: "Thanks to you, there are now families who cannot buy a house. They are hounded by debt collectors, and they're denied business loans all because they got sick."

Warnock's release noted that 27 percent of rural Georgians carry medical debt collections on their credit reports — ten percentage points above the national average — and that a Senate floor vote he forced to restore the medical debt protections failed 50-50 on a party-line vote.

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., both released statements Friday backing the Protecting American Taxpayers Act, a 16-provision anti-fraud package that proponents say would save $240 billion by preventing fraud before it occurs, recovering stolen funds, and holding criminals accountable. Ricketts, who co-founded a new Senate Anti-Fraud Task Force, cited estimates from the Government Accountability Office placing annual taxpayer losses to fraud at between $233 billion and $521 billion between 2018 and 2022.

Marshall's release highlighted his WALZ Act, included in the package, which would require federal payments to be made as reimbursements only after services have been provided. "Fraudsters are always looking for the next weak spot, and for years Washington has made their job far too easy," Marshall said. "President Trump has brought a renewed focus to rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse, and Congress should seize this opportunity to make those reforms permanent."

Ricketts' weekly column tied the package to Medicaid and SNAP work requirements enacted in the Working Families Tax Cuts legislation, describing those provisions as fraud-prevention measures. He also cited examples of alleged Medicaid fraud in Minnesota and hospice care fraud in Los Angeles County to illustrate the scope of the problem. Both senators indicated a floor vote is expected soon.

Senators Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., John Curtis, R-Utah, Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., introduced the bipartisan McCarty and Heideman Air Safety Enhancement Act, directing the FAA to review and update safety regulations for temporary obstructions in low-altitude airspace — specifically slacklines. The bill responds to a January 2, 2026, crash in which a helicopter struck a slackline strung approximately 600 feet in the air across Telegraph Canyon near Superior, Arizona, killing all four aboard: David McCarty and his three nieces Rachel McCarty, Faith McCarty, and Katelyn Heideman.

"David, Katelyn, Rachel, and Faith lost their lives in an Arizona helicopter crash that never should have happened. I've met with their family. No one should have to go through what they've been through. This bill makes sure the FAA acts quickly to prevent tragedies like this from happening again," said Kelly. Curtis noted the practical stakes for helicopter operations: "High-adventure activities in Utah, like slacklining, should not come at the cost of aviation safety, particularly for helicopter pilots who transport patients, fight wildfires, and support search and rescue missions."

The bill has companion legislation in the House introduced by Reps. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., and Val Hoyle, D-Ore., and is backed by more than a dozen aviation industry groups including the Air Medical Operators Association and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

Two senators weighed in Friday on the SAVE America Act from opposite directions. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., issued a statement calling the legislation an effort to "rig our election system" and accusing President Trump of reprising 2020 election falsehoods. "Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He's still selling the same lies that led to a violent insurrection five years ago," Luján said. "Now, President Trump is ordering Congressional Republicans to rig our election system with the SAVE Act in a desperate attempt to hold onto power."

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., took the opposite position in remarks to KNSS Radio. "My voters want voter ID across the country, period, full stop, end of the conversation. And right now we cannot get one Democrat to vote for it. It'll take 60 votes in the Senate to get this across the finish line for voter ID in every state," Marshall said. He proposed forcing individual floor votes on separate components — voter ID, proof of citizenship, and mail-in ballot rules — rather than a single omnibus vote.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., introduced the Broadband Mapping Accurate Providers (MAP) Act of 2026, directing the FCC to evaluate and improve its National Broadband Map and the challenge process that allows providers to dispute serviceability determinations. The bill targets a persistent complaint from rural telecom providers that the current challenge process is difficult to navigate.

"Broadband providers who are on the ground in South Dakota and across rural America have vital, firsthand knowledge of the communities they serve," Thune said. Fetterman framed the bill in basic terms: "Broadband internet is a necessity, especially for our rural communities. The first step we can take to ensure families have internet access across Pennsylvania and the country is figuring out who still doesn't." FCC Chairman Brendan Carr issued a statement supporting the legislation.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., led nine colleagues — including Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Sens. Brian Schatz, Angus King, and Martin Heinrich — in launching a formal investigation into the Trump administration's agreements to pay four offshore wind companies more than $2.7 billion in taxpayer funds to abandon their lease projects. The senators sent letters to TotalEnergies, Ocean Winds, Duke Energy, and Invenergy requesting internal communications and answers to a series of questions about the deals.

"These buyouts have been announced amid a larger effort by the Trump Administration to stall wind and solar projects — the energy sources that are cheap, clean, and fastest to bring online — across the country," the senators wrote. They cited projections that the terminated projects would have powered millions of homes and supported more than 30,000 jobs across the East and West Coasts. The senators also asked whether the companies had struck deals involving pledges to invest in fossil fuel projects, and whether any conditions were attached to the payouts.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee advanced the Water Resources Development Act of 2026 by unanimous vote Thursday, sending the biennial water infrastructure bill to the Senate floor. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the committee's ranking member, and Chair Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., both praised the vote. "Unanimously advancing this significant package demonstrates bipartisan commitment to maintaining and upgrading the nation's water infrastructure," Whitehouse said.

The bill authorizes Army Corps of Engineers projects for flood risk management, navigation, and ecosystem restoration. Whitehouse secured provisions increasing the federal cost share to 90 percent for several Rhode Island projects, reauthorizing the National Estuaries Program, and authorizing an EPA pilot to distribute point-of-use filters to homes with PFAS contamination. The bill also increases authorization levels for both the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds — a separate bipartisan bill introduced Friday by Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., also targets the Clean Water State Revolving Fund formula, which has not been updated since 1987.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse introduced the Curtailing Executive Overcompensation (CEO) Act, which would apply an excise tax on companies with at least a 50-to-1 CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio. "Right now, a handful of mega-billionaires are reaping the rewards of the labor of millions of hardworking Americans," Whitehouse said. "Congress needs to rein in out-of-control CEO pay once and for all." The bill is cosponsored by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, and Peter Welch, and is endorsed by the AFL-CIO, UAW, and more than a dozen other labor and advocacy groups.

Sens. Alex Padilla, Warren, and Cory Booker reintroduced the Mamas First Act, which would expand Medicaid coverage to include care from doulas, midwives, tribal midwives, and lactation support providers. "It's unthinkable that the richest country in the world would also have one of the highest maternal mortality rates," Warren said. Separately, Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced the SEARCH Act to ban dominant search engines from paying distributors to lock out competitors — drawing on the Google antitrust ruling. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding accountability for what he called retaliatory arbitration against whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, writing that "Congress cannot permit giant corporations like Meta to crush good people who blow the whistle on corporate wrongdoing." And Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chris Coons, D-Del., and Jon Husted, R-Ohio, introduced the NO BOSS Act to let unemployed workers collect unemployment benefits while launching a new business, modernizing the Self-Employment Assistance program.

Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., along with Rep. Lloyd Doggett, introduced a bicameral resolution designating July 2026 as Plastic Pollution Action Month. "Most of us have been taught the three Rs — reduce, reuse, and recycle; but too often the reality with plastics is the three Bs — buried, burned, and borne out to sea," Merkley said. Whitehouse, co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Oceans Caucus, noted that "microplastics seep into the human food chain" and cited the impact on Rhode Island fishermen. The resolution is cosponsored by Sens. Cory Booker, Chris Van Hollen, and Peter Welch.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., introduced the Treatment and Restoration Uniformity and Transparency in Health Coverage (TRUTH in Coverage) Act, which would require private health plans that cover gender transition procedures to also cover restorative care and treatment for complications from those procedures. The bill applies across the individual market, employer-sponsored plans, and other private group health plans beginning January 1, 2027. "Insurance companies have been more than willing to profit by covering these procedures, but when patients need care to treat complications and restore healthy human function, they're often left on their own. That's wrong," Marshall said. The bill is cosponsored by Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and has a House companion introduced by Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn.

Signals

• volumeFriday's 24-release count ran 35.8% below the Friday average of 37.4, consistent with pre-recess wind-down behavior with 24 days until the August state work period.
• coordinatedThree separate releases from Alsobrooks, Lankford, and Curtis each announced cosponsorship of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act within a two-hour window, amplifying a 60+ senator rollout coordinated across party lines.
• volumeSen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., issued three separate press releases Friday — on the SAVE Act, the Protecting American Taxpayers Act, and the TRUTH in Coverage Act — an unusually concentrated single-day output for one member.
• silent breaksSen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has not issued a press release in 23 days, yet appears as a cosponsor in two releases today — the Mamas First Act and the CEO Act — and as a signatory on the offshore wind investigation letter, per other senators' releases.

Quiet desks

Senators with no release in two weeks or more.

• Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC74d
• Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY44d
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA23d