Congress Clears Bill Letting Trump Impose Tariffs on Buyers of Russian Oil

What Congress just voted on

Lawmakers approved legislation that hands President Donald Trump new tools to target countries that purchase Russian petroleum products. After clearing the Senate last month, the House signed off Wednesday with a 262-159 vote, sending the bill to Trump, who plans to sign it in the coming days, according to a White House official.

Supporters in Kyiv cheered the vote as a concrete sign of US backing as the war enters its fifth year and faces a moment of heightened escalation. The bill also pushes out the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 through 2031 so it does not lapse. The new tariff powers sunset after five years.

What the new tariff powers allow

The president would be able to hit Russian goods shipped to the US with a sweeping tariff of up to 500%. On top of that, the bill authorizes an additional tariff of up to 100% aimed at the five largest buyers of Russian energy and at countries that import Russian crude or natural gas, or help others dodge sanctions.

The group of top buyers includes China, India and US partners such as Turkey. House Democrats sought to clarify that, for this policy, the European Union should not count as one country, yet the chamber rejected that amendment.

The politics and the pushback

"This legislation strengthens economic sanctions against the Russian government, its financial institutions, and the foreign governments that aid Russian aggression against Ukraine by purchasing cheap Russian oil and gas and helping the Kremlin evade other sanctions," House Speaker Mike Johnson said after the vote.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee's top Democrat, Gregory Meeks of New York, warned it would deepen US affordability problems, arguing, "We cannot grant the president more tariff authority that we know he will abuse." Eugene Vindman, a Virginia Democrat born in Kyiv, responded that Vladimir Putin "will only back down when there are clear consequences for his aggression." Pennsylvania Republican Brian Fitzpatrick, a leading Ukraine supporter, pressed his peers not to let "the perfect be the enemy of the good," adding that aiding Ukrainians on the front line is a US responsibility. Fitzpatrick is in a tough reelection fight amid voter anxiety over inflation linked to Trump's current tariffs.

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The vote scrambled usual party lines. In the end, 58 Democrats backed the bill while seven Republicans opposed it. Earlier this month, momentum stalled while the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Foreign Trade Council, and additional industry groups campaigned against the measure. The White House then pressed House leaders to hold a vote before lawmakers left for an extended break.

Why this matters for energy and your wallet

If China and India are pushed to source oil away from Russia, demand could shift into an already tight market, with supply strained by the US war in Iran. The administration's next steps are not set, though. The White House negotiated wide waiver provisions, giving the president broad latitude to decline penalties.

Ukraine is eyeing the next moves closely. President Volodomyr Zelenskyy is pursuing a sit-down with Trump in New York next week alongside the United Nations General Assembly, following a series of US engagements with Moscow that sparked debate about whether Washington plans to press Vladimir Putin to bring the war to a close or to continue prioritizing limits on Ukrainian attacks against Russian energy assets. The US has attributed a global jump in diesel prices to those attacks on Russian facilities. At a Washington independence day event Tuesday night, Ukraine's Chargé d'Affaires Denys Sienik thanked pro-Ukraine members of Congress "for every vote you cast in support of Ukraine, in support of freedom."

For everyday investors, the through-line is simple: trade rules can redirect energy flows and ripple into fuel and inflation. If these powers are used, watch how top buyers adjust and how that filters into gas prices, shipping costs and the broader cost of living.

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