Michael Baumgartner

WASHINGTON – Inland Northwest Republicans helped the House of Representatives on Wednesday pass legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia in response to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk after it cleared the Senate in August.

Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Spokane and Rep. Russ Fulcher, whose district includes North Idaho and most of the state’s western half, were among the 203 Republicans who supported the bill, named after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who championed Ukraine’s defense. More than a quarter of House Democrats also voted for the bill, including Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of southwest Washington, while most Democrats opposed it – citing concerns that it could give Trump additional tariff power – along with seven Republicans.

“I think the war will end when Vladimir Putin and the cabal that runs Russia decide it’s not their interest to continue to make war on Ukraine,” Baumgartner said in a brief interview before the vote. “What is the U.S. interest here is to make sure that Vladimir Putin does not feel that he’s successful in Russia and is not emboldened to further try to rebuild the Soviet empire.”

Baumgartner, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, recalled meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February at the annual Munich Security Forum in Germany as part of a U.S. delegation that included Graham, who died in July at age 71.

“Some of the things that were discussed are what is playing out now, which was very much equipping Ukraine to build leverage against Russia with deeper strikes into Russian territory,” he said. “But then also that there needed to be measures that could impact those that were continuing the funding of the Russian war machine, and a lot of that funding is coming through its oil sector.”

The bill adds to existing U.S. sanctions on Russia’s economy by targeting Russian officials and institutions that have supported the war since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as well as countries like China and India that buy Russian oil and gas.

Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat who often breaks with her party, cited the large Ukrainian community in her district in a statement urging Trump to “move quickly to implement these critical sanctions to ensure that Putin and his people know there is a steep price for their continued disregard for the sanctity of life.”

In an interview following the vote, Fulcher said he had voted for the bill “with trepidation” after carefully reading a provision that gives the president greater tariff authority.

“My second concern was: every time you do a sanction, you make your friends angry as well as your enemies,” he said, adding that he had concluded that the new sanctions apply narrowly to the so-called “ghost fleet” Russia uses to ship oil and gas. “I did get over those two hurdles, and so I supported it, but we can’t just go ‘yes’ and then unplug. We’ve got to stay engaged with the oversight.”

The legislation also includes mostly symbolic sanctions against Iran, which were added at Trump’s request before it passed the Senate in a broadly bipartisan vote of 86-11 on Aug. 7. The president supported the bill and is expected to sign it into law.

Former diplomat Carmela Conroy, the Democrat running to unseat Baumgartner in the upcoming midterm elections, called the bill “imperfect” in a Wednesday interview but said she would also have voted for it.

“It’s really important to signal to Ukraine that we’re supporting it, and the fact that it provides the administration an opportunity to cut Russia’s oil and gas revenue… that’s all positive,” Conroy said.