Staff Reports
President Donald Trump quietly used a tool Congress put in law to pause much of the new “Graham Act” punishment plan for Russia. The executive order says the president sent Congress a national‑interest certification under Section 115 and kept older sanctions in place, but it also stopped the bill’s steep new tariffs and many fresh penalties from taking effect. The administration says the move is about diesel, farmers, and keeping prices down. Others say it guts the law’s teeth. Both sides have a point — and both owe the public an explanation.
What Section 115 actually lets the president do
Section 115 is the waiver button Congress itself built into the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. The law authorized eye‑popping duties — as high as 500% on some Russian imports and up to 100% on goods tied to buyers of Russian oil and gas — but it also explicitly lets the president suspend those measures if he certifies the waiver serves national interests. The executive order invokes that language and says the president sent the required certification to Congress. Trouble is, the public hasn’t seen the explanatory report that went with it, even though the order refers to it. That missing paper is the whole point; without it, we get the action but not the reasoning.
Energy claims and the diesel argument
The White House frames this as a practical energy move. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and other officials say allowing more diesel into markets — including agreed Russian shipments — can blunt high fuel costs that pinch truckers, farmers, and everyday families. That’s a claim worth taking seriously. If diesel prices spike and groceries and freight costs surge, the pain lands at Main Street, not K Street. Still, trading short‑term market relief for long‑term leverage over Moscow is a choice that deserves plain talk, not a vague memo filed behind closed doors.
Why Kyiv and lawmakers are rightly uneasy
Ukraine’s leaders and many members of Congress are alarmed because the statute was designed to squeeze Russia and the countries that enable it. Waiving the new tariffs before they bite removes immediate pressure on Moscow and on major buyers of Russian energy. Critics fear the pause hands Putin breathing room to keep the war going; supporters of the waiver argue it buys time to ease global energy pain. Both outcomes matter, but giving Moscow anything that looks like relief without visible gains in diplomacy or battlefield moves will look like weakness, no matter how soothing the diesel prices might be.
Who is responsible and what should happen next
Make no mistake: Congress wrote the waiver into law. If lawmakers don’t like how it’s being used, they can change the statute. But while the blame game begins, the administration needs to show the public what it sent to Congress — the national‑interest explanation — and give clear benchmarks for how it will judge results. Expect hearings, oversight letters, and calls to tighten or remove Section 115. In plain English: the president used a tool Congress gave him, and now both branches must be held to account. If Washington wanted to give itself cover, it did so cleverly; if it wanted to keep credibility, it should stop hiding the fine print and let voters see the tradeoffs.
