Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said President Donald Trump's legislative agenda for the post-election session of Congress is effectively finished, blaming the president's decision to pause a sweeping Russia sanctions law for the collapse of support among Republican lawmakers.
«Congress has a lame-duck session. The President has an agenda: supplemental, reconciliation, Ballroom, etc… I think the agenda is dead,» Bacon wrote on X on Saturday. «Many of us won't fund these things knowing he is propping up a dictator's invasion and throwing an ally under the bus.»
Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general who is not seeking reelection, has been one of the few House Republicans willing to break with Trump on Ukraine policy. His comments came in response to CNN anchor Kate Bolduan, who noted Republican backlash over the sanctions pause and asked what the Senate could do about it. Bacon's answer was money: Republican lawmakers, he suggested, would withhold funding for the president's priorities.
Trump signed an executive order Friday pausing the sanctions package, which he had signed into law only last month. He told Congress the pause was in the national interest. The law targets Russian banks, officials and the so-called shadow fleet of tankers carrying Russian energy, and it calls for tariffs on the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas.
The pause followed a week in which Trump announced a deal to import Russian diesel and said Ukraine needs «a new president.» The moves have unsettled Republicans who have backed Kyiv against Russia's invasion.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) had already condemned the pause as «beyond irresponsible,» accusing the administration of «capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day.» Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote that the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, for whom the sanctions law is named, «would be appalled,» Bolduan noted.
The sanctions law carries Graham's name, and the decision to suspend it has become a flashpoint within the Republican Party. Bacon's remarks suggest the dispute could have practical consequences for the lame-duck session, when Congress must pass spending measures and other priorities before the new term begins.
With Bacon ruling out funding for the president's agenda, the episode highlights the narrowing room for Trump to maneuver within his own party on Russia and Ukraine. The White House has defended the pause as a national interest decision, but the criticism from Republican senators and Bacon indicates the issue is unlikely to fade before Congress returns.