Republicans return to Capitol Hill with agenda complicated by Graham death

Lawmakers face obstacles, including demands from Trump, Mitch McConnell’s absence and senator’s sudden death

Republican lawmakers return to the Capitol this week facing a lengthy to-do list and Donald Trump’s demands for new voting restrictions, as Democrats jockey for an advantage ahead of the November midterm elections.

Lawmakers from both parties are eager to highlight before voters legislative victories ahead of the midterms, when control of Congress is at stake. But for Senate Republicans, who are already navigating an array of demands from Trump, their agenda grew further complicated over the weekend with the death of Lindsey Graham , the budget committee chair who was a key player in negotiating a party-line bill to fund additional defense spending and other priorities outlined by the president.

Together with the ongoing absence of Mitch McConnell who remains hospitalized after a fall , Senate Republicans will have to navigate a majority that’s down two members, though South Carolina’s governor has scheduled a press conference to announce Graham’s replacement on Monday afternoon.

Republicans in both chambers remain confounded by Trump’s renewed fixation on the Save America Act, which would ban mail-in ballots and impose new rules on voting nationwide.

The measure, a version of which was approved by the House of Representatives earlier this year almost entirely with Republican votes, has no path through the Senate, where it faces opposition from Democrats and some in the GOP.

But those obstacles have not stopped the president from refusing to sign a major housing bill supported by both parties in protest of the lack of progress on Save America, nor his allies in the right wing of the GOP to hold up the House’s business while insisting that the Senate’s Republican leaders change the chamber’s rules to push through the president’s priority legislation.

The standoff forced Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker, to send the House into its independence day recess earlier than expected last month, and denied the president’s allies an opportunity to trumpet passage of the housing legislation, which went into effect on Saturday without Trump’s signature .

It has also complicated the renewal of a key foreign surveillance law, which expired in June after a compromise measure to extend it was voted down, with Democrats rebelling over Trump’s appointment of an inexperienced loyalist as acting director of national intelligence.

While Trump has since nominated US attorney Jay Clayton as the permanent director, he quickly scuppered his confirmation hearing and tied renewal of the surveillance law to passage of the Save America Act.

Congress’s Republican leaders hope to get back on track when lawmakers return to Washington DC beginning Monday, with the House expected to vote this week on an appropriations measure for the state department and related agencies.

The Senate judiciary committee has scheduled two days of confirmation hearings for Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general Trump has nominated to the post, though it was unclear if the death of Graham, who served on the committee, will affect the schedule. The intelligence committee has separately announced that the confirmation of Clayton is back on, while Trump called on the Senate to honor Graham by passing the Clarity act , a cryptocurrency regulatory measure that has faced opposition from Democrats.

But all indications point to the Save America Actcontinuing to linger over the House, where rightwing lawmakers have insisted it be attached to a must-pass defense policy bill in an effort to force action in the Senate.

Shortly before the recess began late last month, Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican congresswoman, and her allies ground the House to a halt by opposing procedural motions that would have allowed for consideration of unrelated bills, in an attempt to pressure leaders in the GOP over the president’s priority.

In the weeks since, Luna has signaled no shift in her strategy, while criticizing the Senate’s Republican majority leader, John Thune, for not backing changes to the filibuster, which could allow Senate Republicans to overcome Democratic objections and pass the Save America Act.

“The House has now passed it THREE TIMES and each time we pass it to the Senate they FAIL. The people want it. The House wants it. The president wants it,” Luna wrote on social media.

Thune, Luna wrote, “is claiming it’s a numbers problem. I think it’s evident it’s a leadership problem.” However, when Senate Republicans put a version of the Save America Act up for a vote last month, it failed, with all Democrats opposing it, along with four Republicans.

Democrats hope they can use the Republican infighting to their advantage ahead of the November midterms, where they are campaigning to retake the majority in both the House and Senate. After Trump announced his refusal to sign the housing bill on Friday, Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, who may be elected speaker if Democrats retake control of the chamber, said: “Republicans would rather make it harder to vote than easier to afford a home. When people show you who they are, believe them.”

Concerns over the integrity of the November election have spiked among Democrats after Trump ousted three members of an independent federal commission last week that worked with states on administering elections.

Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said the commissioners’ removal was a sign that Trump was seeking to “rig” the upcoming elections.

“We need to have fair elections, and every day, Trump tries to dismember and dismantle the process,” Warner said. “Isn’t there anyone on the Republican side willing to stand up for our democratic process? Time will tell.”