House Republicans are aiming to finish before August another party-line bill that they hope will persuade voters to keep them in power in midterm elections.

House GOP leaders and a group of GOP members in closed-door meetings Tuesday discussed passing a third reconciliation bill by the end of July, five people with direct knowledge of the conversations told Blue Light News. The third party-line bill would be in addition to the current immigration enforcement spending bill moving through the Senate.

Speaker Mike Johnson told Blue Light News as he left the House floor Tuesday “I do” think Republicans can meet that timeline. Rep. August Pfluger, who has pushed for the additional party-line bill as chair of the Republican Study Committee, said he was optimistic it could be done.

“We have achieved every objective and goal that we set out to do,” he told Blue Light News. “And we will achieve this one as well.”

Plenty of obstacles stand in the path to their plan. One senior Republican noted there are just over 30 legislative days that the House is in session before summer recess, which begins July 23.

Both chambers would also have to approve an identical budget resolution, meaning the fractious House and Senate would have to agree on broad outlines for the bill — a process that took months during last year’s drafting of the GOP’s megabill.

The party also has yet to finalize its second reconciliation bill focused on immigration enforcement. The legislation has become mired in debate over a provision that could allow up to $1 billion in spending for the Secret Service and security for President Donald Trump’s ballroom project, which polls show is deeply unpopular with voters.

That ballroom spending debate has only added to calls from members saying the party needs to do more to address cost-of-living matters before voters go to the polls in the fall.

Some members argue Republicans have struggled to sell to the public the “big, beautiful bill” they passed last year. And more recently, House and Senate Republicans are facing divisions over a gas-tax holiday being demanded by Trump, not to mention housing and energy permitting bills that have stalled for months.

That set of overlapping internal battles — and rising inflation numbers — are underscoring the party’s political peril. Another reconciliation bill, which Republicans can pass without Democratic support, is seen as crucial to efforts to show voters they can deliver affordability solutions.

“Well, do we pass it? Or do we try?” Sen. Rick Scott said. “I know we’re going to try.”

What else we’re watching: 

— GOP LEADERS LUKEWARM ON GAS TAX HOLIDAY: Trump’s plan to suspend the federal gasoline tax is getting a reality check from GOP leaders wary of taking a political gamble with relatively little payoff for Americans at the pump. A day after Trump’s call to action and more than two months into a Middle East war that has caused fuel prices to surge, congressional leaders were not throwing any weight behind legislative proposals, preferring instead to wait and see whether Trump will make a more direct appeal to Congress.

— WARSH POISED FOR RECORD LOW BIPARTISAN SUPPORT: The Senate’s vote Wednesday on Kevin Warsh’s nomination to lead the Federal Reserve is poised to be the most partisan of any Fed chair ever. While some Democrats say they were impressed with Warsh in their private meetings, few are expected to back him, largely because they think he’s doing Trump’s bidding.

Meredith Lee Hill, Kelsey Brugger, Jordain Carney, Andres Picon, Pavan Acharya, Amelia Davidson, Jasper Goodman and Sam Sutton contributed to this report.

Americans are furious about the rising cost of living, and a series of internal battles on Capitol Hill this week is laying bare why Republicans are struggling to do anything about it.

House and Senate Republicans are facing divisions over a gas-tax holiday being demanded by President Donald Trump, not to mention housing and energy permitting bills that have stalled for months.

Meanwhile, a long-term immigration enforcement bill that could be the last major piece of GOP legislation before the midterms has become engulfed by the inclusion of a billion-dollar Secret Service funding request that has put a spotlight on Trump’s controversial White House ballroom project.

The scale of the political challenges facing Republicans were further underscored Tuesday with the administration’s latest cost estimate for the Iran war surpassing $29 billion and a brutal inflation report showing gas, grocery and housing prices surging last month amid the conflict.

“I don’t know that the Congress is doing a whole lot — that’s the real issue,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “My advice to Congress would be, it might be good for us to do something on cost of living. … It seems like voters are making it very clear that they want some relief.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) also offered a blunt assessment of the optics the party is facing as they try to approve the Secret Service funding, which can be used for parts of Trump’s ballroom project, as Americans deal with high gas prices

“Not good,” she said.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran met with Senate Republicans Tuesday to make the case for his agency’s staggering request, but several GOP senators said afterward that they aren’t satisfied with the explanations administration officials have so far provided.

Even some senior House Republicans are airing public doubts about the security funding — about $220 million of which could end up being spent as part of the ballroom project, according to a breakdown given to senators and obtained by Blue Light News.

House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said in an interview Tuesday he did not doubt the need for additional security for Trump and other Secret Service protectees but would “reserve judgment” on the $1 billion request as he seeks an “itemized” list of what it would fund.

“I hope it’s narrowly tailored to getting [immigration enforcement] funded and restoring the safety and security of the American people,” said Arrington, who initially wanted affordability and other measures added to the party-line bill.

Curran’s visit to Capitol Hill Tuesday was part of a White House lobbying blitz for the security funding, with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and White House legislative affairs director James Braid making pitches to other groups of Republicans in closed-door meetings Tuesday and Wednesday.

One member granted anonymity to speak candidly said it could get “ugly” with the White House seemingly determined to get it done despite GOP lawmakers’ protests. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a key centrist, said in an interview Tuesday that the $1 billion request was simply “not happening here” in the House.

Republicans believe they’ve already taken some steps to address cost-of-living concerns, including the tax cuts included in last year’s “big, beautiful bill” that they hope Americans are beginning to feel benefits from.

But the ballroom security squabble has handed Democrats something they view as a potent political cudgel heading into November.

“Instead of listening to the American people, Donald Trump and the GOP put forward a reconciliation bill that would force Americans to pay for Trump’s billion-dollar-ballroom and tens of billions of dollars more for Trump’s masked agents while including zero — zero — dollars to bring down Americans’ costs,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

The issue for congressional Republicans is that many of the ideas currently being batted around to address high prices divide their ranks, giving them an unclear path to Trump’s desk.

Senate Republicans pointed to a long-brewing permitting overhaul Tuesday as a way to potentially reduce energy costs — but the proposal has remained just out of reach for years now. And, according to two attendees, GOP senators urged Speaker Mike Johnson to pass their housing bill without changes, believing it could give the party a quick way to show voters they hear their concerns.

“I think it gets at the core issue, the heart of the matter for most voters, which is affordability,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said about the need to pass the housing bill.

The closed-door lunch came after a group of GOP senators met with Trump Monday at the White House, where they discussed the fate of a housing bill that passed the Senate on an 89-10 vote in March. Afterward, Trump went on Truth Social and urged Congress to quickly pass the legislation.

But House Republican leaders are signaling they want to make further changes, which would require it to be passed in the Senate a second time — even though White House officials are strongly pushing back on that idea.

“I’d just be happy if they do something,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Tuesday, blaming “one or two” House Republicans for the impasse: “They’ve been holding it up since God was a baby. Their reasons for holding it up run from substantive to ‘my dog ate my homework.’”

Trump, for his part, has made a series of comments that have only fueled accusations that his party isn’t focused enough on affordability.

Asked Tuesday as he left the White House for his overseas trip to China whether Americans’ finances figured into his approach to the Iran conflict, he gave an answer Democrats immediately pounced on.

“I don’t think about America’s financial situation,” he said. “I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump did, however, throw his support behind a modest cost-of-living measure Monday, saying he wanted to suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax to alleviate Iran-related price hikes.

House GOP leaders, however, are not thrilled with the idea. They are hoping the White House finds a way for Trump to take some steps to lower gas prices through executive actions and leave Congress out of it, according to five people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations.

There are also scores of Republicans, for instance, who publicly admonished then-President Joe Biden for floating the same idea amid in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and, in the words of one of the people, would have to “eat shit” if they go back on that position now.

Thune didn’t rule out an eventual vote on a gas-tax holiday, but he characterized proposals from Hawley and others as “trial balloons.” He suggested the move could impact highway projects without meaningfully lowering gas prices.“The question is, would it get passed on to the consumer … or would it get absorbed in the supply chain somehow?” he said.

Johnson told reporters Tuesday suspending the federal gas tax was an “intriguing” idea but added that Republicans have to work through any “unintended consequences” of such a move and will continue to discuss it.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was also noncommittal: “Obviously we all want to see gas prices come back down, and when the Iran conflict is resolved, they will, and they’ll come down quickly. I don’t think anybody disputes that.”

“You’re seeing the president work really hard to try to get this resolved,” he added. “Hopefully it’s soon.”

But the top Republicans may be forced into action as rank-and-file backers of a gas-tax holiday, such as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), arguing Congress needs to act quickly to pass a bill before the Memorial Day recess starts in just over a week.

That sense of urgency is not shared by other GOP lawmakers who view a gas-tax holiday as an ineffective Band-Aid — including Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), who compared it to “taking aspirin for cancer,” and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who identified a more consequential driver of high prices.

“I think instead of suspending the tax, we should suspend the war,” he said.

Mia McCarthy, Riley Rogerson and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Nebraska Democrat Cindy Burbank defeated anti-abortion pastor Bill Forbes in the state’s Senate primary, giving independent Dan Osborn a clearer path against Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) in November.

Burbank was bolstered by some late spending from the state’s Democratic Party, which is backing Osborn in the Republican-heavy state. She’s expected to drop out of the race following her primary victory Tuesday.

“William Forbes is not running to serve Nebraskans. He is running to trick voters,” Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said in March. “The Nebraska Democratic Party made a deliberate, principled decision not to field a candidate in the US Senate race.”

Her win helps boost Osborn, who came within seven points of defeating GOP Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024.

And it ends what has been a weird, prolonged battle in the state, which included accusations from Osborn allies that Forbes was only running so he could stay on the ballot and split the Democratic vote in the fall to boost Ricketts. Ricketts has denied any association with Forbes.

Burbank was initially axed from the ballot entirely by the GOP secretary of state because she had no intention to run this fall, but she sued the state in order to get her ballot access restored.