Congress
Darline Graham is sworn in to her brother’s Senate seat
Darline Graham has officially filled the South Carolina Senate seat left vacant by the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) swore Graham in just after 2:30 p.m. Tuesday on the Senate floor amid applause from colleagues and staff. Graham was escorted on the floor by Sens. Tim Scott (S.C.) and Katie Britt (Ala.). She shook Grassley’s hand but did not make a separate speech.
Republicans’ swift move to fill the late senator’s seat maintains the party’s already slim margin in the chamber as it tries to advance priorities before August recess.
Graham — who makes history as the first woman to represent South Carolina in the Senate — is not a politician and little is known about her policy stances. She previously headed up the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, which connects people who are blind or have low vision to resources in the state.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled Tuesday Graham could choose to stay on her brother’s committees after his sudden death. The late Graham served on Senate Budget, Judiciary, Appropriations and Environment and Public Works.
“We’ll figure out which of his committees she wants to stay on, and then we’ll go from there,” Thune told reporters.
Republicans close to the Graham family said despite the fact that her career has mostly unfolded outside of political offices, she has much in common with her late brother.
Scott Farmer, a longtime former campaign manager for her brother, said Graham’s work over the past several years has focused on streamlining work at the agency and protecting taxpayer dollars.
Farmer, who had a meeting with Graham Monday, said she shares her brother’s views “on most topics” and that both had a sense of loyalty and fiscal conservatism.
“She’s less of an extrovert than Senator Graham, but they’re both strongly grounded and opinionated,” Farmer added.
Kevin Bishop, who served as late senator’s communications director for over 25 years until 2024, said in an interview people will be “pleasantly surprised” at her similarities with her brother.
Bishop said she closely followed his work and had been involved in his campaigns so “this is not going to be a babe-in-the-woods kind of thing.”
Many Republicans Monday said they hadn’t yet met Graham’s sister but a handful, including Sens. Roger Marshall (Kansas) and Mike Rounds (S.D.) and South Carolina Reps. Joe Wilson and Sheri Biggs, said they knew her and believed she’s a good fit to carry out his legacy.
Wilson and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) were present on the Senate floor for Graham’s swearing in.
“She’s going to do exactly what Lindsey would have wanted her to do, and I’ve got no doubt about that,” said a person close to the Graham family, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
“She is her own person, and certainly has lived as private a life as she can, being a sister to Lindsey Graham. But … they’re cut from the same cloth.”
Graham is set to serve the remainder of her brother’s term, and an Aug. 11 primary election is underway to select a Republican candidate to run for the seat in the next Congress.
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) ongoing absence from the Capitol is threatening to derail Senate Republicans’ hopes of advancing a long-awaited farm bill before the August recess.
Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) has promised a committee markup within the four weeks before lawmakers leave Washington, but attendance concerns and a narrow window to advance legislation are raising doubts about that timeline.
McConnell’s weekslong hospitalization presents a unique challenge for Boozman’s plans: Republicans won’t have enough votes without McConnell to advance the legislation out of committee along party lines, and Democrats have vowed to oppose the bill because it does not include their top policy demands.
“We’re concerned about Senator McConnell, and so hopefully that will be such that he can participate in the markup,” Boozman said Tuesday, adding that he was still “working on” scheduling the committee’s markup.
McConnell has been hospitalized for nearly a month after falling and suffering from what he described as a mild case of pneumonia. In a statement released Sunday, McConnell said that he will return to the Senate after his recovery but did not specify when that could occur.
Senate Republicans are also dealing with scheduling limits due to a packed policy agenda that leaders have lined up for the next four weeks.
“McConnell’s vote is needed, but that is not the only reason we haven’t scheduled a markup,” said one person close to the conversations, who was granted anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes talks.
Negotiations are also still ongoing to find a bipartisan path forward for the legislation that Boozman released in June, and Republicans have billed the package as a necessary group of policy updates that could help shore up rural support ahead of November’s midterms.
The chair’s proposal rejects Democrat demands that the package delay the start date for states to begin sharing the cost of providing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Democrats have said they won’t vote for a farm bill that doesn’t push the implementation date.
Boozman told Blue Light News on Tuesday that he’s “trying to see if we need to modify” the bill to include Democrats’ SNAP cost-share delay and talking to state officials and Senate leadership about the potential change.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are negotiating an agriculture priority that industry groups have lobbied for: as much as $20 billion in economic aid for farmers that could be passed through Republicans’ reconciliation package.
Boozman has been a key player in the negotiations and has looked to include the financial support in a military supplemental package the White House has requested from Congress. The aid has become a top priority of the agriculture industry as farmers grapple with trade uncertainty, severe weather, high production costs and other challenges.
He said Tuesday that he’d support putting the aid in any moving vehicle, whether that’s a supplemental package or reconciliation bill.
“The farmers need this help yesterday,” Boozman said.
Sen. Andy Kim is circulating a draft kids’ online safety bill that would require operating system providers such as Apple and Google to collect users’ ages for use by app developers, three people familiar with the proposal told Blue Light News.
The new bill, named the Digital Age Assurance Act of 2026, mirrors an eponymous California law that received widespread support from tech companies including Google, Meta and Snap, according to a Blue Light News review of the legislative text.
Kim (D-N.J.) has been searching for a Senate co-sponsor and collecting feedback from online safety groups and has received support from industry groups, according to two of the people. All three people were granted anonymity to disclose details of private discussions.
Kim has championed technology policy legislation in Congress, including a bipartisan June proposal that seeks to rein in quantum technology exports to China. He sits on the Senate’s Commerce and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees.
Unlike other bills under consideration on Blue Light News, the Digital Age Assurance Act would require users to input their ages, but not mandate that app stores or other platforms independently verify users’ ages or obtain parental consent before minors download apps or make purchases.
The senator’s proposal comes as child online safety legislation returns to the spotlight on Capitol Hill, with another age verification proposal, the App Store Accountability Act, under discussion for inclusion in a package of online child safety bills being negotiated by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and the White House.
Meta previously indicated it would drop opposition to the Kids Online Safety Act, a centerpiece of Blackburn’s proposal, if the ASAA was included alongside narrow preemption of state AI laws.
The Digital Age Assurance Act would require companies that make operating systems to collect users’ ages when they establish an account, according to the draft text. Age ranges would also be sent by the operating system to app developers to block certain users from accessing content that is deemed to not be age appropriate.
If the user says they are younger than 18 years old, parents would be required to create the account on their behalf, according to the proposal.
Some child online safety groups have expressed concerns about the draft text, according to two of the people, as it would only require users to self-identify their age — a measure that can be circumvented if a minor lies about their birthday. The ASAA, meanwhile, would require app stores to verify users’ ages using a “commercially available method or process that is reasonably designed to ensure accuracy.”
The Digital Age Assurance Act would also ban targeted advertising for minors and allow the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to engage in enforcement actions against companies they believe are violating this act.
Kim, Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the proposal.
House GOP leaders managed to end a weekslong internal rebellion and reestablish control of the floor Tuesday after Republicans united to tee up debate on several major bills.
The 215-211 procedural vote came after different blocs of holdouts spent weeks trying to pressure party leaders into taking steps to enact the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act and to act on a bill codifying President Donald Trump’s border and immigration policies.
Only one Republican broke ranks Tuesday, Rep. Randy Fine of Florida, and the House is now set to vote this week on fiscal 2027 funding for the State Department and overseas programs, a veterans bill and a measure instituting year-round daylight savings time.
The vote is also an encouraging sign for the fresh party-line budget reconciliation bill Speaker Mike Johnson wants to advance this month. Leaders are hoping to have a fiscal blueprint out of committee as soon as this week and ready for floor consideration later in the month.
To appease Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and other lawmakers agitating for Senate passage of the SAVE America Act, Johnson used the procedural measure approved Tuesday to attach the elections bill to the State Department funding bill before it is sent over to the Senate.
Luna previously rejected a similar gambit, prompting Johnson to start a July 4 holiday recess early, but on Monday she said she would back the approach and vote to unfreeze the floor.
Once the House passes the appropriations bill, as is expected this week, the SAVE America Act will be automatically appended to it. The Senate, however, could move its own version of the bill without the elections piece or simply strip it out due to the lack of support there.
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