President Donald Trump\u2019s obsession with the SAVE America Act has hurled Congress into indefinite gridlock.<\/p>\n

Senators are gone until July 13 after starting their Independence Day recess a few days early.<\/p>\n

Now House Republican lawmakers are looking toward Speaker Mike Johnson, who will Thursday head to the White House to try to convince the president to salvage the GOP\u2019s legislative agenda.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s insistence Congress pass the controversial election security legislation has ground both chambers to a halt.<\/p>\n

The deadlock threatens to derail a host of other legislative efforts Republicans and the White House hoped to complete in the coming weeks, including a sweeping reconciliation bill filled with potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in Iran war military funding, billions of dollars in relief for farmers, fiscal 2027 funding bills and the annual defense policy bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to celebrate victories, not come up with reasons why we failed,\u201d Sen. Kevin Cramer said in an interview, joining other Republicans in venting frustration<\/a> after Trump scrapped a planned signing of a major housing affordability bill Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve demonstrated a lot of dysfunction lately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s explosive lunch with Trump and GOP senators probably didn\u2019t help<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president came to the Capitol to do what he thinks Senate Republican leadership can\u2019t do: flip votes on SAVE and nuking the filibuster,\u201d a senior Senate GOP aide told Jordain.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe left with the same number of votes that existed when he arrived \u2014 possibly fewer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now eyes are on Johnson, who has lost control of the floor as hard-liners demand the Senate pass the elections overhaul.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s keeping the House in session ahead of his 2 p.m. Trump meeting in hopes of salvaging<\/a> plans to put several bills on the floor this week \u2014 including a pair of fiscal 2027 spending measures.<\/p>\n

But if Johnson and Trump can\u2019t reach a compromise, GOP leadership may cancel all votes for the remainder of the week and next week, too.<\/p>\n

That would further imperil their plans for another party-line reconciliation bill and the $88 billion supplement funding request<\/a> the White House transmitted Wednesday.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 JOHNSON’S PITCH FOR RECON 3.0 FALLS SHORT: <\/b>House GOP leaders are trying to make good on their promise to advance a long-shot<\/u><\/a>, party-line package of conservative priorities by arguing it\u2019s the only chance to pass pieces of Trump\u2019s doomed elections bill. So far, their pitch is falling short. Members who attended a meeting with House Budget Republicans Wednesday argued the REAL ID grant program Johnson proposed was no substitute for enacting the full SAVE America Act. And fiscal hawks on the panel warned they would oppose any budget resolution unless it\u2019s paid for on a yearly basis, and without budgeting gimmicks.<\/p>\n

\u2014 TRUMP’S $88B ASK FOR IRAN WAR, FARM AID: <\/b>The White House sent Congress Wednesday a much-awaited request<\/a> for emergency funding to cover military operations in Iran, farm assistance and disaster assistance. But the proposal could complicate House Republicans\u2019 pursuit of a third party-line spending package, which was supposed to be centered around $350 billion in defense funding that Democrats wouldn\u2019t support. The request for tens of billions of dollars in extra war spending comes as the House Appropriations panel Wednesday advanced a $1.1 trillion base budget<\/u><\/a> plan for the Pentagon. Taken together, the three efforts represent a record-breaking roughly $1.5 trillion military budget, about a 50 percent hike from this year\u2019s level.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney, Mia McCarthy, Meredith Lee Hill, Connor O’Brien and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"