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{"id":25718,"date":"2026-07-12T17:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ron-johnson-prepared-to-take-over-senate-budget-committee-after-grahams-death\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T17:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:02:14","slug":"ron-johnson-prepared-to-take-over-senate-budget-committee-after-grahams-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ron-johnson-prepared-to-take-over-senate-budget-committee-after-grahams-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Johnson \u2018prepared\u2019 to take over Senate Budget Committee after Graham\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Wisconsin Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/151822\" data-person-id=\"151822\">Ron Johnson<\/a> is poised to take over the Budget Committee in the wake of Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/12\/lindsey-graham-dies-republican-us-senator-south-carolina-00994070\" target=\"_blank\">sudden death<\/a> late Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The third-term Republican is effectively next in line to wield the committee gavel. Two more senior Republicans, Sens. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51187\" data-person-id=\"51187\">Chuck Grassley<\/a> of Iowa and <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51173\" data-person-id=\"51173\">Mike Crapo<\/a> of Idaho, are expected to keep their respective positions atop the Judiciary and Finance panels.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Senator Johnson is prepared to serve as budget chair when announced,\u201d spokesperson Grace Carnathan said in response to a question about whether he would seek the panel\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson\u2019s ascension would need to be ratified by the Senate Republican Conference and the full Senate, steps that are typically taken with little fanfare.<\/p>\n<p>As Budget Committee chair, <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51186\" data-person-id=\"51186\">Graham<\/a> played a key role in Republicans&#8217; two filibuster-skirting reconciliation bills this Congress \u2014 last year\u2019s tax-cuts-focused megabill and this year\u2019s effort to fund immigration enforcement for the remainder of President Donald Trump\u2019s term.<\/p>\n<p>Claiming the Budget gavel would put Johnson in the middle of the debate over a third attempt at a party-line reconciliation bill.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, a fiscal hawk who previously called for deep spending cuts during last year\u2019s megabill debate, has been supportive of a third bill. But like many Senate Republicans, he has expressed skepticism it will come together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is poised to take over the Budget Committee in the wake of Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s sudden death late Saturday. The third-term Republican is effectively next in line to wield the committee gavel. Two more senior Republicans, Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Mike Crapo of Idaho, are expected to keep their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}