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{"id":25754,"date":"2026-07-13T12:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-grahams-death-makes-a-hard-month-harder\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:02:15","slug":"capitol-agenda-grahams-death-makes-a-hard-month-harder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-grahams-death-makes-a-hard-month-harder\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Graham\u2019s death makes a hard month harder"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Republicans are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/12\/lindsey-graham-death-tributes-reaction-00994101\" target=\"_blank\">mourning\u00a0the death<\/a> of Sen. Lindsey Graham while grappling with his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/12\/lindsey-graham-death-senate-agenda-00994116\" target=\"_blank\">absence\u2019s sweeping impact\u00a0<\/a>on their agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Funeral arrangements for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/12\/grahams-office-releases-preliminary-cause-of-death-00994310\" target=\"_blank\">four-term<\/a> South Carolina lawmaker have not yet been set, and could further disrupt lawmakers\u2019 brief voting schedule in Washington before leaving for August recess. But Graham\u2019s position as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/12\/trump-lindsey-graham-senate-whisperer-00994269\" target=\"_blank\">power broker between<\/a> the Senate and President Donald Trump puts the fate of several legislative priorities in question.<\/p>\n<p>Most immediately this week, GOP leaders had been counting on Graham to help rally support behind Trump\u2019s nominee for attorney general, Todd Blanche, with a handful of fellow Republicans at risk of withholding their vote. Blanche is set to testify this week with hopes of being confirmed by the first week of August.<\/p>\n<p>Graham\u2019s death also brings Senate Republicans\u2019 already narrow majority to 52-47 \u2014 and functionally even narrower as the return of Sen. Mitch McConnell \u2014 who released a lengthy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/12\/mcconnell-provides-health-update-i-have-every-intention-of-finishing-the-job-00994320\" target=\"_blank\">health statement yesterday<\/a> \u2014 remains to be determined.<\/p>\n<p>That tight margin may also further jeopardize the fate of the annual defense policy bill, which leadership had planned to bring to the floor this week as a major goal of the July legislative sprint. Graham was set to play a key role during floor debate as Democrats threaten to abandon the typically bipartisan legislation (more on that below).<\/p>\n<p>Also pressing: Graham\u2019s death is a setback for a new party-line spending package with a $350 billion boost in defense funding amid the Iran war, especially as the Pentagon warns Republicans about potential lapses in troop pay. As Budget chair, Graham would\u2019ve led the chamber\u2019s effort, which was already facing steep odds.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Ron Johnson is next in line to wield the Budget gavel and on Sunday said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/12\/ron-johnson-prepared-to-take-over-senate-budget-committee-after-grahams-death-00994167\" target=\"_blank\">he\u2019s prepared<\/a> to take over. Unlike Graham, Johnson is much more mindful of deficits than bulking up the Pentagon budget.<\/p>\n<p>And looking ahead to next Congress: Graham had tentatively been up next to take up the Judiciary gavel after Sen. Chuck Grassley terms out. That means Sen. Mike Lee would be next in line \u2014 if he wanted to give up his post as chair of Energy and Natural Resources.<\/p>\n<p>Jockeying to replace Graham in both the short and long term has quietly begun. The GOP will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/12\/house-republicans-fight-lindsey-graham-appointment-00994123\" target=\"_blank\">have to run in a snap<\/a> primary to replace Graham on the ballot in South Carolina, which is set to take place on Aug. 11.<\/p>\n<p>Senior House Republicans quickly began lobbying behind the scenes against picking a member of the House for Graham\u2019s seat to finish out this Congress, since it would shave down an already tiny majority, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to describe private conversations.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 VANCE HUDDLES WITH HOUSE GOP AS FLOOR REMAINS FROZEN: <\/b>Vice President JD Vance will speak with House Republicans Tuesday morning and encourage them to reopen the floor and advance Trump\u2019s agenda. Conference Chair Lisa McClain invited Vance to the House GOP Members Conference at the RNC to deliver remarks and take questions.<br \/>House GOP leaders have asked the White House for help leaning on Republican holdouts who are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/13\/house-floor-blockade-anna-paulina-luna-00993649\" target=\"_blank\">blocking floor business with demands ranging<\/a> from passage of the SAVE America Act to a House vote on immigration policies, according to two people granted anonymity to comment on internal discussions.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 NDAA IN JEOPARDY AS SENATE DEMS DEFECT<\/b>: Senate Democrats are currently on track to block the annual defense policy bill over frustrations about the Iran war and Congress\u2019 absence in authorizing it, two Senate Democratic aides, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Blue Light News. Senate Republicans are expected to bring the must-pass measure to the floor this week, which would force Democrats to take a difficult vote. The vote was teed up before Graham\u2019s death, which could complicate the schedule. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democrats.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/dear_colleague_71326.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><u>letter to colleagues<\/u><\/a> Monday morning criticized Trump\u2019s military funding requests, saying Republicans \u201care pushing to advance the annual NDAA while refusing to negotiate on the President\u2019s bloated, partisan topline budget request.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Katherine Tully-McManus, Jordain Carney, Chris Marquette, Adam Wren, Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy, Kyle Cheney, Alec Hernandez<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republicans are mourning\u00a0the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham while grappling with his absence\u2019s sweeping impact\u00a0on their agenda. Funeral arrangements for the four-term South Carolina lawmaker have not yet been set, and could further disrupt lawmakers\u2019 brief voting schedule in Washington before leaving for August recess. But Graham\u2019s position as a power broker between the Senate [&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-25754","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\/25754","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=25754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}