Second GOP-only bill faces new flash points

The Iran war, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, and President Trump’s demands for voting reforms are putting pressure on Republicans who were hoping to use a second shot at a GOP-only budget bill to pursue conservative priorities ahead of the midterms.

None of those three factors were at play when GOP conservatives started calling for taking a second shot at a budget reconciliation bill — which uses a special process that bypasses the need to get Democratic support to meet the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.

Now, they are set to become the central focus of the bill — a dynamic that both creates a catalyst for action and creates more potential points of GOP division.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) struck an optimistic tone when asked about the shift in priorities.

“We can walk and chew gum and solve world peace at the same time,” Scalise said. “And we have to do all of those things. And some of those things can be done through reconciliation.”

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), the chair of the Senate Budget Committee that will be key to moving such a package, said on X on Wednesday morning that that his panel will “expeditiously move toward creating a second budget reconciliation bill” that will “make sure there is adequate funding to secure our homeland and to support our men and women in the military” and to “keep our elections secure and fair.”

He was alluding to using the process to usher through an expected White House request for supplemental Pentagon funding; the possibility of funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if Senate Democrats agree to separately fund the rest of DHS; and trying to enact portions of the SAVE America Act that........

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