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 implements proof-of-citizenship and voter ID requirements.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday that supplemental funding for the Pentagon due to strikes in Iran would “probably” be part of a second reconciliation bill, and that he is “glad” the Senate is moving forward on one. But he was cool to the idea of splitting up DHS funding, calling on Senate Democrats to fund the entire department.

Republicans used the budget reconciliation process for a megabill of GOP tax cuts and funding boosts immigration enforcement and the Pentagon last year, and a number of conservatives have hoped to use it again for more GOP items.

Still, a second such bill has long been thought to be a heavy lift in the House, where Johnson would need to get near-unanimous support in his fractious conference and its sometimes competing priorities. Two Republicans voted against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year; Johnson can now afford to lose only one vote.

The Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House, in January put out a framework for a package focused on affordability.

Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), chair of the RSC, said that the caucus is open to including a Pentagon boost and other matters in a reconciliation bill. But he added: “I don’t think it can be a sole issue.”

“We need to codify the President’s agenda. We need to do what he promised and what we promised the American public, which includes the items that we put in our framework on housing and health care and affordability,” Pfluger said.

Skeptics of a second reconciliation bill doubted there would be a big enough pressure point to push the House GOP conference to rally behind a second reconciliation bill – as a tax cut expiration deadline did last year.

But House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) hopes that a coming Pentagon supplemental funding request will be the catalyst to make such a package happen.

“It’s not always that the defense hawks and budget hawks lock arms on something,” Arrington said. But doing so will enable Republicans to “walk this thing forward together in a way that I think is going to be the kind of momentum you need.”

Arrington, a fiscal hawk, is among those clamoring to use a second reconciliation bill to reign in federal spending, including by addressing alleged fraud in federal programs. He said he has been in communication with Graham about a reconciliation package, and on Wednesday met with his Senate counterpart to discuss the path forward.

“I may be more inclined on the fiscal reform side. He may be more inclined on the defense spending side,” Arrington said of his priorities versus those of Graham.

Ahead of the meeting, Arrington said he expects an initial committee action on a reconciliation package would have to happen within weeks rather than months.

But Republicans are starting to show cracks in their support for the Iran war — a dynamic that could threaten a reconciliation package that will need near-unanimous support from the super-slim House GOP majority. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said this week that she will not vote for supplemental Pentagon funding if the U.S. puts boots on the ground in Iran.

There are also questions about how many voting provisions could be addressed in a reconciliation bill, since the process has restrictions on addressing policy matters versus budget matters.

Many conservatives have fumed at the talk of putting SAVE America Act provisions in a reconciliation bill, saying it is not a feasible way of getting its key provisions to President Trump’s desk.

“The Senate is actually lying to the American people. The SAVE America Act cannot pass through budget reconciliation, and they think you’re stupid,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who also posted that she would “be a NO on reconciliation.”

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