Senate returns to packed agenda after Graham's death shrinks GOP margin
Nominations, renewed fighting in Iran, government funding and President Donald Trump's flagship election bill await the Senate as it returns this week.The upper chamber is coming back after a more...
By Fox News · Fox News
Nominations, renewed fighting in Iran, government funding and President Donald Trump's flagship election bill await the Senate as it returns this week. The upper chamber is coming back after a more than two-week hiatus to sprint through the remainder of July and march into the first week of August. And priorities have piled up, be it over divisions between the aisles or within the Senate GOP. Adding to the uphill climb is the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., meaning that Republicans will be down one key vote in their push to move Trump's agenda. Senate Majority Leader John Thune , R-S.D., will be put to the task of keeping his conference together, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats are likely to look for any fractures they can in the GOP’s unity to slow down Trump’s agenda. TRUMP HOLDS WASHINGTON HOSTAGE OVER SAVE ACT AS MIDTERM CLOCK TICKS ON GOP CONTROL But Trump has done his part to derail some aspects of his own agenda, much of it over his determination to force Republicans to pass his flagship election integrity legislation, the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. He already refused to sign a massive, bipartisan housing package in protest of the stalled legislation and now wants the GOP to attach the SAVE America Act to the perennial, must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which needs Democratic votes to pass. Adding the voter bill to the military funding authorization package would all but guarantee no Democrats would support it. Republicans hope to begin the process on the NDAA in July and fear that trying to attach the SAVE America Act would just hand Schumer and Democrats leverage. "We really empower the Democrats to have a reason to be able to stop stuff that otherwise they would probably have to vote for, whether it's the NDAA, whether it's an appropriations bill or whatever," Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital. TRUMP REFUSES TO SIGN BIPARTISAN HOUSING BILL IN P…