Mr. Graham died while serving as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. The Senate Budget Committee is an important committee, and important bills are being introduced one after another.
WASHINGTON – The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham over the weekend sent shockwaves through the Capitol, with lawmakers reeling from the early hours of the morning at the news of their longtime colleague’s unexpected passing.
It also created a critical vacancy at the top of a key Senate committee that is shaping up to be the architect of some of the most significant legislation impacting American lives.
The South Carolina Republican was the powerful chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. This panel may sound like just another weird corner of Congress, but it’s much more than that.
It’s also the site of President Donald Trump’s biggest legislative victory of his second term. Unlike other bills in the Senate, which require 60 votes, the budget bill only requires a simple majority to pass.
Congressional Republicans have become increasingly accustomed to shoving big partisan bills through crucial budget committees at President Trump’s behest. They have used this process known as “reconciliation” to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending and send $70 billion to ICE and Border Patrol.
Just days ago, the president again directed the House and Senate appropriations committees to pass a $350 billion Pentagon funding injection in the coming months, all in addition to a long-term effort to pass voting restriction legislation.
Whoever replaces Mr. Graham at the top of the Budget Committee will likely play, or attempt to play, a key role in realizing Republican priorities.
Long-serving Republican senators on the committee include Mike Crapo of Idaho and Chuck Grassley of Iowa. However, both men are already chairs of other important committees. There’s also Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas. The Republicans are Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.
Graham leads ‘big, beautiful bill’ and funding for ICE
Before his death on July 11, Graham helped push two major Republican policy achievements over the finish line.
The first was the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” which was later renamed by Republicans as the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. A year ago, a major domestic policy bill was passed that significantly changed the shape of the country, from cutting Medicaid and food stamps to overhauling federal student loans.
Democrats often refer to this as the “big, ugly bill.”
The second bill Mr. Graham helped steer was the Safer America Act, which injected $70 billion in additional funding to federal immigration enforcement agencies. It passed both chambers of Congress earlier this summer, despite a boycott by Democrats who said they wanted major reforms to ICE.
On the night Republicans approved the bill in the Senate, Graham accused Democrats of obstructing the normally bipartisan process of diverting federal funds. In his view, that defiance forced the Republican Party to take extreme measures and go it alone.
“Why are we here? Through the normal spending process, Democrats will not give a dime to Border Patrol or ICE,” he said on the Senate floor. “That didn’t work.”
Zachary Schermele is USA TODAY’s Congressional Correspondent. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social..
