Republicans return to Capitol Hill with agenda complicated by Graham death

A view of the US Capitol in Washington DC. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen A view of the US Capitol in Washington DC. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Republicans return to Capitol Hill with agenda complicated by Graham death Lawmakers face obstacles, including demands from Trump, Mitch McConnell’s absence and Graham’s sudden death Republican lawmakers return to the Capitol this week facing a lengthy to-do list and Donald Trump’s demands for new voting restrictions, as Democrats jockey for an advantage ahead of the November midterm elections. Lawmakers from both parties are eager to highlight before voters legislative victories ahead of the midterms, where control of Congress is at stake. But for Senate Republicans, who are already navigating an array of demands from Trump, their agenda grew further complicated over the weekend with the death of Lindsey Graham , the budget committee chair who is a key player in negotiating a party line bill to fund additional defense spending and other priorities outlined by the president. Lindsey Graham, key ally of Donald Trump, dies after sudden illness aged 71 Read more Together with the ongoing absence of Mitch McConnell for unexplained health issues, Senate Republicans will have to navigate a majority that’s down two members, though South Carolina’s governor was expected to appoint a replacement for Graham in the coming days. Republicans in both chambers remain confounded by Trump’s renewed fixation on the Save America Act, which would ban mail-in ballots and impose new rules on voting nationwide. The measure, a version of which was approved by the House of Representatives earlier this year almost entirely with Republican votes, has no path through the Senate, where it faces opposition from Democrats and some in the GOP. But those obstacles have not stopped the president from refusing to sign a major housing bill supported by both parties in protest of the lack of progress on Save America, nor his allies in the right wing of the GOP to hold up the House’s business while insisting that the Senate’s Republican leaders change the chamber’s rules to push through the president’s priority legislation. The standoff forced Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker, to send the House into its independence day recess earlier than expected last month, and denied the president’s allies an opportunity to trumpet passage of the housing legislation, which went into effect on Saturday without Trump’s signature . It has also complicated the renewal of a key foreign surveillance law, which expired in June after a compromise measure to extend it was voted down, with Democrats rebelling over Trump’s appointment of an inexperienced loyalist as acting director of national intelligence. While Trump has since nominated US attorney Jay Clayton as the permanent director, he quickly scuppered his confirmation hearing and tied renewal of the surveillance law to passage of the Save America Act. Congress