Saddled by infighting, Donald Trump's demands and a GOP House speaker who can’t get his caucus to agree on anything, Senate Republicans are looking at a long summer devoid of any legislation that could bolster their standing with voters in November.
House leaders have lost control of their chamber with just eight legislative days left before a planned five-week recess, leaving Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R_SD) staring down the reality that their pre-midterm agenda is essentially dead. Major legislation is piling up, and Trump's "series of mercurial power moves" keep shifting the goalposts, and Senate Republicans are increasingly "frustrated and morose."
According to Politico, Congress is officially settling in for a "do-nothing summer."
On Wednesday, rank-and-file House members and committee chairs huddled in Johnson's office, scrambling to plot a path forward on a long-shot policy bill under the party-line reconciliation process. Even Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, acknowledged "hope is fading fast."
"After this recess, if it doesn't happen in the first couple of days, then I think it's in real trouble," Pfluger told Politico.
The dysfunction extends across multiple fronts. Trump is demanding Congress approve billions in emergency funding for the Iran war—but key Republicans left a classified Pentagon briefing Wednesday "frustrated by unanswered questions" after demanding specifics on how the requested $67 billion would be spent and whether servicemembers' paychecks and munitions stockpiles are endangered.
Meanwhile, hard-liners are still putting up roadblocks complicating the GOP agenda over the SAVE America Act, and they're furious that Johnson hasn't acted on an immigration measure he promised weeks ago. Johnson held a call Wednesday with Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and other members, but reportedly made little progress.
The result is gridlock on every front, the Politico report noted.
"We shouldn't be leaving town," Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) lamented to Politico. "We ought to be working, and we're not doing it."