WASHINGTON — Still shaken from the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Senate Republicans returned to Washington on Monday and were immediately forced to confront the policy and political complications caused by his absence.

Coupled with the extended leave of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who was hospitalized last month and has not said when he will return to the Senate, Graham’s death Saturday has created further difficulties for an election-year legislative agenda that already faced significant hurdles.

The loss of Graham and the absence of McConnell have temporarily whittled down an already slim Republican majority and are threatening to stall spending bills, a major budget measure the party had hoped to use to push through hundreds of billions of dollars of military spending, and at least one crucial nomination.

It also left uncertain the fate of a new package of sanctions against Russia that Graham had negotiated in the days leading up to his death, which now lacks its most influential Republican champion in the Senate.

In the coming days, Senate Republicans had hoped to quickly confirm President Donald Trump’s pick as attorney general, Todd Blanche, whose confirmation hearings are set for Wednesday and Thursday. They are also eager to pass annual spending bills before a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government. And with the midterms looming, many Republicans are hoping to find a way to push through sweeping policy initiatives in an arcane budget process known as reconciliation that allows them to skirt a Democratic filibuster.

All of those are up in the air with the loss of Graham. He sat on the Appropriations and Judiciary committees, where Republicans could now find themselves short of a majority to approve legislation or nominations, and was the chair of the Budget Committee, which would drive the reconciliation process.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the majority leader, who was a longtime friend of Graham’s dating to their early years together in the House, had already been skeptical that he and his fellow Republicans could push through a politically charged, one-party budget bill so close to the November election.

“Obviously there are a lot of considerations that we have to work through: how big it is, what the offsets are, what our limitations are,” Thune said. “To get that done and get the requisite number of votes in both the House and Senate will be a heavy lift.”

Thune and other senators were visibly affected by the death, and Graham’s Senate desk was draped in black velvet and held a vase of white roses.

With senior roles on the panels overseeing the Justice Department, spending and budget policy, Graham was seen as an important Republican voice in all three efforts. And as Republicans try to take advantage of their governing trifecta before the elections, Graham was viewed as a crucial link between the Senate and the White House.

Many of Graham’s colleagues acknowledged that he would have been particularly valuable helping Senate Republicans navigate an increasingly tense relationship with Trump, who has grown frustrated by their refusal to bow wholeheartedly to his agenda.

“His voice is going to be really, really missed in terms of the relationship that Senate Republicans have with the president and his team,” Thune said in a CNN interview Monday. “Because he was so good and so effective at talking to the president, and it was so respected by the president.”

That connection would have been central to any attempt to push through a third reconciliation bill.

Trump last week urged congressional Republicans to turn to the procedure — which allows bills that affect government revenues to pass the Senate on a simple-majority vote — to provide $350 billion to the Pentagon and to impose long-sought restrictions on elections.

As chair of the Senate Budget Committee, Graham would have overseen that process, steering any measure through complex rules that govern what provisions can be included. Before his death, he signaled a willingness to try to meet Trump’s demand, even as many Republican senators, including Thune, have been skeptical that they could muster the necessary support to pass such a measure given disputes about how to pay for new spending with compensating cuts elsewhere.

Though Thune has not yet named a successor, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is widely viewed as the next in line to lead the budget panel. But Johnson is among the staunchest fiscal conservatives in Congress, and his approach to spending cuts may rankle vulnerable lawmakers who do not want to slash government programs.

Asked about the path forward Monday, Johnson brushed off questions. “Look, I just walked by Lindsey’s desk,” he said. “It’s kind of one step at a time.”

Thune’s most immediate challenge may come with Blanche’s nomination. While some Republicans have voiced concerns about Blanche’s role in establishing a Justice Department fund for people claiming to be victims of unfair prosecution, Graham, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was seen as a reliable supporter who would have helped Blanche advance.

But after Graham’s death, Republicans on the committee hold only an 11-10 edge on, meaning objections from any one Republican senator on the committee could stymie Blanche’s nomination. Two of them, Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, have raised questions about Blanche. Cornyn reiterated his concerns Monday after a federal judge in Miami assailed a settlement that Blanche brokered between Trump and the IRS that protected the president and his family from tax audits.

“It certainly is another area that I plan to ask about, and I’m certainly not making any commitments until after the hearing,” Cornyn said.

Advancing legislation to fund the government out of the Senate Appropriations Committee was already going to be difficult with McConnell’s absence, and the committee has already been at a partisan impasse.

But Graham’s death could make it nearly impossible to move any spending bills without major bipartisan support. Republicans will now need all their senators on the panel to be present and voting to overcome unanimous Democratic opposition.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said the two primary actions Congress must take are to fund the government and keep it open after Sept. 30, probably through a stopgap bill, and provide money for the conflict in Iran. He predicted that progress would be difficult.

“I’m not terribly optimistic about the next four weeks,” Kennedy said.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Michael Gold and Carl Hulse/Kenny Holston
c. 2026 The New York Times Company