Senate leader puts House budget on hold, leaving war funding unresolved
House Republicans pushed through a series of major legislative items in their final week before departing for a five-week summer recess, but the burst of activity ended with a bipartisan vote against the party’s leadership on war powers and with questions over whether the chamber’s signature spending plans will survive in the Senate.
The chief Republican budget writer, Representative Jodey Arrington of Texas, described the $95 billion budget blueprint on the House floor without direct references to the conflict with Iran. “Just baseline battlefield readiness,” Arrington said of the spending. “Bullets and bombs to finish the job and come home safely and victoriously, strengthen our food supply, and ultimately safeguard the integrity of our elections.”
The budget plan, which would direct tens of billions of dollars toward the war with Iran, passed along party lines. The chamber also approved a $1.15 trillion version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which Speaker Mike Johnson merged with the Save America Act — legislation backed by Trump that would ban mail-in ballots and impose new identification requirements on voters. “Many of you like to say that major legislating can’t happen in an election year,” Johnson told reporters after the votes. “We just proved you wrong.”
Less than 24 hours later, four dissident Republicans sided with Democrats to pass a symbolic war powers resolution that would mandate Trump withdraw troops from combat against Iran. Representative Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, told reporters the vote reflected a message Democrats intend to emphasize on the campaign trail. “You’re about to have hundreds of members of Congress go home to their constituents, and a lot of folks are about to get crushed, rightfully so, by their constituents,” Crow said. He described voters asking, “why the hell are you supporting $100bn for another endless war in Iran that’s not making us safer, and contributing to the woes of the American people?”
The House’s legislative push also hit resistance from Senate Republican leaders. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he would put the budget blueprint on “hold,” citing potential leverage in negotiations over government funding beyond the September 30 expiration. The decision raised the likelihood that the question of how much to spend on the Iran conflict will remain undecided when lawmakers return in September.
The defense budget faces additional obstacles. Senate Democrats earlier this month halted advancement of the chamber’s version of the bill in protest of renewed hostilities with Iran, and Democratic objections to the bill’s cost could further complicate its path.
As House Republicans left the Capitol, party leaders sought to frame their record in positive terms for the campaign ahead. Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, pointed to the party’s success in redistricting. “If you look at the seats that are up for grabs, it’s a majority of Democrats in Trump seats,” Hudson said. “For the Democrats to pick up the majority, they would have to win a lot of Trump seats, and that’s just not going to happen.”
Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina, a Republican vying to replace the late Senator Lindsey Graham, predicted Trump “is at the cusp of ending this thing with Iran, and he’s doing the right thing.” Norman added, “The American people’s opinion is to end it quick. I think he will do that.”
Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, one of the few Republicans representing a district that Kamala Harris won in 2024, offered a more cautious assessment of Trump’s approach. “The go-it-alone approach fails us in the end,” said Bacon, who is not seeking reelection. Of Democrats, he said, “We need their help, and so I think he should lean in to working across the aisle more.”
Democrats acknowledged their own challenges in capitalizing on Republican divisions. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll released this week found that while highly motivated voters are eager to back Democrats in the midterms, the party holds only a narrow advantage over Republicans in the broader electorate. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said, “I think a lot of people aren’t sure, depending on where you’re from, what it means to be a Democrat.” She described an active primary process driven by “much deeper substantive conversations” about issues including the U.S. relationship with Israel.