The House passed a government funding bill Tuesday night that would extend funding for all federal operations through the midterm elections — a move made months ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a shutdown.

The 220-205 vote was largely along party lines, with Speaker Mike Johnson managing to keep his extremely narrow majority mostly together to advance legislation that would fund the government through Dec. 4.

Top House Republicans hope moving the funding measure so early in the process will put Democrats on defense in the impending government spending fight, before voters head to the polls this fall. Republicans plan to highlight Democrats’ votes against federal funding in the midterm campaigns.

The bill also does not include unrelated policy provisions, a key selling point for GOP leaders who argue there’s no reason Democrats should oppose a “clean” product. The measure does include traditional payments to the families of lawmakers who have died while serving in Congress, including late-Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and late-Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.), which is not politically controversial.

“They’re happy to play shutdown politics. We’re not,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma said Tuesday, contrasting his Republican Party with the Democrats. “We think it’s a mistake, and so we’re moving on it early, expeditiously, and trying to create some momentum where we’re not waiting to the last minute.”

But Democrats are irate that Republicans plowed ahead with a bill that had no input from their side of the aisle. The funding patch also lacks language to ensure new dollars don’t go to Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Republicans already enacted $70 billion for those agencies along party lines this year.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democratic appropriator in the House, said Democrats have drawn “a clear line in the sand” against “giving the Trump administration permission to use billions provided by this bill to fund Border Patrol without any substantial reforms to how that agency operates.”

Democrats have for months been demanding overhauls to how federal immigration enforcement officers operate in the field — a stance that led Republicans forging ahead with a party-line reconciliation bill in June that will fund ICE and Border Patrol activities until the end of the Trump administration.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York expressed strong opposition to the GOP stopgap in a closed-door caucus meeting ahead of the vote, and other key senior House Democrats urged their colleagues to oppose the spending measure.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where top appropriators are already discussing a different government funding approach: moving a stopgap with “anomalies” to prevent disruptions to key services that would otherwise result from flat funding.

The White House sent a list of these special exceptions Monday, but they are not included in the House’s measure.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Tuesday laid out his plans to put a short-term stopgap funding bill on the chamber floor before the August recess incorporating anomalies — while also threatening to pursue another party-line bill to fund the whole government if Democrats don’t get on board with a compromise.

“I hope that’s not necessary,” Thune said.

Jordain Carney and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is threatening to sink the ambassador nominations of two high-profile allies of President Donald Trump unless the White House commits to distributing AIDS funding in Africa.

A spokesperson for Cornyn, a member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told POLITICO on Tuesday that he wouldn’t vote to advance Kari Lake or Doug Mastriano, Trump’s picks for ambassador to Jamaica and Slovakia, respectively, unless he receives firm reassurance that the administration will release funds set aside for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the HIV and AIDS program credited with saving millions of lives in poor countries.

Both nominations are expected to face a vote in the committee on Wednesday. But without assurance on PEPFAR funding from the Trump administration, Cornyn could singlehandedly block the two nominations if they otherwise receive party-line backing, as Republicans hold 12 seats on the committee to Democrats’ 10.

It’s the second time in less than a week that the four-term senator has bucked the White House in the wake of his Senate primary loss to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in May. Cornyn suffered a lopsided defeat that came after the president endorsed Paxton — to the chagrin of Senate GOP leadership.

He also clashed with Todd Blanche, Trump’s pick for attorney general, over the White House “anti-weaponization” fund during a senate confirmation hearing last week.

Asked about leveraging his vote in recent weeks to move the White House towards his preferred policies, Cornyn told POLITICO, “It’s kind of fun.”

Semafor was the first to report Cornyn’s ultimatum on the nominees. The White House and the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lake and Mastriano both lost races for governor in 2022, in Arizona and Pennsylvania, respectively. They both took down more moderate Republicans in their respective primaries and earned the president’s favor by embracing his rhetoric regarding the 2020 election.

Lake subsequently ran for Senate in 2024, losing to Sen. Ruben Gallego even though Trump won Arizona that year by more than five points.

Cornyn is the latest Republican whose career Trump has effectively ended who’s since decided to turn the screws on the White House in recent months.

Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — have been in talks with the White House over what it would take for them to support advancing Blanche’s attorney general nomination to a full floor vote.

And Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who lost his Republican primary to Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow in June, will play a major role in deciding the fate of Erica Schwartz, the administration’s nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The two shared a tense exchange during her confirmation hearing last week.

Since Trump returned to office, Republicans have consistently pushed for cuts to the AIDS-prevention program created during the George W. Bush administration. The State Department cut over 100 contracts grants from PEPFAR last year as part of the efforts to curb government spending led by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, drawing criticism from Democratic lawmakers and even some Republican senators, who blocked $400 million allocated for PEPFAR from being clawed back in the White House’s $9 billion rescission package last year.

Last month, the State Department decided to begin winding down PEPFAR programming in South Africa to comply with Trump’s executive order directing U.S. agencies to stop the funding unless the African country took steps to prevent discrimination against its white Afrikaner minority.

Chris Marquette contributed to this report.

Rep. Cleo Fields (D-La.) has announced he will not seek reelection, choosing instead to run for state Senate in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act.

In a statement late Tuesday afternoon, Fields said he came to the decision after “a great deal of prayer and reflection.”

“I feel my calling to serve the people is better put to use back home than here in D.C., and I intend to answer that call,” said Fields, whose majority-Black district encompasses parts of Shreveport, Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

Fields’ announcement comes after the Louisiana state legislature in May passed a new map that eliminated his district following the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision, which ruled that the state’s second majority-Black district was an illegal racial gerrymander.

Fields condemned the Supreme Court’s April decision as “a grave setback to voting rights” as he pointed out that “minority candidates are rarely, if ever, elected from districts where they are not the majority, underscoring why fair districting remains essential to ensuring equal representation.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee on Monday identified Fields’ seat as one of its 2026 targets, adding to a list of more than 30 districts the committee has set its sights on.

The Callais ruling was not the first time Fields’ district, which he was first elected to represent in 1992 at the age of 29, was ruled unconstitutional; his district, then the 4th congressional district, was first found to be a racial gerrymander in 1996. That three-judge panel then implemented a new map which included just one majority Black district, after which Fields was elected to the Louisiana Senate. He didn’t return to Congress again until after his election in 2024.

Fields will now seek to fill the seat of state Sen. Larry Selders (D), who died on July 7.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that he will put a short-term stopgap bill to fund the government on the floor before the August recess – and warned that Republicans could pursue a party-line spending bill if they can’t reach a deal with Democrats.

Thune, during a weekly press conference, said that Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) was talking with Senate Democrats to try to strike a bipartisan deal on a bill to fund the government until after the November election.

“That is something I intend to bring to the floor for a vote before the August break,” Thune said.

In addition to negotiating with Democrats, Senate Republicans are talking to the White House about spending anomalies the administration wants attached to a funding patch measure. Thune said a Senate stopgap was the “more likely vehicle” because the House’s GOP-crafted stopgap does not include those special spending requests from the White House.

Thune also indicated he could use a House budget resolution to fund the government using the party-line reconciliation process if they can’t reach a deal with Democrats on a stopgap spending bill.

“It’s a possibility that if necessary we … could use it to fund government. I hope that’s not necessary,” Thune said.

Some conservatives, including Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), have said that they should use reconciliation to fund the government ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline if a bipartisan spending deal can’t be reached.

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz committed Tuesday to putting a kids online safety proposal from Sen. Marsha Blackburn on the agenda for his upcoming markup on artificial intelligence legislation — even as President Donald Trump holds off on giving the forthcoming bill his stamp of approval.

The Texas Republican also told reporters he “would expect to support” his colleague’s bill, but cast doubt on whether it could pass the full Senate.

“It’s not clear to me at all that there are 60 votes for it,” Cruz continued, “but I am happy to have a markup and see where the votes are.”

A spokesperson for Blackburn did not respond to a request for comment on her plans, but the Tennessee Republican in a statement Monday night pledged to continue building consensus to be able to move her legislation “by the end of the year.”

It comes after Cruz and Blackburn met with Trump in the Oval office Monday afternoon, where Blackburn presented some details of her yet-to-be-introduced package that is likely to pair her signature legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, with some provisions pre-empting state AI laws — a bid to win the endorsement of the Trump administration.

Blackburn’s package also could include the NO FAKES Act — which would create new restrictions on AI deepfakes — and the Apps Store Accountability Act — which would require minors to obtain parental consent before downloading apps — according to a person granted anonymity to share private negotiations.

In that White House meeting, Cruz doubted the fate of the package in the Senate, the person said, and Trump did not make a commitment to give it his blessing.

It’s not also clear whether Blackburn will try to introduce a version of her bill in time for its consideration at the Senate Commerce markup tentatively scheduled for July 29. Per committee rules, Cruz must publish an advisory for any markup a week in advance — in this case Wednesday, assuming the late-July date holds — though changes to the lineup can be made the day-of.

As of Tuesday afternoon, staff for Commerce Committee Democrats said they hadn’t seen the final agenda but noted a lot can change in 24 hours. Republicans on the panel also said they have been largely in the dark: Sen. John Curtis of Utah, who recently introduced a bipartisan bill cracking down on AI chatbots that would go further than a similar proposal from Cruz, said he had not spoken to the chair nor did he have a sense of what might be on the agenda.

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), another member of the Commerce Committee who works closely on AI legislation, also said he had not heard what’s on the agenda.

Sprawling Pentagon policy legislation advanced in the House on Tuesday, a turnaround after Republican infighting stalled the $1.15 trillion bill just weeks ago.

House Republicans are next set to push to attach numerous conservative amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act in a bid to solidify GOP support to pass the bill as soon as Wednesday. Most Democrats are expected to oppose the bill over its record price tag and President Donald Trump’s pursuit of the Iran war.

The narrow 214-211 procedural vote comes after a handful of Republican hard-liners in June voted to block the defense bill from coming to the House floor amid a dispute over election legislation backed by Trump.

Speaker Mike Johnson has since smoothed over the dispute with those hard-liners, led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), over forcing the Senate to consider voter identification legislation that kept the House floor frozen for weeks. With Tuesday’s procedural vote, Republicans agreed to attach their overhaul, the SAVE America Act, to the defense bill when it passes. House Republicans have similarly attached the SAVE America Act to other major bills sent to the Senate this month.

The rule vote was held open as Johnson worked to sway some holdouts to advance the defense bill and several other measures. In the end, just one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, opposed advancing the bill after GOP leadership didn’t green-light his amendment to strip a provision that would bolster cooperation between the U.S. and Israel on military technology.

That’s not the only move GOP leaders are making to lock down conservative support for the defense bill.

Lawmakers will next plow through 320 amendments to the defense bill, some of which will steer the bill rightward if adopted.

The tranche includes several proposals that tap into a partisan fight over transgender people serving in the military, including Republican amendments to make permanent the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the military and to block funding for gender-affirming medical procedures through the military’s Tricare health system.

Lawmakers will also debate a GOP proposal requiring the Pentagon report on options for a potential cut to the civilian defense workforce of 200,000 employees. And Ukraine aid skeptics in the GOP were granted a vote to bar Pentagon funding to help arm the Ukrainian military as Russia’s invasion drags on.

Most Democratic amendments aimed at reining in the Trump administration and slashing spending were rejected by Republicans. That includes efforts to reduce the bill’s budget top line below $1 trillion and prohibit funding to continue the war against Iran.

Tuesday’s procedural vote also advanced several other major bills with defense implications. Republicans are also set to consider a budget blueprint meant to jump-start the party-line reconciliation process to fast-track $95 billion in additional spending, including $60 billion in defense funding to cover the costs of the Iran war.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee that vets bills before they head to the House floor, argued the combination of bills shows Trump and Republicans’ misplaced priorities. He called the war “another one of Donald Trump’s broken promises.”

“Does anyone think that’s made life better for the American people?” McGovern asked. “Maybe it’s made life better for defense contractors. Maybe for the crazy neocon warmongers that get a kick out of another war. But not for everyday people.”

House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) shot back that the GOP priorities “are not out of whack.”

“The number one role of the federal government is the defense of this nation,” Foxx said.

Jay Clayton is one step closer to becoming President Donald Trump’s spy czar — but he’s shedding Democratic support in the ascent.

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 9-8 on Tuesday to advance Clayton’s nomination as director of national intelligence to the full chamber. The party-line vote marks a partial setback for Clayton, who was expected to draw broad Democratic support until a contentious confirmation hearing last week. At the hearing, Clayton repeatedly refused to admit that Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.

The vote nonetheless puts Clayton, a top federal prosecutor and former SEC chair, on the cusp of joining President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Senate Republicans have the votes to confirm Clayton without any Democratic support, though it is not immediately clear when Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) plans to do so.

Democrats are still likely to prefer Clayton over the current acting DNI, Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist with no background in national security. They just aren’t as supportive as they’d seemed previously.

Senate Intelligence Chair Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and ranking Democrat Sen. Mark Warner (Va.) last month agreed to a deal to fast-track Clayton’s confirmation in exchange for Democratic support for a controversial spy law. But Trump derailed the plan at the last minute, directing Clayton not to attend his first scheduled confirmation hearing because he feared Democrats wouldn’t deliver on their end of the deal.

That resulted in the partial expiration of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act last month, and it is still not clear when the Senate will vote to re-up it next.

So far, Pulte hasn’t implemented the sweeping personnel cuts at ODNI that Democrats feared. But he was involved in discussions around the primetime speech Trump delivered last Thursday, in which the president accused the intelligence community of a “shocking” cover-up on the extent of Chinese meddling in 2020.

A spokesperson for the ODNI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pulte’s role in last week’s speech.

The intelligence documents the White House declassified Thursday fell well short of backing up Trump’s Thursday allegation. They also do not support his longstanding claim his 2020 loss was the result of a rigged election.

Still, Trump’s speech underscored the difficult balancing act Clayton will face if confirmed: between Democrats who are wary Trump will misuse intelligence to justify a power grab over U.S. elections, and a president who remains convinced the “deep state” is out to get him.

Democrats generally view Clayton as more competent and far less of a loose cannon than Pulte, who encouraged mortgage fraud investigations of Trump’s enemies as the head of the government’s federal housing finance regulator.

The House voted 214-211 Tuesday afternoon to tee up floor debate on a bill that would fund federal operations into December and a budget framework paving the way for a $95 billion party-line package.

Having cleared that procedural hurdle — no easy task considering hard-liners threatened to gum up the works — House GOP leaders hope to pass the stopgap funding patch later Tuesday night.

That would be followed by a vote Wednesday on the budget resolution House Republicans want to use to unlock the ability to draft and pass the third conservative policy bill of this Congress without having to rely on any Democratic support.

Few Democrats are expected to vote “yes” on the short-term funding bill, which House GOP leaders crafted without input from the minority party and before receiving the White House’s request for special exceptions. Across the Capitol, senators in both parties are already discussing a stopgap that differs from the version House Republicans hope they can advance.

Adopting the budget framework, however, is higher stakes for Republican leaders, who want to make progress on another reconciliation bill before the House is scheduled to recess Thursday for five weeks.

Some House Republicans, including Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio, have threatened to vote against the budget blueprint since it does not include offsets to reduce the deficit impact of the new spending the resolution would allow.

The procedural rule vote Tuesday afternoon will also provide for floor debate later this week on the annual defense policy legislation and a bill that would crack down on congressional insider trading.

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he supports a more extensive ban on lawmakers having sexual relationships with any congressional aides — not just subordinates in a personal office or on a committee.

Johnson replied “yeah,” when asked at a news conference whether he’s on board with remarks made over the weekend by House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan in support of establishing new rules barring members from having sex with any congressional staff.

It’s unclear what the path forward is for such a change, but it would require a revision to the House Code of Official Conduct — and an endorsement from two of the top lawmakers in the House is a promising sign there could be action.

The staff director for the House Ethics Committee did not respond to a request for comment.

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the House in 2018 opted to formally ban members from having intimate relationships with their subordinates in personal offices or on the committees on which the lawmakers serve, with an exception for lawmakers who are married to staffers.

This latest push from McClain, and now the speaker, to expand the prohibition is partly a response to recent reporting on Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), outlining that Gallego had relationships with staffers who were not under his supervision.

There has also been a swell of misconduct allegations earlier this year, in which it was reported that former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) sexually assaulted a staffer and that former Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) had a sexual relationship with a woman in his congressional office who later died by suicide. Both men were forced to resign amid the allegations.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

House Democrats are making clear they’re in no mood to back a Republican-led bill punting a government funding fight to after the midterms — potentially dooming the GOP effort.

Leaving their weekly caucus meeting Tuesday morning, Democrats blasted Republicans for seeking to circumvent the bipartisan appropriations process by scheduling a vote for Tuesday evening on a stopgap funding measure that would extend federal spending levels until Dec. 4.

“It’s an abdication of responsibility to the country at a critical time,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, a senior Democratic appropriator, said in an interview.

“If you want our support, you should want to negotiate with us in good faith,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) agreed.

And while Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York did not announce plans for Democratic leadership to whip against the continuing resolution, he expressed strong opposition to the plan at a leadership meeting Monday, according to four people granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation.

Multiple lawmakers left their caucus meeting Tuesday under the impression that Democratic leaders were firmly in the “no” camp — a break from precedent where Democrats have traditionally supported “clean” stopgap funding bills.

The No. 3 House Democrat, Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, said at a news conference following the meeting that “I’ll be voting ‘no.’ And if any members ask, I would encourage them to do the same.”

If Democrats unite in voting against the measure, it’s not clear whether Republicans will be able to make up for the shortfall, as many fiscal hawks are never inclined to vote for continuing resolutions. Aguilar, however, also underscored at his news conference that this was not “a serious proposal,” with Senate Republicans unlikely to take up the House measure.

“It’s kind of a Trojan horse scenario here,” Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland, another Democratic appropriator, said of the Republican bill in an interview after the caucus meeting.

The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, outlined her opposition in the Tuesday morning members’ meeting, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations.

She is seeking explicit language that prohibits funding for Customs and Border Protection and is also circulating a fact sheet laying out her issues with the legislation.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, is pushing the federal government to provide all of its records on Jeffrey Epstein’s contacts with foreign governments, pursuant to an inquiry he launched Tuesday into whether the convicted sex offender had acted as an unregistered foreign agent.

It’s perhaps a preview of House Democrats’ plans for next year if they take back the House majority in the November midterm elections. Raskin could assume the House Judiciary Committee gavel as soon as January, giving him the broad subpoena powers necessary to capitalize on an investigation.

“Jeffrey Epstein never registered as a foreign agent,” Raskin wrote in a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence. “Yet numerous recently released documents now show he acted aggressively on behalf of multiple foreign governments, including several with interests adverse to the United States, in order to influence policies of the first Trump Administration.”

Raskin has little power to pull together a full-scale investigation while his party remains in the minority.

But he could yet succeed in dragging Epstein back into the mainstream. Last year, the public backlash after the White House announced it was shelving its investigation on Epstein’s contacts threatened to engulf the administration, leading Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to successfully force a House vote that resulted in a release of the files.

The White House “absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files,” Vice President JD Vance told podcaster Joe Rogan last week.

In his Tuesday letter, Raskin alleged that Epstein had offered to serve as a conduit between Saudi Arabia and members of the Trump administration, consulted with Russian officials on engaging with the president and advised former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

“Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

It’s not illegal to lobby on behalf of a foreign government, but it’s a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act not to register as a foreign agent.

“An unrepentant global sex trafficker who described himself as the ‘best friend’ of the President for many years interacted with foreign governments at the highest levels and offered them advice on how to deal with the President and influence his Administration,” Raskin wrote.

Speaker Mike Johnson and White House budget chief Russ Vought tried to rally House Republicans on Tuesday morning around passing a party-line package containing the administration’s $95 billion supplemental funding request for the Iran war and farm aid — by promising members they’d get another chance to pass a more sweeping partisan policy bill after the midterms.

A group of GOP holdouts, however, has yet to fully fall in line ahead of a critical vote Wednesday on a budget resolution that would pave the way for a filibuster-skirting reconciliation bill containing the war and agriculture funding, plus $10 billion for grants to states to encourage voter ID and citizenship requirements in order to participate in elections.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said the pitch “wasn’t that compelling.”

Johnson and Vought told House Republicans at the closed-door conference meeting Tuesday morning that the vote on the budget resolution Wednesday was simply a first step, according to four people inside the room.

Vought also argued the political realities in the Senate shaped the package the White House and House GOP leaders are currently pushing.

Johnson cannot lose more than a tiny handful of Republicans on the budget resolution, and he’s already lost at least one: Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) said in an interview Monday he planned to oppose the resolution and was not at all moved by the argument for a fourth reconciliation bill.

There’s also a procedural rule vote Tuesday afternoon paving the way for floor consideration not just on the budget blueprint but a stopgap government funding package, the annual defense policy bill and legislation to crack down on congressional stock trading. Republicans could vote down the rule to prevent any one of these measures from advancing.

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said he thought Vought’s pitch could have some resonance given the stakes of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

“I thought Russ did a good job laying out why this approach makes sense,” Jordan said in an interview. When you’ve got a military operation, you’ve got to replenish the bullets. And I don’t think the Democrats are going to vote for that, so I don’t know how else to do it.”

He also said he thought most fiscal hawks did understand and appreciate the argument that approving supplemental funding through reconciliation — even without offsets — will cost less than negotiating a supplemental with Democrats.

“We’re going to know here in a few hours — we’ve got a rule vote coming up,” Jordan added.

Inside the meeting, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a persistent thorn in GOP leadership’s side, indicated he would likely support the rule vote and budget resolution, according to the people inside the room for the closed-door meeting. Roy declined to weigh in on the matter to reporters as he left leaving the meeting, however.

The late Sen. Lindsey Graham will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda next Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced in a statement.

Graham’s funeral, arranged by his sister, Sen. Darline Graham, will include an invite-only ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral to be attended by President Donald Trump.

Darline Graham (R-S.C.) was appointed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster earlier this month to serve out the remainder of her brother’s term. She announced plans to run for a full six-year term in the seat on Monday.

Lindsey Graham died suddenly earlier this month from what his office later said was an “aortic dissection due to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.” A wave of tributes — and speculation over who would run to replace the five-term senator — kicked off almost immediately.

“As we say our final goodbyes, it seems fitting for his friends and colleagues to give back to him through this special Capitol honor,” Thune (R-S.D.) said in a statement.

Darline Graham is endorsed by the president in her bid to win a full term in the Senate but will nonetheless face off against a slate of Republicans who have spent far more time in the public eye, including South Carolina GOP Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman.

Lindsey Graham’s remains will be flown back to South Carolina after the National Cathedral service, with a service planned at the First Baptist Church of Columbia for the following day.

“I am grateful to all those who have come together to help honor and remember Lindsey,” Darline Graham said in a statement. “I would like to extend my sincere thanks to President Trump and his team, Washington National Cathedral, Senate leadership, First Baptist Church of Columbia and the Senate Sergeant at Arms for going above and beyond to ensure these will be honorable tributes to Lindsey.”

Speaker Mike Johnson’s legislative sprint hinges on a lot of Republican votes falling into place this week — starting with a tally Tuesday to open the floor for business.

The make-or-break procedural rule vote that eluded Johnson for weeks earlier this summer may again be in flux Tuesday afternoon, as GOP members harbor various frustrations about their party’s packed agenda.

If Republicans open the floor, next up Tuesday will be a vote on a stopgap funding bill through the midterms and the beginning of debate for the must-pass annual defense bill, among other business. Final votes on that package are expected Wednesday along with adoption of the GOP’s reconciliation framework and a stock trading ban for Congress.

House GOP leaders are leaning heavily on a small number of holdouts on different agenda items, and the White House is ramping up pressure across the board. OMB Chief Russ Vought will make his pitch on Republicans’ $95 billion Iran war and agriculture reconciliation package Tuesday morning during the House GOP conference meeting.

The good news for Johnson: Key Republicans from opposite sides of the conference told POLITICO they plan to support the rule Tuesday.

“I think the rule will pass pretty easily,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, a holdout earlier this month, said, adding he expected many other conservative hard-liners to support it.

The bad news for Johnson: At least one lawmaker — Rep. Thomas Massie — says he’ll vote ‘no’ on the rule, while Rep. Chip Roy said he’s undecided.

The budget resolution vote is another flashpoint we’ll be watching Roy, who says he’s unsure of his support due to the lack of offsets to new spending.

Meanwhile Rep. Warren Davidson says he’ll vote ‘no’ on the framework for the same reasons.

“I think you gotta find the pay-fors,” Davidson told POLITICO.

Davidson said he’s also not swayed by GOP leaders’ argument that a post-midterm fourth reconciliation bill will target fraud to offset spending, adding they have “already used that excuse twice.”

Meanwhile, Republicans may not be able to count on widespread support from Democrats for the stopgap measure, as Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries indicated he’s opposed to the CR in a closed-door leadership meeting Monday, according to four people granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation. Senior Democrats want language to prohibit funding for immigration enforcement agencies.

And across the Capitol, senators may not be so eager to pick up the House’s continuing resolution: top appropriators are talking about developing their own version of a stopgap funding bill that would include White House anomalies.

What else we’re watching:

— DEMS LOOK FOR WAYS TO HALT RENEWED IRAN WAR: Democrats are rallying behind several efforts to kill high-profile defense legislation as a way to protest the escalating conflict in the Middle East. The flurry of action presents Democrats with a chance to score real wins against the Trump administration’s war effort, which burst back into public view over the weekend with the killing of three U.S. troops in the region. The largest showdown is set for Wednesday, when House lawmakers are expected to vote on the annual defense policy bill, which Democratic critics have said they will oppose sans oversight mechanisms for the Iran war.

— MCCORMICK EYES ENERGY GAVEL: Sen. Dave McCormick is in line to take the gavel of Energy and Natural Resources next Congress, a remarkable rise for the freshman who has distinguished himself as a leading booster of natural gas and U.S. artificial intelligence dominance. McCormick is interested in leading Republicans on the committee, a person familiar with his plans told POLITICO, if the spot opens as expected. The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham has sparked a domino effect that is likely to put the Pennsylvanian in the driver’s seat for the energy role.

Katherine Tully-McManus, Jordain Carney, Leo Shane III and Josh Siegel contributed to this report.