Lindsey Graham’s sudden death leaves four vacancies on some of the Senate’s most important committees, and an opening atop a panel critical to Republicans if they try to pass another reconciliation bill this year. Graham chaired the Senate Budget Committee. He also sat on its Appropriations, Judiciary, and Environment and Public Works committees. His death has just set off another round of musical chairs inside the Senate Republican Conference.
The most pressing question is that of Budget. Graham’s absence leaves the committee without a chairman just as Republicans weigh using reconciliation again to sidestep a Democratic filibuster and advance parts of their agenda — including the SAVE America Act. That opening matters more than most. The Budget chairman crafts the chamber’s budget resolution, which unlocks reconciliation, and then helps write the resulting bill and steer it through the Senate. Republicans can’t use the filibuster-proof process without first choosing who replaces Graham on the panel.
