Johnson gambles on ambitious summer agenda as GOP anxiety rises ahead of midterms

By Sarah Ferris, Adam Cancryn, CNN

(CNN) — Republicans returned to Washington on Monday night in an increasingly dour mood about the state of their party: Growing fears of a November wipeout. A Middle East war with no end in sight. A feeling of loss after the sudden death of their longtime colleague Lindsey Graham.

Now, with President Donald Trump’s attention focused on Capitol Hill for what could be the party’s final legislative sprint before the midterms, a restless House Speaker Mike Johnson is racing to reverse Republicans’ political fortunes.

Johnson is privately pushing a major legislative push centered on Pentagon funding, cutting government fraud and a new grant program to promote elections overhaul, according to multiple people briefed on his plans. Details are scarce, but the bill — dubbed Trump’s agenda 3.0 — is an eleventh-hour attempt to unite the party’s warring factions after months of chaos. If he succeeds, it could rescue a flailing Hill GOP and offer lawmakers a fresh political win ahead of their August recess campaigning.

“This really is the last opportunity,” said Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, who has spent months pushing for a third Trump agenda bill. “I think the Republican voters that gave a mandate to President Trump want to see us continue to work to our very last breath of this session.”

There’s plenty of skepticism in the GOP’s ranks, with many members recalling the difficulty of passing the first two agenda bills, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and an immigration funding package. Johnson’s counterpart, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, did not endorse the effort when asked about the speaker’s plans. And he offered a note of caution to his House colleagues, warning that they need to consider the Senate’s own limitations — or risk a massive failure on the floor.

“To get that done and get the requisite number of votes in both the House and Senate will be a heavy lift,” Thune said. “I’ve said all along, this one will be really challenging, but we’ll see what they come up with.”

Time is running out, but Johnson and GOP leaders are eager to get their conference in line. Already, Johnson appeared to reach a critical truce with one of his most high-profile defectors, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who has helped hold up the House floor in recent weeks.

Luna, like some other hardliners, had refused to allow Johnson to bring GOP bills to the floor until he can promise a path for Trump’s elections overhaul measure, the “SAVE America Act.” House GOP leaders this week committed to attaching that bill to upcoming spending legislation – something Luna suggested Monday night she could get behind.

GOP leaders are hoping it will work, so Johnson can pivot to resolve another intraparty fight over a border security bill that’s split hardliners and GOP centrists.

The Senate has its own major problems, with a gang of Republicans who lost their primaries complicating the chamber’s work, including its path to confirming Trump’s nominees. And it will be far more challenging after the sudden loss of Graham and the prolonged absence of the ailing Sen. Mitch McConnell. The chamber’s spending talks are going so poorly that Republicans are openly worrying about another government shutdown in September — with some even suggesting they fund the annual appropriations process as part of Trump’s third domestic policy push.

Meanwhile, top Republicans have struggled to align on basic governing issues, with Trump refusing to sign Congress’ bipartisan housing bill, which his own party leaders hailed as a major win, and Thune and Johnson publicly clashing over key strategy over government funding.

“We’ve passed Eizabeth Warren’s housing bill, and it took us five months to fund ICE and CBP,” one senior Hill GOP aide lamented, summing up the party’s sullenness. “Everybody’s got their fingers in their ears.”

But Johnson and his allies believe there are risks to not plunging into the next big bill — including potential consequences in November. (Johnson, his House campaigns chief and Trump sat down Monday afternoon for their latest strategy discussion on the party’s November prospects.)

Camp David meeting

Days before lawmakers headed back to Washington, Johnson and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington sat alongside White House officials at Camp David for a two-day strategy session over the third agenda bill, according to multiple GOP sources.

Johnson announced the basic tenets of his plans in a post on X, minutes before briefing his own leadership team in a weekly huddle. He declared the bill would “include our nation’s most immediate priorities” — with details coming later in the week.

Some of his members were shocked. And they were eager to hear more about what would be in the bill.

“We’ll see how it progresses, but I’m skeptical right now,” Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, a senior spending leader, said in an interview. “How do we pay for all this stuff?”

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a centrist from Pennsylvania who voted against the GOP’s big tax overhaul bill last year, said he isn’t ruling out supporting the measure, but made clear he would not allow any cuts to healthcare programs.

“I never say never,” Fitzpatrick said, adding: “But what are the pay fors?”

There’s another complication: If House Republicans include any healthcare or tax provisions, it presents a huge challenge for Senate Republicans under that chamber’s budget rules. Thune warned that doing so could allow Democrats to weaponize the bill by creating “a lot of very challenging amendment votes” that could pass with a few GOP defectors.

“If they design it right and scale it right, there may be a path there,” Thune said.

It’s still not clear how much coordinating the House Republicans will do with the Senate. Graham was head of the Senate budget panel before his sudden death this weekend, and his duties are being picked up by Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

“I need to get up to speed in terms of what discussions already occurred. I’ll be talking to Jodey Arrington tonight,” Johnson said Monday.

But so far, House conservatives are signaling they will not shy away from big spending cuts in their push to cut down on government fraud.

“I think there’s a way. You’ve got to want to do it. Nobody ever wants to save any money around here. Quit being scared and get to work,” Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania said of Thune’s comments.

‘Not helpful’

Trump in the meantime has provided GOP leaders little in the way of concerted support for their at-risk majorities — and in some cases, consciously made their jobs more difficult by lashing out at key lawmakers and prioritizing his own legislative desires over advancing the party’s broader agenda.

The president has yet to consistently return to the campaign trail, despite the urgings of allies and advisers who believe he’s the only one who can energize the MAGA electorate needed to fend off a potential blue wave.

He’s openly criticized Senate Republicans for failing to move the “SAVE America Act” despite little support in the conference for the measure, while failing to convince hardliners in the House to end their own weekslong protest over the stalled legislation.

In one gambit aimed ending the impasse, Johnson last week implied that Trump had signed off on passing a scaled-down version of the elections bill that didn’t include some of his more controversial demands.

But the White House quickly undercut him, with a senior official telling CNN that Trump was simply open to discussing it.

“Definitely don’t think he’s committed to anything right now, and as you saw with [the] housing bill, his mind can always change,” the official said.

A few days later, Trump dealt another blow to GOP leaders’ hopes of touting key economic accomplishments they believe will resonate with voters, declaring he wouldn’t sign the sweeping housing legislation he previously denigrated as “so unimportant.”

“Not helpful,” said one Republican operative in touch with several vulnerable House lawmakers, summing up the grim mood within the GOP conference.

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