{"id":13399,"date":"2026-07-22T08:44:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13399"},"modified":"2026-07-22T08:44:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:44:23","slug":"senate-rabble-rousers-are-gaining-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=13399","title":{"rendered":"Senate rabble-rousers are gaining power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/GhYhmTJMNnp14zhVx6i6CyH_ggg=\/0x0:4860x2734\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/21\/1784667790099.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hardline conservatives are gaining power in the Senate atop key committees.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> The senators known for rankling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/13\/senate-republicans-super-pac-fundraising-totals-slf\" target=\"_blank\">GOP leadership<\/a> now have gavels that let them hold hearings, advance legislation and even issue subpoenas.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) will be the new chair of the Budget Committee, Senate Republicans agreed in their closed-door lunch Tuesday.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The committee, which has a key role in reconciliation, had been chaired by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)<\/li>\n<li>Johnson also chairs the Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations, allowing him to launch probes into everything from former President Biden&#8217;s health to Meta&#8217;s alleged cooperation with China.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What to watch:<\/strong> Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is next in line to take the gavel on the powerful Judiciary Committee next Congress, following Graham&#8217;s death and Sen. John Cornyn&#8217;s (R-Texas) primary loss.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lee would have to forfeit his current Energy Committee chair post.<\/li>\n<li>He indicated to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/4647152\/mike-lee-judiciary-chair-senate-lindsey-graham\/\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Examiner<\/a> he would be willing to do so. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out: <\/strong>Fiscal hawk Rand Paul (R-Ky.) chairs the Homeland Security Committee, where he has been skeptical of massive agency budgets.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He recently voted &#8220;no&#8221; on Markwayne Mullin&#8217;s nomination to be DHS secretary.<\/li>\n<li>Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) chairs the Aging Committee, and he also leads the GOP steering committee, an unofficial, conservative group. <\/li>\n<li>Scott has leveraged the group&#8217;s weekly lunch to bring in top government officials, including President Trump, to discuss current issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line: <\/strong>The Senate runs on seniority. That means even senators willing to buck their party or criticize leadership can climb committee ranks.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hardline conservatives are gaining power in the Senate atop key committees. Why it matters: The senators known for rankling GOP leadership now have gavels that let them hold hearings, advance legislation and even issue subpoenas. Driving the news: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) will be the new chair of the Budget Committee, Senate Republicans agreed in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/GhYhmTJMNnp14zhVx6i6CyH_ggg=\/0x0:4860x2734\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/21\/1784667790099.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}