In the days leading up to Donald Trump’s second presidency, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham got some unexpected news.Graham was one of the longest-serving members of the Senate Committee on the Budget, and, based on seniority, would be its chairman for the 119th Congress — a job poised to place him at the center of some of the biggest policy fights of the next six months. He’d not only be responsible for ushering the big beautiful bill across the Senate floor, a herculean task given Republicans’ three-seat majority. But he’d also be leading a rag-tag group of opinionated Republicans who sat on the panel, many of them fiscal hawks.The late Graham, speaking to the Washington Examiner a week before his sudden death on July 11, fondly referred to that crew as “Murderer’s Row.”
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) talks with reporters as he leaves a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans for discussions on advancing President Donald Trump’s bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“I think God works in mysterious ways,” he said. “Making me budget chairman for the One Big Beautiful Bill had to be divine providence, because nobody else would have thought of doing that, including me.”It was not that Graham wasn’t up for the challenge. By the time the bill passed in July of last year, his fingerprints were over virtually every step of the process, from the debate over one bill versus two to the controversial decision to make its tax cuts permanent.But Graham also understood that, as chairman, he’d be leading some of the most vocal Republicans in his conference, several of whom were a thorn in leadership’s side over the law’s impact on the deficit. He also never fathomed that his membership on the committee would catapult him to such a pivotal role.“You know, I’ve been on the budget committee for 10 years, and we’ve done some things of consequence, but mostly not,” Graham said. “Mostly you don’t do a whole lot.”He added: “Let’s put it this way: Being on the budget committee wasn’t the reason I woke up every morning, but I got to be chairman.”The circumstance was so unusual, in part, because Republicans had unified control of government for only the fifth time in the last 100 years, giving them a rare window of opportunity to pass legacy-setting legislation without the help of Democrats.HOW THE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL BECAME LAW: READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER’S 10-PART SERIESAnd though the process involved more than a dozen committees, it was Graham’s that had to navigate the intricacies of reconciliation, the filibuster-skirting budget process that meant endless consultations with the Senate parliamentarian, and taking point on “vote-a-ramas” that gave Democrats repeated chances to sink the bill.Republicans passed that piece of legislation on July 1, 2025, after one final voting marathon that lasted more than 24 hours and required Graham and his Republican colleagues to beat back over 40 amendments.‘Keep it simple’
