At least three other members are being pulled under by career-ending accusations in the aftermath of Swalwell's resignation. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) finally came clean about his affair with a staffer earlier this year, a woman who was so tortured that she took her own life. He filed his "retirement from office" Tuesday. Also under the cloud of both an Ethics investigation and a federal criminal trial is Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), who funneled millions of dollars of COVID relief funds to her campaign. Then there's Republican Cory Mills (R-FL), who is being probed for everything from domestic violence to stolen valor and financial misconduct—all of which he disputes.

The circus of wrongdoing has at least temporarily overshadowed the other dilemmas staring down Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who came back from an unrestful two weeks ready to tackle a monster to-do list. "Wasn't much of a recess for Easter," Johnson admitted to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Saturday's "This Week on Capitol Hill." "It was a work session, because so much is going on."

The biggest headache, of course, is the "Rubik's Cube" of Homeland Security funding, which hasn't been solved in the 60 days since Democrats shut DHS down. At least for the moment, the tentative plan is still to roll the ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) budgets into a reconciliation bill that can pass with 51 votes in the Senate.

"We really only have one play in the playbook," the speaker conceded, "and that's the reconciliation process. ... [It's] the only exception to the rule that you have to get 60 votes in the Senate. Remember, we have 53 Republicans in the Senate, and seven Democrats are not going to go along with this. So we're going to have to use reconciliation to do it with a bare majority vote in the Senate. And it's going to have to be what we would call a 'skinny' reconciliation bill, which is just those items—immigration enforcement, ICE, and border security measures," Johnson explained.

His Senate counterpart went one step further, describing the measure as "anorexic," a not-so-subtle warning to both chambers that this isn't going to be big or beautiful like the last time around. "The quickest way to ensure failure is if the bill balloons into a GOP wish list," Punchbowl agreed. "If [Thune] starts making deals with other senators to get their stuff in there, you're talking to another senator that's going to want his stuff in there," Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) told reporters. Thune batted down the suggestion Monday night, insisting, "To execute on it and do it with any kind of speed, you've got to keep it really tight."

And time will definitely be of the essence with the president's deadline of June 1. Both leaders hope the promise of another reconciliation process, where several other conservative priorities could land, will keep the anger of hardliners at bay. But, experts warn, Republicans know there's no guarantee that Congress would be able to move a third reconciliation bill through the complicated hoops and procedures before the midterms.

For now, though, the GOP will go it alone, Johnson says. "We don't expect, sadly, shockingly, any Democrats to help on that at all. And then the rest of the Homeland Security will have to go by [the] vote of everyone. So I have to do those things concurrently, because we can't fund all of Homeland Security without those last two parts," he told Perkins, noting that Democrats "will blockade that." Unfortunately, he shook his head, "There's very little trust right now between Democrats and Republicans—and even between the chambers. So we're going to have to restore that in this process. And I'm very hopeful we can get it done very quickly."

Over in the Senate, Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has already been hard at work hammering out a framework for the proposal to fund ICE and CBP—with Trump's blessing. "He and I have been speaking over the last couple of days ... about the terms and the scope of this legislation," the speaker explained. "The president and I have been discussing it as well. We think we can get all the pieces moving in the right direction [and] get this done quickly."

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Perkins on Tuesday's "Washington Watch" that the plan is "a full go." "Democrats are refusing to fund our border. They're refusing to fund our law enforcement agents. They're refusing to fund anybody who is involved in immigration enforcement," he lamented. "And I can just say that I want there to be immigration enforcement of this country. I want violent criminals who are here illegally to be deported. ... And if the only way we can do that is to use this, this procedure known as reconciliation ... then I'm all for it."

On both sides of the Capitol, Johnson reiterated, "Republicans from the White House to the Senate and the House [are] absolutely focused on making sure that America is safe. Democrats are playing games. We have to go around them."

DHS isn't small potatoes either, he stressed. "It's the third-largest department in the federal government. It has 10 agencies beneath it, and every one of them [has] the common denominator of doing exactly what the name of the department suggests ... keeping the homeland safe." He paused, "... [And Democrats] want to give them exactly $0." So once again, Johnson emphasized, it's "just the Republican Party acting like the adults in the room, as usual." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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