Speaker Johnson's latest challenge: Funding Trump's war in Iran

As President Donald Trump tells Congress that he's reigniting military action in Iran, Speaker Mike Johnson is striving to advance legislation to pay for the president's 138-day war -- taking a procedural track that will rely strictly on GOP votes given overwhelming Democratic opposition to the conflict.

But with a razor-thin majority coupled with early signals of dissatisfaction and consternation throughout the House Republican Conference, Reconciliation 3.0 -- Republicans' third reconciliation bill this Congress -- could challenge Johnson's majority like never before or claim an important GOP victory before the midterm elections this fall.

On Thursday, the House Budget Committee voted 20-14 on party-lines to advance the GOP budget resolution -- Johnson called the "SAVE and Protect Act" -- for Reconciliation 3.0, marking the first hurdle in the lengthy legislative process. The resolution now heads to the House floor.

Budget reconciliation is a legislative tool that enables Congress to pass partisan and even controversial bills that address issues such as taxes, mandatory spending and the debt limit by reducing the 60-vote threshold required for passage in the Senate to a simple majority. It’s typically used when one party has unified control of the House, Senate and White House -- as Republicans are positioned now -- and doesn’t require bipartisan cooperation across the aisle.

House GOP leaders unveiled a budget blueprint on Wednesday for Reconciliation 3.0, calling for a $95 billion package to provide funding for defense and intelligence, farm aid and components of the elections overhaul effort, the SAVE America Act -- directing four committees to draft pieces of legislation that ultimately would be wrapped into one bill.

The blueprint would allow for up to $60 billion for military funding and up to $13 billion for intelligence costs -- totaling $73 billion to cover the Iran war as the Pentagon warns it's running out of money to conduct operations there. The plan also includes a long-shot bid to pass components of the SAVE America Act alongside $12 billion in aid for farmers. It did not instruct committees to come up with offsets to the cost of new spending.

The House is racing toward its final legislative week ahead of the five-week summer recess -- so GOP leaders are aiming at holding a vote on the budget resolution next week.

Despite the full-steam-ahead approach from leadership, some House Republicans are expressing trepidation about the budget plan -- largely because it does not include spending cuts or pay-fors -- or corresponding savings