WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers worry the growing controversy over possible Russian ties to the Trump administration is threatening to consume Congress — with federal spending on defense and the GOP's agenda hanging in the balance.

The political process "will grind to a halt" if Congress does not act soon to have fired FBI Director James Comey testify about U.S. President Donald Trump's alleged interference in the FBI's Russia investigation, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Graham serves on both the Senate Armed Services and Judiciary committees and chairs the Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee.

Congress was inflamed Wednesday by news Comey took notes alleging Trump asked him to halt the FBI's investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn's contacts with Russia. The volume is growing in Congress for, alternately, a special prosecutor or a select committee, and for Comey to testify publicly — while Republican leadership has largely dismissed such calls.

Graham, an outlier among Republicans, said in a statement Wednesday: "The country deserves answers to the questions raised and former Director Comey deserves an opportunity to be heard and if appropriate, challenged. … The sooner Mr. Comey testifies publicly before the [Senate] Judiciary Committee, the better for our nation. For all practical purposes the political process will be ground to a halt by these allegations."

Trump and congressional Republicans have an ambitious and politically fraught agenda that includes a health care overhaul needed to provide revenue for tax cuts and a 2018 budget. The president's budget, expected to be announced next week, would use domestic cuts to increase defense — a thorny prospect on its own because Democrats oppose this scheme, and they're needed to pass a budget in the Senate.

Even powerful Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the likely quarterback for Senate tax reform plans, said Wednesday he was worried the GOP agenda could run aground over the Russia and Comey affair.

"We're always concerned about anything that shakes the place up so you can't get anything done," said Hatch, who also said the media's "constant barrage against" Trump was "not very fair."

House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told reporters on the heels of a defense acquisition reform hearing Wednesday that he worried "the political drama" over Comey would suck time and energy away from other congressional priorities.

"I guess you could argue that stuff like [acquisition reform] is bipartisan, and it can press on regardless of that, but yeah, I am concerned that when it comes to budget, when it comes to some of the other things, that it makes it harder," Thornberry said.

Sen. Richard Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat and the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, dismissed the idea Democrats block the GOP agenda until the Russia investigation is resolved. But it was obvious Democrats had other reasons to fight GOP priorities.

"It would be nothing short of a miracle if they could do tax reform," the Illinois lawmaker said of Republicans. "There's an extraordinary convergence of [Republican] goals, and I hope we can come together, but I don't see it, facing as we are a new budget with the Budget Control Act [spending caps], and the notion we're cutting taxes."

"How in the world can they justify the spending — the spending increase for the Department of Defense?" Durbin said. "They'll tell you behind closed doors they're going to take it out of Medicare and Social Security. Try it, just try it."

Democratic Rep. Don Beyer, whose Virginia district holds perhaps the nation's most dense concentration of defense contractors, said the latest Comey issue peaked while the Virginia delegation was meeting with executives from shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries. It immediately cast a cloud of uncertainty.

"[There] was the great fear: How do we get a budget on time? How do [we] get appropriations bills that move the industrial base forward? It's a little frightening," Beyer said.

But Beyer said the inquiry could grow to become less partisan "as the president's behavior gets ever more unacceptable and outrageous." A trickle of Republicans are joining Democrats as they look to their political futures and their agenda.

"There are things they want to get done, and it's not happening under this president," Beyer said of Republicans. 

For example, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, said Wednesday it's time to consider a special prosecutor or independent commission. 

"[I]t's imperative that we — Congress, the FBI, the administration — work to restore the public's trust. In order to grain that credibility, it may be that we need to look to an independent commission or special prosecutor," she said in a statement.

Another Republican outlier, SASC Chairman John McCain, of Arizona, has called for an independent congressional commission to conduct the Russia investigation and is pushing for Comey to testify before Congress in order for the nation to move on.

McCain compared the ballooning controversy to Watergate and the Iran-Contra affair in its attention-stealing ability, as well as its ability to hinder leadership's legislative agenda. Yet, McCain insisted Congress' work, and his committee's National Defense Authorization Act, would proceed.

"For 53 years we've done the NDAA, and we've been through other situations like this," McCain said. "What I worry about is focusing our attention on some of the issues, like Obamacare, like tax reform. It has a tendency to divert attention, even though our work still continues."

Aaron Mehta contributed to this report.

Email:  jgould@defensenews.com  

Twitter:  @reporterjoe 

Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.

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