Congress
Capitol agenda: It’s down to Trump, Schumer and Thune
The Senate’s summer exit is getting complicated as lawmakers brace for some weekend work.
Tensions are running high over government funding negotiations. And Senate leaders have yet to seal a deal to advance dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees as Majority Leader John Thune shuttles between the White House and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Here’s the latest on where things stand.
Funding meltdown – The prospects for two major appropriations bills are dimming after a flurry of drama.
The odds of including the Commerce-Justice-Science bill in an appropriations “minibus” withered late Thursday night. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who has used the bill as a platform to fight the Trump administration’s plans for keeping FBI HQ in Washington, objected to including the CJS legislation in the broader funding package. Van Hollen wants the agency’s campus to move to his home state of Maryland, per a prior agreement.
Van Hollen’s hardball tactics rattled Sen. Jerry Moran, the lead appropriator on the bill, who teared up as he spoke about it on the floor.
Moran said he knew “no path forward” that would allow Van Hollen to amend the bill to address his FBI concerns.
“Our appropriations process is fragile,” Moran said.
The Agriculture-FDA funding bill is still a contender for inclusion in the package. But Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she’s seeking answers first from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins about USDA’s plans for a major reorganization under Trump.
The Senate’s legislative branch funding bill still faces a snag with Sen. John Kennedy. Thune is optimistic the Senate will at least get military and VA funding through before recess.
“We’re trying to work out the rest of the package,” Thune said late Thursday. “And the Dems are now sort of changing their demands with regards to amendments, etc., so we’ll have to see if we can land it early tomorrow morning.”
Noms, noms, noms – Thune met with Trump Thursday to update him on his talks with Schumer to confirm the president’s nominees. It’s the biggest factor threatening to keep the Senate in town longer, given the need to secure unanimous consent to speed up confirmations.
Trump isn’t signaling that a deal is in hand. In a 9:52 p.m. Truth Social post Thursday, he wrote, “The Senate must stay in Session, taking no recess, until the entire Executive Calendar is CLEAR!!!” (Trump separately lashed out at Maine’s senior senator, saying, “Republicans, when in doubt, vote the exact opposite of Senator Susan Collins.”)
Thune staff and Schumer staff are exchanging paper. Senators believe, if it were just up to them, the two leaders could get there. The bigger question is whether any deal they strike can get Trump’s blessing, including Democrats’ demand that the president unfreeze funding for certain agencies.
“It would be easier if Chuck Schumer and Donald Trump would talk, bare-knuckled New Yorker to bare-knuckled New Yorker,” Sen. Kevin Cramer said.
What else we’re watching:
— Republicans eye rules revamp to confirm Trump picks: Senate Republicans are heading toward a potential rules change in the fall to speed up confirming Trump’s nominees. Thune would need support from nearly all Republicans, and it’s not clear he has that yet.
— Mullin plots security boost for senators: Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who leads work on legislative branch appropriations, says he’s still working through potential security protocols for lawmakers back home, after House leaders unveiled increased funding for their members’ residential security. The Oklahoma Republican had previously said a “test program” could be unveiled as soon as August.
“We’re working with Jennifer [Hemingway], the Sergeant-at-Arms, and working through some protocols that may take place and working with state police,” Mullin said. “But yes, we’re very much looking into it.”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
Congress
Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent
President Donald Trump appeared to share Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number in a Saturday morning social media post imploring the Arkansas Republican to get behind a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.
“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”
The president has spent months personally pushing Senate Republicans to end the practice that sees Americans change their clocks twice a year, cementing more sunlight hours in the evening for all twelve months of the calendar. Cotton, whom Trump called “a friend of mine” in the Saturday post, has long argued that making daylight saving time permanent would leave children, farmers and other early risers in the dark for hours on winter mornings.
One of Trump’s key selling points on Saturday: the PGA tour.
“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments,” he said, attaching a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp endorsing the bill. ”Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work.
A Blue Light News call to the cellphone number went to voicemail. A spokesperson for Cotton did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The current version of the bill was introduced in the House in January 2025 by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) leading the Senate version. The legislation would make daylight saving time permanent across most of the country, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. The legislation has been stalled in the Senate since July.
The president encouraged supporters of the bill, dubbed the “The Sunshine Protection Act,” to call Cotton to “let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”
During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he publicly gave out the personal cellphone number of then-rival Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican criticized him. Trump, who came to count on Graham as a reliable Senate ally after he won the presidency, revisited the moment during Graham’s funeral in July, acknowledging that sharing the number was something he “shouldn’t have done.”
Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.
Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.
The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.
The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.
“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”
Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.
He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,
Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.
Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.
House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.
“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.
Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.
Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”
Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.
Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.
“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”
Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.
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