Congress
Capitol agenda: One day more?
Senators are circling a rapid escape from Washington today.
Majority Leader John Thune told Jordain the chamber could wrap up by the end of Wednesday.
“No certainty around this yet but it seems to be that everybody is … heading toward a glide path tomorrow night,” Thune said Tuesday about the Senate’s impending exit.
The decision will let battleground candidates get home to start campaigning as Republicans try to hold onto control of the chamber.
One issue to watch: Republicans were already missing two senators during Tuesday night’s vote — Sens. Dan Sullivan and Bill Cassidy. And they expect their attendance issues to only grow.
What’s left to do: Thune will bring up a House-passed bill to restrict the ability of members of Congress and their families to trade stocks. It also includes voter ID language being championed by frontline candidate Sen. Jon Husted.
Democrats are expected to block it with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accusing Republicans of “playing partisan political games” by linking the two efforts.
The Senate will then turn to a data center cost bill also championed by the Ohio Republican. Democrats have panned the bill as “toothless” and, as our colleague Amelia Davidson reported, appear to be gearing up to spike it.
Republicans will take a first step toward confirming Keith Sonderling to be Labor secretary. But with the 30-hour debate requirement for Cabinet nominees following an initial vote, final confirmation would keep lawmakers in session until late Thursday — when members decidedly do not still want to be in town and the attendance problems would likely only grow.
If Democrats could be talked into a time agreement, Republicans could confirm Sonderling before a Wednesday night exit. But Thune also appeared skeptical Sonderling would be finished before senators left, which would punt his confirmation into November.
A scheduling question mark: Senate Republicans have six resolutions to cut energy and ship-related regulations members want a vote on, but it’s not clear yet which will get floor time this week.
Thune told us he’d “like” to do some, but it would come down to “vote counts and attendance and everything else.”
What else we’re watching:
— DEMOCRATS UNIFY ON WEST BANK: Senate Democrats, including Schumer, overwhelmingly supported a resolution Tuesday that aimed to shed light on growing Israeli violence against Americans and Palestinians in the West Bank. The measure was ultimately blocked by Republicans in a 47-51 vote, but the unanimous Democratic support (minus Sen. John Fetterman) highlights Democrats’ increasing frustration with Israel’s military conduct across several regional conflicts, including the war with Gaza and the war with the U.S. against Iran. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who forced the vote, said in a statement after he was “pleased that so many of my Democratic colleagues joined this effort,” while slamming Republicans for what he deems denying accountability for crimes by Israeli settlers against Palestinian locals.
— SENATE AWAITS PERMITTING LANGUAGE — Senators on both sides of the aisle are waiting eagerly for the full text of a bipartisan permitting reform package to be released midday Wednesday, A summary of the bill’s broad provisions, obtained first by Blue Light News, had been circulated already, but senators are eager to see the exact legislative language, particularly on the contentious issues that could decide how many votes the package gets in a lame-duck vote. “All the issues are solved in concept,” said Sen. Angus King. “We have to produce legislative language.”
Nico Portuondo and Pavan Acharya contributed to this report.
Sen. Ron Johnson is sending a letter Monday requesting a conference meeting to discuss the midterm results and a delay in the leadership election.
Johnson has gathered enough signatures to force the meeting under the Senate GOP’s rules and is proposing the gathering for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
“Tuesday’s result was a stunning defeat,” Johnson and his backers write in the letter to Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. “Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice”
Republicans still expect their leadership election to be held Tuesday, where Majority Leader John Thune is so far unopposed to lead the party next year in the minority.
Sen. Chris Murphy announced Friday that he has been released from the hospital after suffering a stroke last week, but will miss “several weeks” of Senate votes while he continues to recover.
“The doctors are very encouraged by the progress I’ve made so far,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “In order to take my recovery seriously and get back to work on the quickest timeline possible, I will be spending several weeks at a rehabilitation center after being discharged from the hospital today.”
He added that he remains in touch remotely with his staff and colleagues.
Murphy, who was hospitalized last weekend, said Friday that he was “diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.” Jose Suarez, the Chief of Neurosciences Critical Care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in a separate statement released by Murphy’s office that the senator “experienced a small hemorrhagic stroke.”
“He has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation,” Suarez added.
Murphy is the latest senator to suffer a stroke in recent years. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) were both hospitalized for strokes in 2022. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), at that time a Senate candidate, also had a stroke in 2022 that he later described as near fatal.
The head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said his group will still be power brokers in a massive Democratic majority in a strategy memo previewing plans for next term.
“While some in the press have speculated that a majority of this size undermines our influence within the caucus, they have it exactly backwards,” Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said in the Friday memo obtained by Blue Light News. “Big majorities are good for getting big things done. Our goal is not to win a battle against other Democratic caucuses. It is to pass longstanding progressive priorities that bring down costs, root out corruption, and boost wages.”
The CPC will have at least 105 members next term, according to the memo. If Democrats had a narrow majority, progressives — and any other faction in the caucus — could have used their votes as leverage. Now that presumptive speaker Hakeem Jeffries will have as many 30 votes to spare, Democrats broadly are recalibrating their approach next term.
Casar laid out a “three-pronged” strategy for the CPC to “wield our power” in the three-page memo — tackling legislation, oversight and “holding Donald Trump to his word on populist economic policies.”
“Small majorities give corporate special interest groups the ability to block popular populist policies by recruiting a small number of opponents; a big majority gives us the advantage,” he said.
Casar previewed how the CPC can engage with Trump, noting that “one of the few bright spots for bipartisan lawmaking” was a housing bill that banned private equity firms from buying homes. He noted the caucus should push Trump to cap credit card interest rates, lower credit card fees for small businesses and lower prescription drug costs.
“While we oppose [Trump] strongly on the vast majority of fronts, we should send bills to his desk that would lower prices and raise paychecks. If he signs them, good. If he vetoes those bills, that will propel us to a continued Democratic majority and a trifecta where a Democratic president can sign these proposals into law,” he said.
Casar also outlined oversight targets beyond the administration, urging Democrats to specifically investigate corporations that use customer data for “surveillance pricing,” health care companies that are “taking advantage of seniors” through the Medicare Advantage program and artificial intelligence labs who are “putting jobs and lives at risk.”
“By focusing not just on the Trump administration but also on big corporations and billionaires, we will show the American people we are not just anti-Trump but also pro-worker and pro-consumer,” he said.
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