Congress
Capitol agenda: Why this ‘nuclear’ strike isn’t blowing up the Senate
Senate Republicans are ready to “go nuclear” this week after failing to reach a deal with Democrats to clear a backlog of some 150 of President Donald Trump’s nominees.
Majority Leader John Thune filed a resolution Monday to simultaneously confirm 48 bipartisan executive branch nominees, paving the way for a Thursday vote. Republicans expect it to fail since it will be subject to 60 votes, at which point they will move to overrule the chair and invoke cloture on Thune’s resolution at a majority threshold instead.
If that’s successful, Republicans will be able to start confirming most of the president’s executive branch nominees in groups. They plan to confirm this first batch of nominees next Wednesday and clear the entire nomination backlog before a mid-October recess.
The first group includes low- and mid-level nominees — including the nominations of Kimberly Guilfoyle (Donald Trump Jr.’s ex-girlfriend) and Callista Gingrich (former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s wife) as ambassadors to Greece and Switzerland, respectively. Cabinet nominees and federal judges would not be eligible for group confirmations under the new precedent, Republicans say.
In a floor speech Tuesday, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso will argue the updated process will apply to positions “that in the past never required independent Senate floor action.”
“America needs these men and women working — not stuck in a procedural traffic jam,” Barrasso will say, according to excerpts shared exclusively with Inside Congress.
Democrats are effectively powerless to prevent the rule changes if nearly all GOP senators stick together — and their objections have been relatively muted as they deal with the upcoming shutdown and other political distractions.
It’s a change from the pitched battles around past fights over confirmation rules for judges and executive branch nominees that left a bitter cloud over the chamber.
About the strongest warning came from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who told Republicans Monday, “If you go nuclear, it’s going to be a decision you will come to regret.”
Schumer’s comments serve as a reminder that turnabout will be fair play under a Democratic president with a Democratic Senate majority. But that’s a reality Republicans seem willing to accept.
“You always think about when the shoe is on the other foot, and that is ultimately going to happen at some point,” Barrasso told reporters last week. “But we’re trying to get back to the way this has been previously.”
What else we’re watching:
— Developments in shutdown talks: Top appropriators huddled this week in the first bipartisan, bicameral meeting in pursuit of a government funding deal ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline.
— House to consider NDAA: The House will vote to begin consideration of the annual defense authorization bill at 1:30 p.m. It ran into an unexpected hiccup in Rules Monday night regarding amendments dealing with foreign aid and federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe.
Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and Katherine Tully-McManus 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.
- Ted Cruz blasts JD Vance as ‘insecure,’ says he’s focused on helping GOP win midterms
- Republicans don’t have a clear boogeyman for this year’s midterms
- Republicans tried to punt health care cuts until after the midterms. It didn’t work.
- Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent
- ‘A slow-moving car crash:’ Republicans are wary of the $200 million-plus price tag to save Ken Paxton
- Trump rules out diesel export ban after Europe agrees to tap stockpiles
- Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine
- Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics
- Hochul eyes changes to state’s rape law amid Cornell crisis
- Kansas becomes a surprise Senate battleground
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