Congress
Democrats vow payback in Senate rules fight
Senate Democrats are vowing that Republicans will face consequences over their decision to hold a vote to nix California’s emission standard waivers — even after receiving non-binding guidance from the chamber’s parliamentarian that those waivers didn’t qualify for reversal under the Congressional Review Act process.
The rhetorical warning shots come after Majority Leader John Thune announced that Republicans, after weeks of internal party deliberations, would officially move forward with floor votes on three disapproval resolutions to eliminate the Biden-era EPA waivers that effectively let California set its own emission standards.
“It’s going nuclear plain and simple, it’s overruling the parliamentarian,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters. “What goes around, comes around.”
Republicans haven’t yet outlined what procedural hurdles they will need to clear to get the resolutions to final votes of adoption on Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office concluded the waivers didn’t qualify for repeal under the CRA, which lets Congress overturn certain administration rules with a simple majority threshold in the Senate within a certain window of time. The Senate parliamentarian backed the GAO up in its findings.
But Republicans — and a handful of Democrats — are vehemently opposed to the waivers, saying they are overly burdensome and unrealistic. The House went ahead and voted to repeal the waivers with CRA resolutions in recent weeks with some Democratic support.
Democrats are warning, though, that moving forward now in repealing the waivers through the CRA in the Senate will be akin to deploying the “nuclear option,” a term both parties use for changing the Senate’s rules, and which will come back to bite Republicans when they are back in the minority.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, said Tuesday that if Republicans proceed, “they should expect that a future Democratic government will have to revisit decades worth of paltry corporate settlements, deferred prosecution agreements, and tax rulings.”
“These partisan actions cut both ways,” Wyden added.
Democrats are also privately strategizing over more immediate consequences for Republicans, though they haven’t yet specified what those would look like as they wait to see how Republicans will try to get the disapproval resolutions to final votes.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), for instance, announced Tuesday that he will slow-walk four EPA nominees and more actions could be in the offing.
“There’s a growing list of potential CRAs that we may bring, and we don’t have to wait until we’re back in the majority to bring them. There are some CRAs that we would likely bring in the coming weeks, months, if Republicans go through with this,” Padilla said in a brief interview, though he declined to talk specifically about Trump administration actions Democrats might try to undo.
Republicans, for their part, have hinted they want to keep the Senate’s focus on the role of the GAO rather than the parliamentarian, who many in the GOP ranks are wary of directly defying.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the parliamentarian, confirmed Tuesday through a GOP senator presiding over the chamber floor that she had advised leadership offices that the disapproval resolutions didn’t qualify for reversal under the CRA.
Still, Republicans have bristled over Democratic protests that they are undercutting the legislative filibuster, noting that nearly every Democrat voted during the Biden administration on an unsuccessful attempt to create a carve-out to lower the threshold for voting rights legislation.
Democrats have cast the move by Republicans to ignore the parliamentarian as a warning sign they could be willing to flout her on other things, too — like what policies can and can’t be included in the GOP’s party-line tax and spending package that could be coming over from the House as soon as this week.
“The only people who have attempted to get rid of the legislative filibuster are the Democrats,” Thune said. “Every single one of them up there that’s popping up and spotting off has voted, voted literally, to get rid of the legislative filibuster. This is a novel and narrow issue that deals with the government accountability office.”
Senate Republicans confirmed dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees Friday, just before they leave for a five-week congressional recess.
Senators voted 51-47 to approve officials at the Departments of Defense, Energy, State and other agencies.
They included David Cummins to head the Transportation Security Administration, Cameron Hamilton to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Hal Duncan to be OMB deputy director and Francis Brooke to be Treasury deputy secretary. Among the group were several ambassadors, including former Rep. David Brat to be ambassador to Australia.
Senate Republicans changed the chamber’s rules last year to be able to confirm lower-level nominees as a package instead of having to hold a vote on each.
After finishing the expedited procedure Friday, Senate Republicans estimate they will only have a small number of civilian nominees awaiting confirmation.
President Donald Trump said voters may seek to punish Republicans — but not him — in the November midterm elections, as GOP lawmakers sweat that affordability concerns and the war in Iran could mean Democrats flip the House and perhaps even the Senate.
“They’re angry at Republicans,” Trump said in an interview with Punchbowl News that aired Friday. “But they’re not angry at me. They’re not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.”
The GOP faces the prospect of heavy losses this November, as gas and grocery prices remain stubbornly high due in part to the White House’s five-month-long war in Iran. The administration’s guidance on campaign trail messaging has been “tone deaf,” House Republicans fear.
Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has tumbled since he returned to the Oval Office last year, and even his biggest supporters have grown frustrated over his Middle East war.
And with a messy, jam-packed slate of primaries now all but in the rearview mirror, Democrats are determined to go on offense. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has 58 seats on its midterm target map that stretches into redder territory — while still facing an uphill climb to take the Senate.
Trump has a massive war chest at his disposal. His MAGA Inc. super PAC reached $400 million in June. The president told Punchbowl he plans to use it to “help Republicans,” but he stressed that he faces no pressure in this campaign cycle.
“I said to somebody, ‘Wait a minute, you don’t understand, I won,’” Trump said, referencing his 2024 presidential election victory. “I’m not campaigning.”
The biggest issue for Republicans this year? That Trump himself is not on the ballot, he said.
“If I don’t run, will those people go out and vote? And that’s the one thing I can’t tell, I’m going to ask them to,” he said.
The Senate’s plan to get out of town is coming together.
Majority Leader John Thune teed up a final vote on the Russia sanctions legislation for this morning, as well as a confirmation vote for dozens of nominees and a procedural step on a stopgap funding bill.
But there’s still a number of questions that need to be answered if Thune wants to adjourn for recess by the end of the day:
— BLANCHE’S FATE: President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general needs to secure at least one more vote to be confirmed before the break.
It looks like it’s all up to Sen. Bill Cassidy after Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Friday morning she is opposed. Thune indicated Thursday night Blanche’s fate was uncertain and that leaders were “still working to get the final vote.”
— SAVE AMERICA ACT: Thune said to expect a vote related to the SAVE America Act as well as an initial vote on a budget blueprint for a third party-line spending bill — which includes elements of Trump’s election security legislation.
The decision to hold the budget vote comes after two Republican senators, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Blue Light News Thursday they believed Sen. Mike Lee or another member of the GOP’s right flank would have otherwise forced a vote on the framework.
But as we’ve previously reported, Republicans don’t believe the budget resolution has the votes within the conference to be adopted — meaning the expected initial vote today will fail to clear a simple majority threshold.
And it’s not clear Lee or like-minded senators will be satisfied and allow for lawmakers to adjourn for recess without more action on the elections measure. The senator has made similar threats over the past year but has never followed through.
— TIME AGREEMENT: GOP leaders need to strike an agreement to finish other business, including passing the stopgap government funding bill and advancing a college sports bill.
At this point, any single senator could still object to expediting the chamber’s agenda, which would derail Thune’s goal of getting members out of town by the end of the day.
“We’ve been having these conversations with Democrats trying to figure out what’s the path,” Thune said.
“We’ll see how it goes,” he added.
What else we’re watching:
— GOP EXPECTS CRYPTO BILL DELAY: The Senate will leave for the chamber’s August recess without holding a vote on a landmark cryptocurrency bill, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Thune may still file cloture on the bill, but it likely won’t come to the floor until lawmakers return to Washington next month, two of the people said.
— COLLEGE SPORTS BILL STUMBLES: Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell’s legislation to impose new guardrails on college sports is looking increasingly unlikely to hit the floor this week. Eleven senators objected to expedited consideration of the Protect College Sports Act after Thune filed cloture earlier this week, two people familiar with discussions told Blue Light News.
— OGLES OUSTED: GOP House leaders lost an incumbent — and a perennial headache — with Rep. Andy Ogles’ primary defeat in Tennessee Thursday night. His loss to former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher represents the second Trump-endorsed candidate to lose a primary this week.
Jordain Carney, Mia McCarthy, Andrew Howard and Jacob Wendler contributed to this report.
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