Congress

Rules could be changed within weeks to speed Trump confirmations, GOP senators say

Published

1 year ago

September 3, 2025

Republicans are preparing to change the Senate rules to confirm most of President Donald Trump’s nominees a lot faster.

GOP senators huddled behind closed doors Wednesday to talk through proposals for a party-line overhaul of how presidential nominations are handled — the first time they’ve been able to meet in person since frustration about the slow pace of confirmations boiled over earlier this summer.

Republicans are coalescing around a plan to allow multiple nominees to be confirmed with one vote instead of votes on each individual nomination. And they intend to move fast: Senators expect the plan to be enacted before a weeklong break currently scheduled to start on Sept. 22.

The change would not apply to Cabinet-level nominees or picks for the Supreme Court and courts of appeals, senators said. Republicans are discussing whether to include nominees to federal district courts but haven’t yet reached a final consensus as they work to refine the proposal.

“The consensus is … arriving around the idea of being able to confirm multiple nominees at the same time,” Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 GOP leader, said after the meeting.

Republicans are projecting confidence that they will be able to invoke the “nuclear option” in Senate parlance — that is, change the rules with a simple majority vote along party lines. But party leaders need to ensure the votes are locked down as they work through the fine details.

Three GOP senators could break ranks and still let Vice President JD Vance break a tie. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has already said he doesn’t support going nuclear.

It’s just the latest change over the past decade to the Senate’s rules on nominations. Democrats, under then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, got rid of the 60-vote threshold for most nominations, and Republicans subsequently got rid of the same threshold for the Supreme Court.

Republicans also changed the rules during the first Trump administration to cut down on the amount of debate time required for most executive nominees as well as district court judges.

They’re also leaving the door open to allowing recess appointments, which would let the president bypass the Senate altogether, at least temporarily. But that idea is sparking unease in some corners of the conference, and some Republicans argue that a permanent rules change that would also apply to future administrations is the better option.

Even as Republicans move toward overhauling confirmation procedures, GOP senators reiterated this week that there is no appetite within the conference to get rid of the “blue slip” tradition, which allows senators to block district court and Justice Department nominees in their home states. Some Republicans said they’ve reached out to Democrats to see if there’s any appetite for bipartisan rules changes, but GOP senators anticipate they will need to act along party lines.

Democrats have defended their slow-walking of Trump’s nominees with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying last week that “historically bad nominees deserve a historic level of scrutiny by Senate Democrats.”

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

6 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

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.

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

6 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

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.

Congress

Sanders, AOC, Merkley propose bill to ban Flock cameras

Published

12 hours ago

October 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday released text of legislation intended to ban the use of Flock surveillance cameras and other license plate readers.

Flock has faced severe public backlash against the surveillance technology following reports that police officers misused the technology to track women, and it has the largest network of license plate readers across the U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) hosted a hearing last month probing its potential misuses, although the company’s CEO Garrett Langley did not appear.

The latest bill, unveiled Friday and named the Ban Flock Act, would bar federal agencies from using automated license plate readers or accessing data from the technology and prevent federal grants from funding states and local governments that use automated license plate readers.

“At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Sanders, who has positioned himself as a leading progressive voice on AI technology, said in a statement. “We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.”

Ocasio-Cortez similarly condemned the surveillance capabilities of the technology and said the bill would “enforce our constitutional right to privacy and protect Americans from both corporate and government surveillance.”

“No one should have this unchecked surveillance power at their fingertips,” Merkley added.

Republicans have introduced similar efforts to regulate license plate readers, such as Hawley’s Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would require audits and limits on unauthorized searches.

Flock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.