Congress
Senate will vote on nixing California clean-air waivers, Thune says
Senate Republicans will move this week to nix California’s vehicle emission waivers, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, setting up a high-stakes fight over the chamber’s rules.
Thune said in a Tuesday floor speech that he will move forward with three House-passed resolutions that use the Congressional Review Act to roll back EPA waivers that effectively let California set its own emission standards. Thune’s announcement comes after weeks of internal deliberations within the conference and public pressure from members of his leadership team to hold a vote.
That’s because the Government Accountability Office has found that the California waivers aren’t a rule and thus aren’t subject to the CRA, which allows Congress to nix regulations with only a simple majority, bypassing the threat of a Democratic filibuster. Crucially, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has backed up that ruling.
Democrats have warned GOP leaders that they view moving forward with the disapproval resolution over MacDonough’s guidance to be akin to deploying the “nuclear option” undermining the filibuster.
Thune declined after his speech to detail how Republicans will get the resolution to a final vote, saying that it’s still a “little early.” Several GOP senators acknowledged this week that they were working through “options.” He and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) met with four potential GOP swing votes on Monday night — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), John Curtis (Utah) and Bill Cassidy (La.) — to talk about the procedural mechanics of the resolution.
It’s unclear how Democrats will respond after issuing their dire warnings. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced on Tuesday that he would slow-walk four EPA nominees in response to Republicans pursuing the disapproval resolutions.
“If my Republican colleagues open this door and overturn the Parliamentarian’s wise safeguards on this type of abuse, there would be no practical limit, and the Senate could be forced to vote repeatedly on such matters that are clearly not ‘rules’ notwithstanding the plain language of the CRA,” Padilla said in a statement.
Republicans have brushed off criticism by noting that most Senate Democrats previously voted unsuccessfully to create a separate exception to the 60-vote legislative filibuster.
“I don’t believe that it’s nuking the filibuster,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), criticizing Democrats who previously voted for a civil-rights carve-out now raising a “hue and cry about nuking the filibuster.”
Still, multiple GOP senators have raised questions privately about if sidestepping the parliamentarian would be weakening their own chamber’s rules and setting a precedent about what qualifies under the Congressional Review Act that would come back to bite them the next time Democrats are in power.
But GOP leadership and supporters of the resolution are trying to turn the internal debate from the parliamentarian, whom many of them are wary of openly defying, to the role of the Government Accountability Office. Some have accused the agency of making a politically motivated decision.
Collins, after the meeting in Thune’s office, said that senators were still discussing the procedural path for the resolution but added that “I definitely want to see the rule overturned.”
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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