{"id":11747,"date":"2025-07-28T12:01:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-john-thunes-pre-recess-game-plan\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T12:01:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T12:01:56","slug":"capitol-agenda-john-thunes-pre-recess-game-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-john-thunes-pre-recess-game-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: John Thune\u2019s pre-recess game plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Senators are racing the clock to make a dent in both the government funding process and President Donald Trump\u2019s backlog of nominees before heading home for August recess.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is hoping to get the first appropriations package through the chamber by the end of this week, with lawmakers on the hook for landing a deal to avoid a shutdown come Sept. 30. To that end, GOP leaders are negotiating with members of their conference over a \u201cminibus\u201d of three bills that would, collectively, fund the departments of Commerce, Justice, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, as well as key military construction projects and the FDA. Sen. John Kennedy\u2019s (R-La.) opposition to including legislation that would fund congressional operations will likely force leadership to postpone debating a fourth bill at this time.<\/p>\n

The pending package will require senators to run out two, 30-hour debate clocks; the ability to move faster will require buy-in from all 100 senators. It will also take time for lawmakers of both parties to agree on amendments and then hold votes, and Democrats are still deliberating their strategy, according to a person granted anonymity to share private negotiations. Republican leadership still believes it can pass the mini-bus before leaving town, according to a second person granted anonymity. But one potential fallback option, according to two people granted anonymity, could be for the Senate to schedule a final passage vote before they leave town for the first week back in September.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans are also under pressure from Trump to confirm more of his nominees before heading home for recess. Thune has warned his members to prepare to vote at least through this weekend after the president urged senators to stay in Washington through August to wrap up the work, though many lawmakers aren\u2019t pleased with that idea. They\u2019re eager, instead, to get back to their home states, especially as they look to counter Democratic messaging against the freshly-passed GOP megabill.<\/p>\n

Other Senate Republicans say they\u2019re ready to give Trump what he\u2019s after. Over the weekend, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) repeatedly urged his colleagues to either work through August to advance nominations or cancel all pro-forma sessions over the next month to allow Trump to make recess appointments. \u201cThe Senate can\u2019t have it both ways,\u201d Lee said in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley also said he\u2019s on board with the president\u2019s call for the Senate to stick around to vote on nominations through August, writing on X,<\/a> \u201cTrump needs his administration in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans have typically been unenthused by the idea of recess appointments, though, and it\u2019s unlikely they\u2019d go along with that plan. And while Thune is threatening to keep the Senate in session deeper into August, many lawmakers view it as just that: a threat to get Democrats to cut a deals on nominations to get out of town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say that we\u2019re going keep the pressure on the Democrats to, you know, stay here until either they cooperate or we\u2019re just going to grind it out and do it the old fashioned way,\u201d Thune told Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 What lawmakers do about Gaza: <\/b>As the U.S. pulls out of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, GOP leaders say Hamas\u2019 inability to cooperate is damaging any hopes of progress in the region. Democratic leaders, meanwhile, are sending dire warnings to Israel \u2014 and telling Trump his administration needs to take urgent action.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Johnson\u2019s Epstein headache persists: <\/b>Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) are determined to finish collecting the 218 necessary signatures to force a floor vote compelling the release of more Jeffrey Epstein files. Their bill will be eligible for a floor vote upon the House\u2019s return in September.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators are racing the clock to make a dent in both the government funding process and President Donald Trump\u2019s backlog of nominees before heading home for August recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is hoping to get the first appropriations package through the chamber by the end of this week, with lawmakers on the hook […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}