{"id":20312,"date":"2026-03-20T12:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-senate-heads-into-a-weekend-grind\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:02:27","slug":"capitol-agenda-senate-heads-into-a-weekend-grind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-senate-heads-into-a-weekend-grind\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Senate heads into a weekend grind"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Get ready for a rare working weekend in the Senate with no break in sight.<\/p>\n

Majority Leader John Thune is keeping senators at the Capitol the next few days to continue debating an all-but-doomed elections bill and advance nominees. Senators may have to work through the following weekend as well if the Department of Homeland Security is still shut down, threatening their planned two-week recess.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not excited about it,\u201d one GOP senator told Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Senate is expected to vote again Friday on a DHS funding bill that will fail.<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u2018SAVE\u2019 action Saturday:\u00a0<\/b>Senators will likely vote Saturday on an amendment to the SAVE America Act that would ban transgender women from participating in women\u2019s sports \u2014 a demand from President Donald Trump that isn\u2019t in the House-passed bill. The amendment will almost certainly fail to reach the necessary 60 votes, given Democrats are likely unified in their opposition. Keep an eye on which Republicans vote against the amendment.<\/p>\n

The Senate could also consider Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer\u2019s procedural gambit to force a vote that\u2019s tangentially related to TSA funding. The effort would need 60 votes, meaning it will likely fail. Republicans could try to kill it before Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mullin vote Sunday:\u00a0<\/b>The Senate will then take its first vote on Sunday to move forward with Sen. Markwayne Mullin\u2019s (R-Okla.) nomination to become DHS secretary, after he cleared a committee vote Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Mullin should be on a glidepath to confirmation. Republican senators believe Sen. Rand Paul\u2019s (R-Ky.) beef is personal<\/a> and doesn\u2019t reflect a larger issue among GOP senators. The question is how many Democrats will vote for their soon-to-be former colleague as the DHS funding impasse goes on. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat who helped advance him out of committee.<\/p>\n

The Senate will also vote likely Sunday to confirm Colin McDonald to be assistant attorney general for national fraud enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Recess at risk: <\/b>Next week isn\u2019t looking much better for the Senate schedule. Absent a DHS deal, Thune said Thursday the Senate won\u2019t leave for its two-week recess.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll find out very quickly, I think, if the Dems want to make a deal,\u201d Thune told Blue Light News Thursday night. \u201cI think there\u2019s deal space there. \u2026 We just got to find out how serious the Democrats are.\u201d<\/p>\n

A DHS funding agreement doesn\u2019t appear likely any time soon. A group of bipartisan senators left a meeting with White House border czar Tom Homan Thursday afternoon with few signs of progress.<\/p>\n

Thune said Republicans are waiting to see if rank-and-file Democrats can get \u201cpermission\u201d to negotiate a DHS agreement, suggesting GOP senators see the path out of the shutdown through the same group that solved last year\u2019s funding fight. But another person granted anonymity to discuss Thursday\u2019s closed-door meeting said it wouldn\u2019t enable Republicans to pick off one-or-two Democrats at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad the White House was here, but we are a long ways apart,\u201d Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told reporters leaving the meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Get ready for a rare working weekend in the Senate with no break in sight. Majority Leader John Thune is keeping senators at the Capitol the next few days to continue debating an all-but-doomed elections bill and advance nominees. Senators may have to work through the following weekend as well if the Department of Homeland […]<\/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-20312","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\/20312","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=20312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}