John Thune has a long to-do list, a shrinking runway for getting it done and a president in the peanut gallery.<\/p>\n

The Senate is back Monday with only two more weeks \u2014 more realistically, eight legislative days \u2014 in town until the chamber leaves Washington through mid-September.<\/p>\n

The majority leader wants to clear a government funding stopgap, a long-stalled Russia sanctions bill and dozens<\/u><\/a> of nominees<\/u><\/a>, but he\u2019s also facing pressure from President Donald Trump and some of his right flank to make progress on the SAVE America Act, a GOP election bill that doesn\u2019t have the votes to pass.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latter that will be the biggest headache for Thune after Trump told Senate Republicans<\/u><\/a> to adopt the blueprint for a $95 billion spending bill, which would include election-related funding, before leaving for August break.<\/p>\n

Most GOP senators, however, don\u2019t expect that to happen<\/u><\/a> \u2014 and the budget blueprint doesn\u2019t have the 50 votes it needs right now among Senate Republicans to be adopted despite Trump\u2019s public overture.<\/p>\n

Then, over the weekend, Sen. Mike Lee signaled he opposed<\/u><\/a> the Senate leaving for the recess without passing the election bill. Lee could force a vote if he wants to on whether or not to adjourn \u2014 though he\u2019s previously tweeted about how the Senate shouldn\u2019t leave and then done nothing about it. Sen. Rick Scott also posted Sunday<\/u><\/a> that he stands with Lee in opposing a recess until SAVE America is passed.<\/p>\n

Lee also fired off a warning for Thune<\/u><\/a>, saying the fate of the election bill \u201ccould impact\u201d the November Senate GOP leadership elections. Thune is running again for leader and most GOP senators believe he\u2019s secure in his job. But a few, granted anonymity to speak candidly, have questioned if Trump, who is fuming behind the scenes, would target him after the midterms, especially if Republicans lose the majority.<\/p>\n

Thune will have to balance those questions this week, while trying to move the agenda he views as actually accomplishable.<\/p>\n

On that front, senators will take a vote Monday night on Jay Clayton\u2019s director of national intelligence nomination (more on that below) and they could pass the Russia sanctions bill as soon as this week, if they can get a time agreement. This week is also key for Judiciary senators to decide whether to advance<\/a> Trump\u2019s attorney general pick Todd Blanche. And senators are working around funeral arrangements<\/a> for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.<\/p>\n

Likely waiting until next week: A vote on a bill to fund the government into December as bipartisan talks proceed positively, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. An initial vote on cryptocurrency legislation, known as the Clarity Act, is also likely to be punted to next week, but Democrats, so far, aren\u2019t on board.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

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

\u2014 JEFFRIES MAKES HIS CLOSING MIDTERMS PITCH: <\/b>Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke at an event in Pennsylvania\u2019s<\/a> swingy Lehigh Valley with Gov. Josh Shapiro and House candidate Bob Brooks to make his closing argument for why voters should hand his party the gavels 100 days from the midterms. His message? Affordability. Affordability. Affordability. The minority leader\u2019s latest commitment to lowered costs gives a clearer preview of how Democrats would govern in the majority.<\/p>\n

\u2014 FLOOD SEES FRAUD-BUSTING IN RECON 4.0:<\/b> The head of a GOP group representing some of the House\u2019s most vulnerable members this fall seems confident the party will tackle a fourth reconciliation bill with fraud-busting provisions. Republican\u2019s Recon 3.0 budget framework is still facing an uncertain future in the Senate after being adopted by House lawmakers last week. But House Main Street Caucus Chair Mike Flood<\/b> said in an interview he believes House Republicans do another party-line bill after the midterm elections. Read the full Q&A with Flood on PoliticoPro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Riley Rogerson and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Thune has a long to-do list, a shrinking runway for getting it done and a president in the peanut gallery. The Senate is back Monday with only two more weeks \u2014 more realistically, eight legislative days \u2014 in town until the chamber leaves Washington through mid-September. The majority leader wants to clear a government […]<\/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-26532","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\/26532","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=26532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}