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{"id":26793,"date":"2026-08-07T12:02:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-senators-find-their-exit-strategy\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T12:02:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:02:38","slug":"capitol-agenda-senators-find-their-exit-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-senators-find-their-exit-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Senators find their exit strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The Senate\u2019s plan to get out of town <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/08\/06\/congress\/senate-sets-up-exit-strategy-01028508\" target=\"_blank\"><u>is coming together<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Majority Leader <b>John Thune<\/b> 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.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s still a number of questions that need to be answered if Thune wants to adjourn for recess by the end of the day:<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 BLANCHE\u2019S FATE: <\/b>President <b>Donald Trump<\/b>\u2019s pick for attorney general needs to secure at least one more vote to be confirmed before the break.<\/p>\n<p>It looks like it&#8217;s all up to Sen. <b>Bill Cassidy<\/b> after Sen. <b>Lisa Murkowski<\/b> announced Friday morning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/08\/07\/congress\/lisa-murkowski-opposes-todd-blanche-01028553\" target=\"_blank\">she is opposed<\/a>. Thune indicated Thursday night Blanche\u2019s fate was uncertain and that leaders were \u201cstill working to get the final vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 SAVE AMERICA ACT<\/b>: 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 \u2014 which includes elements of Trump\u2019s election security legislation.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s right flank would have otherwise forced a vote on the framework.<\/p>\n<p>But as we\u2019ve previously reported, Republicans don\u2019t believe the budget resolution has the votes within the conference to be adopted \u2014 meaning the expected initial vote today will fail to clear a simple majority threshold.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 TIME AGREEMENT<\/b>: GOP leaders need to strike an agreement to finish other business, including passing the stopgap government funding bill and advancing a college sports bill.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, any single senator could still object to expediting the chamber\u2019s agenda, which would derail Thune\u2019s goal of getting members out of town by the end of the day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been having these conversations with Democrats trying to figure out what\u2019s the path,\u201d Thune said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll see how it goes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 GOP EXPECTS CRYPTO BILL DELAY:\u00a0<\/b>The Senate will leave for the chamber\u2019s August recess <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/08\/06\/congress\/senate-republicans-expect-to-depart-without-taking-up-crypto-bill-01028473\" target=\"_blank\">without holding<\/a> 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\u2019t come to the floor until lawmakers return to Washington next month, two of the people said.<br \/><b>\u00a0<\/b><br \/><b>\u2014 COLLEGE SPORTS BILL STUMBLES:\u00a0<\/b>Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/07\/30\/congress-college-sports-overhaul-lobbying-01015703\" target=\"_blank\">legislation to impose new guardrails<\/a> on college sports is looking increasingly unlikely to hit the floor this week. Eleven senators objected to expedited consideration of the <a href=\"https:\/\/legislation.politicopro.com\/bill\/US_119_S_4668\" target=\"_blank\">Protect College Sports Act<\/a> after Thune <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/08\/05\/congress\/senate-vote-college-sports-01025456\" target=\"_blank\">filed cloture<\/a> earlier this week, two people familiar with discussions told Blue Light News.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 OGLES OUSTED: <\/b>GOP House leaders lost an incumbent \u2014 and a perennial headache \u2014 with Rep. Andy Ogles\u2019 primary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/08\/06\/ogles-loses-tennessee-house-primary-01028492\" target=\"_blank\">defeat in Tennessee<\/a> Thursday night. His loss to former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher<b>\u00a0<\/b>represents the second Trump-endorsed candidate to lose a primary this week.<\/p>\n<p><i>Jordain Carney, Mia McCarthy, Andrew Howard and Jacob Wendler contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate\u2019s 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\u2019s still a number of questions that [&hellip;]<\/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-26793","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\/26793","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=26793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}