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{"id":27308,"date":"2026-09-28T12:04:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-thune-plots-final-votes-before-midterms\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:04:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T12:04:47","slug":"capitol-agenda-thune-plots-final-votes-before-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-thune-plots-final-votes-before-midterms\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Thune plots final votes before midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The Senate is \u2014 finally \u2014 on the verge of making a great escape.<\/p>\n<p>After last week\u2019s decision to stick around and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/22\/senate-republicans-affordability-election-01089124\" target=\"_blank\">try to make headway<\/a> on a number of GOP priorities, Senate Republicans could leave town as soon as Wednesday, according to several senators and aides.<\/p>\n<p>A long-sought permitting vote isn\u2019t happening (more on that below), so John Thune\u2019s pre-election to-do list is relatively light.<\/p>\n<p>It starts with final passage of the bipartisan bill <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/15\/congress\/college-sports-bill-advances-01078084\" target=\"_blank\">overhauling the college sports industry<\/a>, which is expected Monday night. But the idea that a sports bill could be the last item of Senate business before Election Day has some optics-minded GOP senators grumbling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are worried about the cost of living, I don\u2019t know how else to say it,\u201d said an increasingly vocal Sen. John Kennedy. \u201cWe just haven\u2019t addressed it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Enter the GOP\u2019s two-for-one special: They\u2019re bringing up a House-passed bill \u2014 the Ratepayer Protection Act \u2014 aimed at curbing data-center-driven utility cost hikes. They hope the vote will divide Democrats on a hot-button issue and give endangered Sen. Jon Husted something to tout back home in Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>Thune is expected to tee up the bill Monday night for a vote Wednesday. A Schumer spokesperson said over the weekend the bill \u201cfalls short\u201d and said Democrats would seek a \u201cstronger standard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blocking a data-center bill wouldn\u2019t make for great headlines for Democrats. On the other hand, they\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/25\/senate-democrats-data-center-vote-01092898\" target=\"_blank\">in no mood to do favors<\/a> for Husted, who is facing ex-Sen. Sherrod Brown on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n<p>Also on the agenda: Republicans are discussing votes on measures from Husted and Sen. Pete Ricketts, who is in his own competitive race in Nebraska, to roll back California\u2019s stricter standards for vehicle emissions.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re also likely to vote on a House-passed bill to curb lawmaker stock trading. The stock trading bill is being led by Ricketts, and it includes voter ID requirements that have been championed by Husted.<\/p>\n<p>And while Sen. Kevin Cramer removed his hold on one more nominee \u2014 Chris Klomp for deputy health secretary \u2014 the Senate isn\u2019t expected to vote on that nomination this week.<\/p>\n<p>Cramer is maintaining his broader nominee <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/09\/cramer-drops-hold-on-trump-nominees-following-detente-in-wetlands-feud-01090370\" target=\"_blank\">blockade over Fish and Wildlife regulations<\/a> \u2014 meaning Labor secretary nominee Keith Sonderling and other picks are likely to wait until November.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 THE SENATE\u2019S HOMELAND ROADBLOCK \u2014<\/b> Sen. Rand Paul has become <a href=\"http:\/\/politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/28\/rand-paul-senate-roadblock-homeland-security-01093700\" target=\"_blank\"><u>nearly impossible to get around<\/u><\/a> on everything from cybersecurity to immigration legislation. The Homeland Security chair\u2019s refusal to move forward on several legislative fronts means his colleagues will have to wait until at least January to try to advance their priorities when a new Congress convenes and Paul potentially moves to Senate HELP.<br \/>\n <br \/>\n <b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 COLLINS DECRIES POCKET RESCISSIONS \u2014\u00a0<\/b>Top Republican appropriator and battleground Sen. <b>Susan Collins\u00a0<\/b>Friday night blasted President <b>Donald Trump<\/b>\u2018s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/25\/trump-declares-1b-canceled-in-pocket-rescission-in-another-affront-to-congress-funding-power-01093960\" target=\"_blank\"><u>move to unilaterally<\/u><\/a> cancel funding Congress enacted. Collins pledged to work with other lawmakers \u201cto address these illegal actions.\u201d The president declared canceled nearly $1 billion in a budget maneuver called a \u201cpocket rescission.\u201d The move will almost certainly set up an ugly government funding battle after the midterms, as top Democratic appropriators are also already calling on their GOP colleagues to reject the effort to circumvent Congress.<\/p>\n<p><i> Eric Bazail-Eimil, Maggie Miller, Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.<\/i><br \/>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate is \u2014 finally \u2014 on the verge of making a great escape. After last week\u2019s decision to stick around and try to make headway on a number of GOP priorities, Senate Republicans could leave town as soon as Wednesday, according to several senators and aides. A long-sought permitting vote isn\u2019t happening (more on [&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-27308","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\/27308","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=27308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}