Nominations, renewed fighting in Iran, government funding and President Donald Trump’s flagship election bill await the Senate as it returns this week.
The upper chamber is coming back after a more than two-week hiatus to sprint through the remainder of July and march into the first week of August. And priorities have piled up, be it over divisions between the aisles or within the Senate GOP.
Adding to the uphill climb is the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., meaning that Republicans will be down one key vote in their push to move Trump’s agenda.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., will be put to the task of keeping his conference together, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats are likely to look for any fractures they can in the GOP’s unity to slow down Trump’s agenda.
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But Trump has done his part to derail some aspects of his own agenda, much of it over his determination to force Republicans to pass his flagship election integrity legislation, the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.
He already refused to sign a massive, bipartisan housing package in protest of the stalled legislation and now wants the GOP to attach the SAVE America Act to the perennial, must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which needs Democratic votes to pass. Adding the voter bill to the military funding authorization package would all but guarantee no Democrats would support it.
Republicans hope to begin the process on the NDAA in July and fear that trying to attach the SAVE America Act would just hand Schumer and Democrats leverage.
“We really empower the Democrats to have a reason to be able to stop stuff that otherwise they would probably have to vote for, whether it’s the NDAA, whether it’s an appropriations bill or whatever,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital.
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“They found that this can be an Achilles heel for Republicans because, as soon as we attach it to any kind of bill, they know the votes aren’t there because, at a 60-vote margin, they’ll never get us the votes because they know how important it is to us,” he continued.
One key priority left over from before Republicans left town is replacing acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Bill Pulte, whose appointment by Trump in June blew up Congress’ push to reauthorize one of the nation’s key anti-terrorism tools over calls from both sides of the aisle that he was unqualified for the position.
His replacement, Jay Clayton, will appear for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, weeks after Trump yanked his initial hearing and further threw into doubt lawmakers’ ability to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Another Trump pick, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, will also have his confirmation hearing this week. Blanche, like any nominee, made the rounds with lawmakers before the recess explaining his role in the president’s now-defunct anti-weaponization fund. Whether he survives the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing remains in the air, given some Republicans are skeptical of him. Among those is Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who, for now, appears willing to support Blanche.
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“I’m going to go through the nomination process. I have got a positive predisposition toward Blanche,” Tillis told CNN.
Republicans are also eager to begin the government funding process and put to the test their fears that Democrats will again shut down the government for a political edge.
Rounds, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told Fox News Digital that he expected a handful of spending bills to make their way to the Senate floor during the July sprint.
Senate Democrats have told him they want to fund the government through appropriations, but fear that the Trump administration may withhold funding on some of their priorities. Whether they actually give Republicans the votes to pass the funding bills remains in the air.
“If they don’t do that, then we’ll know pretty well that the political side of the discussion is taking a priority for them,” Rounds said. “And then we just as well start negotiating for a continuing resolution to get through the election and let the chips fall.”
Another issue that could cause Democratic support for legislation to evaporate is the administration’s renewed strikes in Iran, which began last week over frustrations with ships being stymied by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.
Several lawmakers on both sides of the aisle disliked Trump’s temporary agreement with Iran to continue negotiating a longer-lasting peace over the next two months, but welcomed the pause in fighting that came with it.
Trump nixed that last week.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue ‘talks,’” he said on Truth Social. “We have agreed to do so, but the United States has stated to them, in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!”
That will likely once again stoke Democrats’ continued push to rein in his war authorities in the region with even more votes on war powers resolutions in the coming weeks.
Lawmakers successfully passed a non-binding resolution to curb his authority in Iran, but fell short of pushing a full-blown war powers resolution to Trump’s desk.
“Congress voted against more war with Iran,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The U.S. should not be launching new strikes without congressional authorization and restarting a war that has raised gas prices, killed Americans, and hurt the economy. The U.S. and Iran must return to a ceasefire.”
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