Senate Majority Leader John Thune sparked commotion around the Hill with his ambitious 2025 calendar, which included regular Friday votes, something of a rarity in the chamber.
Now it’s the first full session week under the new GOP majority, and senators appear poised to go home on — reader, sit down for this — Thursday.
So are Republicans already reneging on their go-go scheduling?
Not exactly: There would have been a Friday vote on a GOP immigration bill had Democrats not agreed to yield back debate time. That sort of exchange happens from time to time in the Senate, particularly when the fate of a bill is certain — as it is with the Laken Riley Act, which will garner significant Democratic support. There are also special circumstances this week, with snowstorms moving across swaths of the U.S., and fires ravaging southern California.
But expect this week’s tango to become commonplace, with peer pressure weighing on Democrats to speed up votes on Republican priorities, essentially allowing the GOP majority to stuff five days’ work into four.
What else we’re watching: There is another unusual element of Thune’s Senate calendar: 10 straight weeks in session to kick off the year, a far longer stretch than the chamber is used to. Typically each chamber schedules one recess week (ahem, “state work period”) per month.
Members tend to get grouchy, if we’re being frank, when kept in D.C. for extended stretches. That especially applies to West Coast members who don’t always take weekly trips back home. We could see a world in which Thune tries to give them a hall pass of sorts, finagling the legislative schedule to allow for an extra long weekend sometime between now and March.
