The Senate will try to break an impasse Friday to advance three spending bills in hopes of showing progress after days of discord. A separate holdup over presidential nominations, meanwhile, could come down to direct talks between Democrats and the White House.
A patchwork of objections from senators on both sides of the aisle have held up the spending legislation for days and foiled a plan for what some had hoped would be a four-bill package. But members expressed new optimism Friday that a second, more limited attempt could move forward.
It’s one of two pieces of major business Republican leaders are hoping to wrap up before the Senate starts its traditional summer recess. In addition to the spending bills — where they are keen to show some progress ahead of the Sept. 30 government shutdown deadline — they also want to confirm a broad tranche of President Donald Trump’s nominees.
The nominee conversations appear more dicey, senators said, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Friday that he has put Trump officials “into conversation directly” with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s team. Top White House staffers were also in the Capitol on Thursday night after Thune met with Trump at the White House.
“This is how this is ultimately going to get resolved,” Thune said.
Meanwhile, GOP senators said leaders are running traps on a possible deal that would advance the smaller package of spending bills.
Under the pending proposal, leaders would seek unanimous consent to tie together the fiscal 2026 spending bills funding the Veterans Affairs and Agriculture departments, as well as military construction projects and the FDA. A third spending bill, funding Congress itself, could be voted on separately.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins said Friday morning she expects a unanimous consent request on some constellation of those three bills. The Maine Republican is eager to show progress on bipartisan spending bills before the Senate leaves for its lengthy August recess. Upon their return, members will have only a handful of session days to make further progress ahead of the shutdown deadline.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has made clear he will object to including Legislative Branch funding in the package and wants the chance to vote against the $7.1 billion bill. It’s the smallest of the 12 annual appropriations bills, but Kennedy maintains it still costs too much.
“They agreed to my proposal,” he told reporters Friday. “They’re going to have one vote on [Military Construction–VA] and [Agriculture-FDA] together and separate vote on [Legislative Branch] so I can vote no. Then they’ll marry them up later if all three pass, as they probably will.”
Coming to a nominations deal could be much trickier, given Trump’s determination to get all of his 150-plus pending nominees confirmed quickly.
Trump on Thursday said on Truth Social that the Senate “must stay in Session, taking no recess” until all of the nominees are confirmed. Even if senators stay in Washington, that goal will be all but impossible to meet absent Democratic cooperation.
Democrats under Schumer are exploring whether to quickly confirm a smaller subset of nominees in exchange for other concessions, such as the release of government funding they claim has been illegally “impounded” by the Trump administration.
Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.
