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In its final week before the month-long August recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to send Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination to the full Senate, while senators separately advanced a bipartisan stopgap spending bill to keep the government funded through December 11 and avert a pre-midterm shutdown.
The Senate on Aug. 3 voted 89-4 to begin debate on a bipartisan continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through Dec. 11, aiming to avert a shutdown when current funding expires Sept. 30. The House has already left for its August recess, so the two chambers must still reconcile competing versions before the deadline.
With the House already out until Aug. 31, the Senate reconvenes Monday afternoon for a single scheduled vote — a cloture motion on the vehicle for a stopgap government funding bill (H.R. 6500) — kicking off what is likely its last working week before a five-week break. The weekend was quiet on Capitol Hill, but the past week produced major action on Russia sanctions and a party-line intelligence confirmation.
With the House gone for its August recess until Aug. 31, attention is on the Senate, which returns Monday evening for a cloture vote to begin debate on a stopgap spending bill aimed at averting another government shutdown before the Sept. 30 funding deadline.
Senate Republicans were forced to shelve Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination in the Judiciary Committee after two GOP senators withheld support, while the chamber cleared little else before a quiet end to the week. The House has been in its August recess since July 24.
In its final days before the August recess, the Senate on July 30 narrowly rejected a Democratic resolution to limit President Trump's military campaign against Iran, even as a bipartisan Russia-and-Iran sanctions bill named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham advanced toward final passage.
The Senate took two more procedural steps this week toward passing a sweeping Russia and Iran sanctions package renamed for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, voting 84-12 Wednesday to formally begin debate a day after an 86-12 vote to advance it — with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy watching from the gallery. The House has already left Washington for its long summer break, so no final action is possible until September at the earliest.
The Senate confirmed Walter "Jay" Clayton as director of national intelligence on a 51-47 party-line vote Tuesday, then voted 86-12 to advance a long-stalled Russia sanctions package renamed for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. The House remained out of session.
The Senate voted 51-43 Monday night to advance Jay Clayton's nomination for director of national intelligence, setting up final confirmation Tuesday, while a memorial service for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and a first vote on the Russia sanctions bill he championed dominate the day. The House has left for its August recess, leaving the Senate as the only chamber in session.
The Senate reconvenes Monday afternoon to hold a make-or-break procedural vote on Jay Clayton's nomination as director of national intelligence, while the House has left Washington until late August after a burst of party-line votes on the Iran war and a member stock-trading ban.
Both chambers were essentially dark over the weekend of July 25-26, with the House gone for a five-week recess and the Senate adjourned until Monday afternoon. The most recent notable action came Thursday and Friday, when the House cleared several partisan priority bills before leaving town and the Senate lined up a bipartisan Russia-Iran sanctions package for its final pre-recess sprint.
In their final actions before adjourning for the weekend, the House and Senate reached opposite results Thursday on measures to force an end to the Iran war, though a majority of voting lawmakers in each chamber backed pulling U.S. troops out. Both chambers are now out of session, with the Senate not due back until Monday.
The House voted 214-208 on Thursday to direct President Trump to end U.S. hostilities against Iran, with four Republicans crossing party lines, but a parallel Senate measure failed 47-49 hours later, leaving the symbolic rebuke without teeth as lawmakers scattered for a five-week recess.
The House narrowly passed a $1.15 trillion defense authorization bill and a companion budget blueprint teeing up more than $70 billion for the war with Iran, sending both to an uncertain fate in the Senate as lawmakers rush toward the August recess.
The House voted along party lines to begin debate on the fiscal 2027 defense authorization bill and a Republican budget resolution that would let the GOP write a filibuster-proof reconciliation package covering defense, farm aid and voting rules. In the Senate, Republicans moved a contested Trump appeals-court nominee toward final confirmation.
The House returned from a weekend break and passed a batch of bipartisan health-care bills on July 20 in its final scheduled week before the long August recess, while the Senate took a single evening vote to advance President Trump's nominee Benjamin Flowers to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
After a quiet weekend with both chambers out, the House and Senate reconvene Monday, July 20, for their final week before the August recess, with House Republicans lining up floor votes on a stock-trading ban, a fiscal 2027 budget blueprint to unlock a partisan reconciliation bill, a stopgap spending measure, and a second attempt at the annual defense authorization bill.
With both chambers out of session over the weekend of July 18-19, the most consequential recent developments were the House pulling its 60-plus-provision veterans package before a final vote amid a dispute over how to pay for it, and the Senate setting up a Monday showdown over a Trump appeals-court nominee.
The House Budget Committee approved a $95 billion party-line reconciliation blueprint for Iran war funding, farm aid and voter-ID measures on July 16, teeing up a full House vote next week even as Senate Republicans signaled deep skepticism. The chamber convenes for a rare Saturday pro forma session today to keep the effort on track.
House GOP leaders abruptly shelved the Take Care of America's Veterans Act (H.R. 9237) on Thursday just before a final vote, after a Democratic motion to send the bill back to committee failed by a single vote and leadership concluded it lacked the support to pass. It marked the second time in two weeks the measure was pulled from the floor.
The House on July 15 passed the fiscal 2027 National Security, State Department and Related Programs Appropriations Act by a near-party-line 217-209 vote, while the Senate seated Darline Graham Nordone, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, as South Carolina's first female senator.
The House on July 14 voted 308-117 to make daylight saving time permanent and passed a bill barring firearm-specific payment codes, while Senate Democrats blocked the annual defense authorization bill in protest of President Trump's ongoing war against Iran.
After a two-week recess, the Senate reconvened Monday and confirmed a Trump district-court nominee for the Southern District of Texas on a near party-line vote, while setting up a Tuesday confirmation vote for an appeals-court judge and a procedural vote on the annual defense policy bill. The House also returned and moved a batch of narrow, mostly bipartisan bills.
After a week of pro forma sessions around the July 4 holiday, the House and Senate returned to legislative work Monday, July 13, with the Senate teeing up two judicial confirmations and the $1.5 trillion FY2027 defense authorization bill, and the House resuming votes in the evening.
Both chambers were out of session over the weekend, with only brief pro forma meetings on the record. The House returns Monday facing the same intraparty Republican impasse that forced an early recess and left the annual defense bill, spending bills, and expired surveillance powers unresolved.
Both the House and Senate were out of session over the past two days, holding only brief pro forma meetings, and neither chamber will hold votes until Monday, July 13. The most consequential recent action remains the House's late-June passage of a sweeping children's online safety package now stalled in the Senate.
Both the House and Senate spent the past two days in recess, gaveling in only for seconds-long pro forma sessions with no votes or hearings, and are set to return to legislative business on Monday, July 13.
Both the House and Senate remain in their two-week July 4 recess, meeting only in brief pro forma sessions this week with no votes or hearings. The Senate is not scheduled to return until July 13, leaving only a few weeks until the August recess to consider appropriations bills.
Both the House and Senate remained in their post-July 4 recess over the past 24-48 hours, holding only brief pro forma sessions with no votes. The most consequential recent action was the House's passage of a sweeping children's online safety bill, which now faces long odds in the Senate.
The House and Senate were on their weeklong July 4 recess over the last 24-48 hours, meeting only in brief pro forma sessions with no legislative business. The most consequential recent action was the House's June 30 rejection of the rule needed to bring the fiscal 2027 defense bill to the floor.