Senators hoping to escape Washington for a monthlong recess instead found themselves trapped Thursday by a growing pile of unfinished business, with Republican infighting threatening to keep the chamber in session.
Several items on the Senate’s end-of-session agenda appeared ready to be punted for September as Republican leaders confronted disagreements within their own conference as well as Democratic opposition.
Not helping the Senate’s case was that none of the outstanding bills and nominations the GOP-controlled chamber had hoped to accomplish by Thursday afternoon were must-pass items. But for some, more time in Washington means less time on the campaign trail, as several GOP incumbents face competitive November reelections.
“I have no idea what we’re going to do,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told reporters following a closed-door GOP lunch with Vice President JD Vance. “I’m not kidding.”
The chamber could also vote as early as Thursday evening on a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that was delayed by Democrats, as well as on a measure to confirm another 74 of President Donald Trump’s nominations. Other priorities, however, seem hopelessly stuck.
GOP efforts to advance a funding bill to keep the government running through the November elections and avert an Oct. 1 shutdown have been delayed over a provision delaying a ban on hemp-derived products such as gummies and vapes sold at gas stations.
But even more in jeopardy than the bipartisan government funding patch was a bipartisan measure to regulate cryptocurrencies and digital assets, a framework for the GOP’s latest party-line reconciliation spending bill to advance Trump’s agenda, and the confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general, who’s serving in an interim capacity.
“It’s clear as mud right now,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said of the Senate’s pathway to recess. She and outgoing Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) are standing in the way of Blanche’s confirmation.
Vance attended Thursday’s GOP lunch amid lobbying from the White House to keep the delay on the ban for hemp-derived THC products attached to the government funding bill. A delay would likely benefit the son-in-law of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who runs a company that manufactures and distributes hemp-derived products. The White House has denied any involvement from Wiles. Opponents to pushing back the ban cite easy access for minors at common stores such as gas stations.
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) is behind an amendment to strip out the delay and spoke with Trump earlier this week about his effort.
But the vice president did not sway the reefer madness debate among his former Senate colleagues. The only hemp-related question Vance fielded was one made in jest about whether he’s ever smoked hemp while attending Yale University, to which he declined to address, according to Kennedy.
SENATE GOP AGENDA ON BUDGET BILL AND SAVE AMERICA ACT THREATENED BY UNCERTAINTY
“It was really funny because he said he came prepared to talk about hemp, but nobody asked him any questions about hemp,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) placed on the Senate calendar Thursday a GOP voter ID proposal and a bipartisan bill to ban stock trades for members of Congress, but he said it was unclear when they might receive votes.