{"id":32608,"date":"2026-08-08T14:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32608"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:18:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:18:56","slug":"senate-adjourns-for-five-week-recess-after-funding-bill-passage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32608","title":{"rendered":"Senate adjourns for five-week recess after funding bill passage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/thunejohn_071526nk06_w.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>The Senate adjourned for a five-week recess early Saturday morning after passing a bill to <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/6018009-senate-government-funding-bill\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fund the federal government<\/a> until Dec. 11 and confirming Todd Blanche <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/6017820-senate-todd-blanche-attorney-general-nomination\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as attorney general<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Republicans also <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/6018225-gop-deal-budget-resolution-save-america-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">agreed to set aside<\/a> \u2014 for the moment \u2014 President Trump\u2019s demand to approve another budget resolution to pave the way for tens of billions of dollars in new military spending and to pass the SAVE America Act.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Senators will return to their home states or take congressional delegation trips abroad for the next several weeks and are not due to return to Washington until Sept. 14.<\/p>\n<p>Passage of the continuing resolution to fund the government past the election takes a lot of pressure off senators in both parties ahead of the September work period as both Democrats and Republicans were eager to avoid stumbling into another government shutdown before the midterm election.<\/p>\n<p>The stopgap funding measure passed 90 to 6, with Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) voting present because the legislation includes a death benefit for her brother Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s (R-S.C.) heir.<\/p>\n<p>The funding bill was held up by an intense fight within the Senate GOP conference over a provision added at the behest of the White House to delay the implementation of a ban on \u00a0intoxicating hemp-derived products that Congress enacted in November.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) insisted on voting on an amendment to strip the hemp-related language out of the bill but the Senate <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/healthcare\/6017926-senate-delays-hemp-thc-ban\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">voted 61-32 to table it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate later voted largely along party lines to narrowly confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), voted against Blanche, citing their concerns about whether he would maintain the Justice Department\u2019s political independence.<\/p>\n<p>Collins said that Blanche\u2019s actions as deputy attorney general had \u201cfurther eroded the department\u2019s independence\u201d and Murkowski said the \u201cpoliticization\u201d and \u201cweaponization\u201d of the Justice Department has \u201caccelerated\u201d under Blanche\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Blanche\u2019s nomination was saved from derailment, however, when Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who had been undecided for weeks, announced on Friday morning that he would vote yes.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cAll considered, I will vote for Mr. Blanche,\u201d Cassidy he said on the Senate floor, adding with a tone of resignation: \u201cI will be criticized for this vote. What\u2019s new?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Senate voted 50-49 to confirm Blanche, with Collins, Murkowski and all Democrats voting against him.<\/p>\n<p>A key development came late Friday evening when Senate conservatives relented on their demands that the Senate stay in session until Republicans pass a budget resolution to set up a third budget reconciliation bill to fund the Pentagon and the SAVE America Act, Trump\u2019s No. 1 legislative priority.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr4_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Senate Budget Committee Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) agreed to postpone action on the budget resolution until after the August recess after it became clear that it probably would not get 50 votes to advance on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson and conservative Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) spoke to Trump Friday evening to get his approval for a plan to allow the Senate to adjourn without action on either measure.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, Lee and Scott agreed to postpone action on the budget resolution and further debate of the SAVE America Act, which would require people to prove citizenship when registering to vote and show photo identification to vote, after holding a two-hour meeting with GOP colleagues just off the Senate floor.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr5_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThere was a concern whether or not it could actually pass, the budget resolution, tonight,\u201d Johnson acknowledged.<\/p>\n<p>Conservatives instead got Thune and the rest of their colleagues to agree to set up a vote on a bill sponsored by Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) to require voters to show photo identification in federal elections.<\/p>\n<p>That measure later failed\u00a0to advance\u00a0on the floor. It received 52 votes but fell eight short of the 60 needed to move forward.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr6_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Lee indicated that he would not force Republican colleagues to hold a roll-call vote on a politically sensitive adjournment resolution in order to start the recess because he was satisfied with the agreement to vote on the Husted proposal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not in a position right now where we have the wherewithal to pass it right now,\u201d he said of the SAVE America Act.<\/p>\n<p>Thune was able to schedule a series of rapid, overnight votes that allowed the Senate to begin the recess after reaching a deal with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to postpone action on a bill crafted by the Senate Commerce Committee to establish rules and standards for the compensation and recruitment of college athletes until September.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr7_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>A disagreement over whether to hold votes to proceed to the college sports bill and then approve it with a 60-vote threshold had delayed a broader agreement on speeding up the procedural timeline for the continuing resolution and Blanche had stalled Senate action for much of Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate adjourned for a five-week recess early Saturday morning after passing a bill to fund the federal government until Dec. 11 and confirming Todd Blanche as attorney general. Senate Republicans also agreed to set aside \u2014 for the moment \u2014 President Trump\u2019s demand to approve another budget resolution to pave the way for tens&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/thunejohn_071526nk06_w.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}