Spending, Sanctions, and Confirmations – The Senate Earned Its Recess

After days of will they, won’t they, lawmakers in the Senate finally gave America a long-awaited finale this Friday. And it was just as grand a finale as expected. Gaveling in at 10 a.m. Eastern on Friday morning, the Senate accomplished – in a marathon session just shy of 19 hours – nearly everything they failed to finalize throughout the week leading up. It must have been a tired bunch of legislators who adjourned at 4:56 a.m. Saturday morning. But at least they get their five-week break.

A Wild Ride for Todd Blanche

With many high-profile agenda items getting ticked off the list in Friday’s session, it’s difficult to say which was actually the biggest news of the night. But a definite contender would have to be Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general. He was officially nominated on June 8, though he had been serving as acting attorney general since President Donald Trump fired Pam Bondi on April 2 and as deputy director since his confirmation back in March of 2025. And boy has it been a wild ride.

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Not long after taking over the AG office, Blanche notoriously negotiated a settlement between the IRS and President Trump – while the DOJ was actively representing the IRS in the lawsuit between them! The out-of-court agreement ended an audit, barred the agency from launching any new ones into Trump or his family and businesses, and established an anti-weaponization fund fueled by US tax dollars – all of which drove lawmakers on both sides of the aisle up the wall. Blanche, who had previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer, was immediately vilified by legislators across Congress and the parties, and his eventual nomination to take on the role permanently was both expected and frowned upon by many in the Senate GOP.

For a while, it seemed clear he wouldn’t get his confirmation. The president even threatened to pull the nomination and try again after January, with a fresh batch of senators. A deal was struck, however, last week. Blanche signed an order officially killing the anti-weaponization fund and “clarifying” the settlement so that the IRS is only prohibited from launching new investigations into the Trump family and holdings regarding anything that took place before the settlement itself. The two GOP holdouts on the Senate Judiciary Committee – the lame-duck legislators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina – agreed to advance him.

Monday then saw the 12-10 committee vote advancing Blanche to the Senate floor – but in doing so, they tossed him out of the frying pan and into the fire. All 48 Democrats were already on record as opposing his confirmation, and they weren’t alone. Susan Collins (R-ME) joined them early on, leaving just Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski of the GOP undeclared. With at least one in favor, he wins. With both opposed, he loses. And if one opposes and the other abstains, he’d need the VP to cast the tie-breaking vote.

Murkowski announced early Friday morning she was a no; what slim chance Blanche had seemed to be evaporating. But then, around lunchtime, Cassidy caved, announcing that he would provide the 50th vote to make acting AG Todd Blanche the real deal. And that was the last thing the Senate did Saturday morning, before adjourning. The final vote – an almost precisely party-line 50-49 – came in just before 5 a.m.

The Senate Giveth, and the Senate Taketh Away

Two other big-ticket items were on the docket Friday, and both were checked off in a much more bipartisan way. The continuing resolution that would fund the government through December 11, kicking the full funding can down the road until after the midterms and just before the end of the legislative year, cleared cloture 91-6 just after 2 p.m. Friday afternoon, and achieved final passage 90-6 after limited attempts to amend around 3:40 Saturday morning.

The bipartisan support was matched – in diversity even if not magnitude – by the opposition. Sens. Tillis, James Lankford (R-OK), and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) didn’t vote at all on the issue, though in McConnell’s case, that’s because he wasn’t there. The “NAYs” were Republicans Bill Cassidy and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and they were joined by Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Edward Markey (D-MA), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) – an eclectic mix of progressive, socialist, and establishment Democrats to join an establishment Republican and another who can best be described as more libertarian.

Darline Graham, who took over for her late brother, Lindsey, voted “present” because the bill includes death benefits for her brother’s heirs.

Speaking of the late Lindsey Graham, the Senate also passed a sanctions bill targeting Russia and Iran in his honor around 2 a.m. The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 aims to cut off foreign energy revenues currently funding Russia’s war on Ukraine by establishing tariffs up to 100% on goods imported from nations that continue to buy Russian oil and gas – most notably China and India. Several other sanctions are included against Russia and its leadership, but – by recent request of the White House – the bill also now includes expanded sanctions against Iran, stretching economic restrictions out to 2031.

Nearly swallowed up by the headline-grabbing big three of the night, the Senate also confirmed en bloc a whopping 74 executive branch nominees, including former Navy SEAL Cameron Hamilton as the new head of FEMA.

Notably, they didn’t pass the SAVE America Act. But they did vote on a slimmer, scaled-back voter ID bill to satisfy the president and GOP holdouts who hoped to see SAVE passed before the August recess. Ultimately, lawmakers agreed to put off the formal SAVE America Act vote until after the recess and settle for a “lite” version introduced by Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH). Predictably, it failed 52-48, with all present Republicans voting “AYE” and all present Democrats voting “NAY” – the expected eight votes shy of 60.

Show vote though it may have been, it was sufficient. Just moments after confirming the newly minted AG Todd Blanche, the Senate adjourned by voice vote. And so ends the epic saga of this week in legislation – but it leaves us with a cliffhanger. Every legislative item that passed the Senate in Friday’s session must be agreed to by the House, which won’t return from its recess until August 31.