President Donald Trump has already been clear: He wants Senate Republicans to cancel their August recess, keep lawmakers in town and work through a backlog of nominees.
GOP senators are now considering whether their August recess is really the issue to defy Trump on — and Senate Democrats are deciding whether holding up nominees is really worth their own sanity.
At the moment, Republicans are seriously discussing canceling their August break. At least, that’s what they want Democrats to believe.
“We’re thinking about it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Monday afternoon when he was asked about calling off the August recess to confirm nominees.
“Trying to get his team in place is something that we’re very committed to, and we’re going to be looking at all the options in the next few weeks,” Thune said, disclosing that he’s had “some conversations” with Trump about potentially canceling recess.
Although the Senate has already spent a record amount of time in session this year, there are serious questions about how willing or eager senators are to miss some much-needed time at home just to confirm administration nominees.
Republicans are hoping Democrats will agree to confirm a bunch of nominees en masse. That would allow everyone to take their August break, with party leaders figuring out how many nominees they would have confirmed if they stayed in session and coming to a deal to get as close to that number as Democrats will permit.
But after Republicans rammed through a reconciliation bill and a rescission measure, Democrats aren’t particularly in a mood to make a deal — not when they’ve heard these kinds of threats before.
“Leaders often say that, and it’s rare that they do it,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin told NOTUS. “I hope we don’t reach that point, and we find another way to approach it.”
Whether that’s through some sort of deal or not remains to be seen, but plenty of other Democrats are suggesting they’re ready to call the GOP’s bluff.
“Recess is not that important,” Sen. Cory Booker told NOTUS. “What’s important is that we make a stand in the Senate in every way possible to stop judges from getting on the bench for lifetime appointments that are so disrespectful for the law.”
Sen. John Hickenlooper suggested Republicans weren’t being serious about their threats.
“Just ask around and see how many Republicans have CODELS that they’re supposed to be going on the first week of recess,” Hickenlooper said, referring to congressional delegation trips members often take during weeks out of session. He added that he thinks canceling recess would “disappoint a lot of Republicans and Democrats.”
Still, Republicans say it may be a necessary tradeoff. Trump has made staffing up the executive and judicial branches a key priority. He posted on Truth Social on Saturday that Thune should “cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed.”
Republican Sen. James Lankford told NOTUS on Monday evening that he hopes a deal comes around to keep recess intact. But if not, the chips will fall as they may.
“If we don’t get out of town on time, we just stay, keep working, ’til we get as many done as we need to,” Lankford said. “We’ve got to be able to get them done.”
Democrats themselves also could intentionally make voting bleed into recess — if they really wanted to.
Through a wonky series of procedural tactics, Democrats could belabor every round of voting and chew up time. Durbin said, right now, he hasn’t heard any “specific strategy” on delaying, adding that Democrats “are requiring them to go through all the procedural hurdles, which takes a little longer.”
Still, Democrats have successfully used unusual tactics to delay proceedings this term.
Democrats denied a quorum in the Senate Judiciary Committee just last week, forcing Republicans to revote this week on a slate of nominations. That and other tactics, like forcing every nominee to have a roll call vote rather than allowing some to pass under unanimous consent or a voice vote, can stretch out the process as long as possible.
Booker also deployed the unusual tactic earlier this year of holding a speech on the floor for over 24 hours, winning him points from colleagues and Democratic voters across the country who want to see their elected leaders push back more aggressively against the Trump administration.
But in the U.S. Senate, where some norms are sacred, there are lawmakers on both sides who’d like to see some more bipartisan bonhomie. After spoiling so much faith with the rescission bill and the reconciliation package and the strong-arm process Republicans used to pass both, some lawmakers would like to see the Senate get back to regular order.
For instance, Durbin said the tactic of denying committees a quorum should be reserved for special occasions, noting that “you’ve gotta be careful where you overplay your hand and change the rules.”
Thune, for his part, also said he hopes precedent might make a comeback in the Senate.
“It’d be nice to have Democrats who actually would kind of act more according to historical precedents when it comes to this,” he said Monday of a deal on nominations.
And then, of course, there is the matter of exhaustion. Senators have spent so much time in Washington fighting over legislation that both parties could benefit from a break.
Their scheduled Fourth of July recess was cut short by the final scramble to pass reconciliation. In the Senate, they’ve had about 25 session weeks, which is much more time in D.C. than they’re used to.
Their sessions have included four all-night vote-a-ramas, trapping members on the floor for hours at a time. And the last few months have been scattered with high-profile acts of political violence, sending ripples of fear and discomfort through the halls of the Capitol.
But there are also political implications underscoring the August recess, too.
Staying in Washington would cost Republicans vital days to message on their achievements to constituents. Thune acknowledged that senators need to be in their home states to sell their reconciliation bill, and many are planning to use the month for that purpose.
“People are accustomed to going back,” Thune said. “This is the time of year when they go back and interact with their constituents and talk about some of the things that we’ve gotten done.”
What’s more, for the 19 Senate Republicans facing reelection fights, August is prime time for taking their legislative wins home in preparation for the primary season.
Sen. John Cornyn, one of those Republicans facing a tough primary fight, admitted that staying in Washington wouldn’t be ideal for campaign purposes.
“It won’t help,” he said.