Senators leave Washington without Trump nominees deal

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

Senate Republicans left Washington for the summer without a deal to quickly confirm dozens of nominees — but they are vowing to come back this fall and change the rules to clear the partisan logjam.

Majority Leader John Thune locked in the plan shortly after meeting with GOP senators Saturday night. It effectively pulled the plug on the confirmations standoff for now, with lawmakers saying that President Donald Trump privately told them to abandon negotiations with Democrats and head home.

“The president is fed up,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who has been in close touch with Trump.

Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer discussed the path forward on the floor before it was formalized, a person granted anonymity to disclose the private conversation said.

In a Truth Social message Saturday evening, Trump accused Schumer of "political extortion" for demanding the release of agency funding that the White House has held back in return for the swift confirmations.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) — who, like Mullin, has been involved in the negotiations — said there “was no deal” and that senators are going to “work through our [nominees] that we hadn't done yet" and then leave.

The decision came after Thune and Schumer made a final round of offers late Saturday afternoon. Republicans accused Democrats of changing their negotiation demands, which Democrats refuted, while Democrats claimed Trump foiled Senate GOP leaders' attempts to reach an agreement.

Schumer took his own swipe at Trump, saying in a news conference Saturday night that the president "threw in the towel, sent Republicans home and was unable to do the basic art of negotiating.”

"He went home with nothing," he added.

Trump held multiple calls with a key group of GOP senators on Saturday, and senior staffers for Thune were in close touch with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

“There were lots of offers being made back and forth, and there were several different times where I think both sides maybe thought there was a deal — but you’ve got to be able to close it out,” Thune said Saturday night, adding that “the asks evolved on both sides quite a bit over time.”

Shortly before senators decided to leave town, Trump not only offered the scathing critique of Schumer but also signaled to Senate Republicans that they should not accept the contours of the deal senators have been discussing — speeding up dozens of nominations in exchange for the administration unfreezing certain agency funding.

The money at the heart of the negotiations circled around foreign aid and the National Institutes of Health, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private conversations.

Democrats had also made a separate offer that would clear the way for confirmations of a second tranche of nominees later this year in exchange for Republicans agreeing not to do another rescissions package clawing back previously approved funding.

GOP senators warned they couldn’t commit to eschewing additional rescission packages, which only require a simple majority to get through both the House and Senate, and Trump made clear on social media he was not interested in the trade.

“Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country," Trump said on Truth Social about the agency funding. "Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Instead, Thune teed up seven final nominees for confirmation votes Saturday night before the recess — starting with Jeanine Pirro, the former New York state judge and Fox News host whom Trump nominated as U.S. attorney in D.C.

Pirro was confirmed on a 50-45 party-line vote.

The decision to abandon confirmations for a larger portion of the 150-plus pending nominees represents a U-turn from just hours before when Republicans said they wanted a resolution by the end of the day. They were considering whether to cut a deal with Democrats, change the rules to confirm groups of nominees more quickly or adjourning to allow Trump to make temporary "recess appointments."

Inside a closed-door lunch, Republican senators discussed deploying the "nuclear option" — that is, changing the rules by a simple majority vote — or formally adjourning, which would let Trump make recess appointments.

"We're stuck on stupid," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), when asked about the mood.

Recess appointments were long considered a nonstarter with much of the Senate Republican conference because it would allow Trump to leapfrog the chamber's advise-and-consent role. But it came back into the conversation as frustrations mounted with the slow pace of confirmations this Congress — and Democrats' demands for allowing more Trump picks through.

Thune abandoned the idea Saturday, locking in brief “pro forma” sessions for the next month, which will prevent Trump from making recess appointments.

Republicans now expect to pursue rules changes that would cut down on the amount of time needed to confirm Trump's picks, but only after the summer break ends after Labor Day.

It’s not clear whether Republicans will pull the trigger as soon as they return in September or wait until after a Sept. 30 government funding deadline, lest the the standoff complicate spending talks. In any case, several GOP senators said they believe an eventual rules change is inevitable.

Ideas under discussion include allowing for "en bloc' votes on groups of nominees, reducing the amount of debate time for mid- and lower-level nominees or possibly getting rid of procedural votes for those lower-level nominees. Republicans are also discussing reducing the number of nominees subject to Senate confirmation.

“What Schumer has done, he’s forced this. It’s ridiculous that he’s doing this,” Mullin said. “Every action requires an equal reaction.”

Schumer, in a floor speech Saturday, defended his party's strategy on Trump's picks, saying that "historically bad nominees deserve historic levels of scrutiny."

"I saw the majority leader bring out a chart again today, comparing the situation right now to past nominees from past administrations. What he fails to mention is that we have never seen nominees as flawed, as compromised, as unqualified as we have right now," Schumer added.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Schumer's No. 2, recounted on Saturday how Republicans have held up Democratic nominees, including leaving a Supreme Court seat vacant. “When we talk about balance and fairness and reforming the Senate," he said, "it goes both ways."