After a long weekend, the Senate has another busy week of confirming President Donald Trump’s nominees, with the most contentious — and potentially laborious — of the week coming up first.
The Senate votes at 5:30 p.m. on whether to limit debate on the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be director of National Intelligence, which could set her up for a confirmation vote on Tuesday night.
Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to lead Health and Human Services, are likely to be the most-watched nominees in line for floor votes this week.
A cloture vote on the Kennedy nomination will happen once Gabbard is either confirmed or sidelined. Democrats last week got more aggressive in forcing an all-night session and additional procedural votes in a signal of opposition to Trump’s aggressive executive actions.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he wrestled with the decision of whether to support Kennedy before voting to advance his nomination last week.
“It’s been a long, intense process. But I’ve assessed it as I would assess a patient as a physician. Ultimately, restoring trust in our public health institutions is too important, and I think Mr. Kennedy can get that done. And as chairman of the Senate committee with oversight authority of HHS, I will do my best to make sure that is what we accomplish,” Cassidy said in a floor speech.
House delays, Senate moves ahead on budget
Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., unveiled a fiscal 2025 budget blueprint on Friday that would lay the groundwork for reconciliation legislation addressing Trump’s immigration, defense and energy policy priorities, with a markup scheduled both Wednesday and Thursday morning.
“This budget resolution jumpstarts a process that will give President Trump’s team the money they need to secure the border and deport criminals, and make America strong and more energy independent,” Graham said in a statement.
However, the Senate resolution does not address the expiring tax cuts from the first Trump term or other fiscal priorities. House Republican leadership (and at times, the president) have expressed a preference for one big bill that would include tax cuts.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on Fox News Sunday that the House budget resolution was not yet ready to be released. He had been aiming for it to be marked up as soon as Tuesday.
“We might push it a little bit further,” Johnson said.
In what could be related Senate scheduling news, the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote at 9 a.m. Thursday on the nomination of Kash Patel to be the FBI director. The Budget Committee is set to meet at 10 a.m., and a number of lawmakers, including Graham and Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, will be needed at both committees.
The House floor schedule this week features two key items. One of those is a bill designed to stop so-called “Midnight Rules.” The bill would allow for consideration of joint resolutions of disapproval to block more than one executive regulation at a time, under certain circumstances.
The other is another immigration measure. That bill, sponsored by Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., would impose new penalties for people operating motor vehicles to flee from the Border Patrol and other law enforcement near the border.
Other nominations
Beyond the Kennedy and Gabbard nominations, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has gotten the ball rolling toward floor votes on several other Trump nominees. That includes Howard Lutnick, the nominee to head the Department of Commerce; Brooke Rollins to be secretary of Agriculture; and former Sen. Kelly Loeller, R-Ga., to lead the Small Business administration.
Lawmakers will likely also be reacting to Trump’s Sunday announcement on Air Force One that he would be imposing steel and aluminum tariffs of 25 percent.
“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 percent tariff,” Trump said. “Aluminum too.”
The president also said there would be an upcoming announcement about broad reciprocal tariffs affecting countries around the world. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., previewed that announcement on Sunday.
“Here’s what we’re trying to deal with, and it goes all the way back to World War II. In the aftermath, we made very favorable terms of trade with countries whose economies have devastated in Europe and Japan. We should have time-limited that. We should have put some type of GDP-per-capita limit on it, because what we have now are countries that have very unfavorable and unfair terms that are fully developed. So, it’s time to address this; it’s already begun to happen,” Hagerty said on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”
David Lerman contributed to this report.
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