Senators on both sides of the aisle left the Capitol frustrated as they began an August recess following seven months of work that saw political messaging wars crowd out legislative results.
Aside from a major foreign aid package in April, most big-ticket legislative items stalled, leaving lawmakers with little to brag about ahead of November’s elections.
“Abysmal,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said about the chamber’s “work” so far.
It’s far from unusual for legislation to take a back seat to messaging in a presidential election year, but it nonetheless provoked complaints — with each party blaming the other.
“Yes, I wish we could have done more,” he added.
On top of the consistent flow of judicial and “When you’ve got MAGA Republicans in control of the House, obviously it makes it harder to get things done because they don’t want to move forward in a bipartisan way,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who lauded the passage of the foreign aid bill and most of the Senate’s appropriations work, though he conceded the latter item is a “low bar.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee has advanced 11 of the 12 bills, but none has received floor votes.
On top of the consistent flow of judicial and executive branch nominees, the Senate was also able to clear the decks on multiple must-pass packages, including government funding and reauthorizations of the Federal Aviation Administration and the nation’s warrantless surveillance program.
The Senate last week also passed a pair of bills aimed at boosting child safety and regulating tech companies, but action on those only happened after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) held months of what Republicans have derided as “show votes.” Most of those were part of the party’s messaging on reproductive rights.
Schumer also didn’t put rail safety legislation on the floor — much to the chagrin of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who is embroiled in one of the top reelection battles in November. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the new GOP vice presidential nominee, is the lead GOP sponsor of the proposal, which is being opposed by corners of GOP leadership.
Senate Republicans also charged that Schumer held one final one on Thursday before members bolted for recess on the House’s bill that expanded the child tax credit. Senate GOP members have overwhelmingly opposed the effort, arguing that the Democratic leader was not trying to get a legislative result by putting it on the floor.
Schumer laid the blame at the feet of his Republican colleagues.
“Today, Senate Republicans boldly told the American people we refuse to help you in 2024, and we want to be frank, Republicans voted no because of partisanship, not policy,” he said after the vote failed.
Election-year troubles also doomed the most ambitious legislative effort by lawmakers this year — the bipartisan border bill cobbled together by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), which was killed almost as soon as it was released by conservatives.
Former President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) led the charge to sink the package, arguing it didn’t go nearly far enough to satisfy their palette, with Republicans also unwilling to give President Biden a political win on an issue that remains a sore spot for Democrats.
The chamber’s schedule is also prompting frustration on the GOP side, especially over the past two years since Republicans won back the House, over what they say is a light workload and Schumer’s decision to start some weeks of Senate work with a “magic Monday.”
During those weeks, votes in the chamber are usually held Tuesday evening, with members leaving for the weekend on Thursday afternoon. In both 2023 and 2024 ahead of August recess, nine weeks started with a session on Tuesday compared to only one such week in 2022.
“Why not go home?” Cramer said. “When we’re here, it’s not like we’re working either.”