⚡️ Special Edition: Thune, Schumer and Trump face off over noms, funding

IN THIS EDITION

Thune, Schumer and WH struggle over nominations and rescissions

SPECIAL EDITION

Thune, Schumer and WH struggle over nominations and rescissions

Happy Saturday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are engaged in high-stakes negotiations with the White House over nominations, federal funding and whether the Trump administration will offer another rescissions package this fall, according to multiple senators and aides.

If a deal happens — and it’s not clear as of this Saturday afternoon that it will — that may be a signal that a government shutdown can be avoided later this year.

If not, Senate Republicans are threatening to change Senate rules before they leave for the August recess. Not only would that demonstrate a further breakdown in the Senate’s once-prized comity, but it would also make clear that a government shutdown is likely once the current funding runs out on Oct. 1.

Following a meeting with Senate Republicans on Saturday, Thune told reporters “there better be” a deal by tonight.

Thune and Schumer met off the Senate floor on Friday night, although that hasn’t led to a breakthrough yet.

“We would love to have a reasonable deal struck,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) added. “Or, we go to [plan] C and do a rules change.”

State of play: Here’s the situation currently:

— Schumer has made an offer to Thune and the White House to increase the number of Trump nominees that Democrats are willing to clear in return for the Trump administration “unfreezing” billions of dollars in funding for NIH and foreign aid programs, according to three sources.

Democrats say they will greenlight a small batch of nominees moving forward immediately if the funding is unfrozen.

None of these nominees would include judges or the most controversial presidential picks, said the sources. But it would give Trump and Senate Republicans a win on how many nominees have been cleared.

— Schumer also wants the White House to commit to not offering another rescissions package in return for clearing a second batch of nominees. This may be too much for the White House to accept, but it’s critical for Hill Democrats.

This is the key piece of these talks, Democrats say. They want to make this provision a formal part of any unanimous consent agreement — if the White House sends a rescissions package to the Hill, any deal on the second tranche of nominees would be off.

Schumer, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) — top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee — and House Democrats have all stated repeatedly that if the White House moves forward with a second rescissions package, that would blow up any chances for a bipartisan funding deal and could result in a government shutdown.

The Senate passed three FY2026 appropriations bills on big bipartisan votes Friday night: MilCon-VA, Agriculture and Legislative Branch. All three were at higher funding levels than House Republicans have proposed. Both Thune and Schumer called it a breakthrough. Yet it won’t matter to Democrats unless the White House gives in on the rescissions issue, which they see as part of Trump trying to undermine Congress’ power over federal pursestrings.

— Senate Republicans are cautioning that because of Democratic “obstruction,” it may be necessary to change the way nominees are considered.

GOP senators floated several different changes to the Senate’s rules this week, including shifting some lower-level nominees to presidential appointments and getting rid of cloture motions for certain nominees. Republicans also discussed allowing some nominees to be voted on “en bloc,” which is currently the standard practice for most military promotions.

Republican senators also have proposed shortening debate time, which is currently set at two hours for most nominees.

Both sides say that if this standoff drags into next week, then a rules change becomes more likely. Republicans would have to use the “nuclear option” of changing the rules by a majority vote — instead of normal two-thirds vote — to implement this new procedure, a move that’s bound to set off a firestorm inside the chamber.

Again, no deal on nominees is a clear sign that a government shutdown is very possible this fall, so this whole fight is worth watching closely.

We’ll have more updates for you as this story unfolds.

– John Bresnahan, Max Cohen and Haley Talbot