⚡️ Special Edition: Senate makes spending deal but noms fight continues

IN THIS EDITION

Senate locks in approps votes while noms deal remains elusive

Trump fires BLS head after weak jobs report

THE TOP

Senate locks in approps votes while noms deal remains elusive

Happy Friday evening.

The Senate is in session on a Friday in August — go figure! We wanted to give you an update on where things stand on multiple fronts and what the weekend may look like for senators and staff.

Appropriations. Senate leaders locked in a bipartisan deal to vote on a three-bill FY2026 funding package along with a slew of amendments, breaking a logjam that has plagued appropriators in both parties for weeks.

The agreement, which covers the Military Construction-Veterans’ Affairs, Agriculture and Legislative Branch appropriations bills, has signoff from all 100 senators.

The proposal would allow for a separate vote on the Legislative Branch funding bill but still include it in the full package. This is to satisfy a demand from Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), an appropriator who opposes the Leg Branch measure and wants to be able to vote against it.

The Senate is currently voting on amendments to the spending package and is expected to move to final passage this evening.

Getting these three bills done before the August recess is a win for Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), ranking Democrat on the panel. Appropriators are desperate to avoid a shutdown or passing another continuing resolution to fund federal agencies.

“These bills all mean a great deal to each of us,” Collins said on the floor as she locked in the agreement. Collins noted that all the bills had been considered at the subcommittee and full Appropriations Committee level, and all three passed by big margins.

But there’s still a long way to go on getting FY2026 bills through Congress and signed into law. The White House is proposing huge cuts to social programs next year, on top of the massive Medicaid and SNAP cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

House Republicans have stuck closely to the Trump administration’s spending plan, setting up a clash with the Senate. The three bills the Senate is considering all include small spending increases, anathema to the House.

And if the White House offers another rescissions package before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 – something that’s been rumored for weeks – that could destroy any chances of a bipartisan deal with Democrats and lead to a government shutdown this fall.

Nominations. As we wrote in Midday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is letting the White House and Senate Democrats hash out an agreement on a package of nominations that the Senate could quickly confirm before leaving town for the August recess.

This comes after President Donald Trump called for the Senate to clear the entire executive calendar, which includes more than 150 nominees awaiting floor consideration.

That won’t happen. But Senate Democrats are entertaining offers to confirm many of Trump’s nominees — particularly those that got bipartisan support in committee — if the White House agrees to lift freezes on certain funding.

GOP senators discussed the nominations fight during their lunch meeting Friday. According to multiple attendees, Republican leaders said they intend to draft a rules-change proposal for senators to consider when they return from the recess in September.

Republicans have been discussing a number of different ways to speed up the confirmation process for Trump’s nominees, who have faced an unprecedented blockade by Senate Democrats.

Thune has spoken publicly in recent days about proposals that have been floated by Democrats in the past, including the idea of getting rid of Senate confirmation for some lower-level nominees. Other proposals include allowing multiple nominees to be voted on at the same time on the floor, as well as further reducing post-cloture debate time.

— Andrew Desiderio and John Bresnahan

THE ECONOMY

Trump fires BLS head after weak jobs report

President Donald Trump said Friday he would fire Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, a dramatic step toward undermining global trust in U.S. economic data.

Trump declared without evidence this afternoon that McEntarfer “faked” today’s job figures, which showed a weakening labor market and vanishing job gains.

“Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate,” Trump posted. “They can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”

As we wrote this afternoon, the employment report featured significant downward revisions for May and June. May’s job gains were revised from 144,000 to 19,000 and June’s from 147,000 to 14,000. The process is typical and happens every month.

But these revisions happened to eliminate virtually all the jobs apparently created since May, making the Trump economy as a whole look worse in retrospect. Republicans also complained mightily when Biden-era job numbers were revised downward, suggesting his labor market had been inflated.

Economists and policymakers have become increasingly worried about the quality of the jobs report data and other crucial statistics that come out of the BLS.

But the problem is resources and capacity, not a grand conspiracy. The bureau has struggled to maintain the quality of its surveys with the Trump administration’s hiring freezes and other constraints.

Firing McEntarfer, a former President Joe Biden appointee, will not alleviate those concerns. Instead, there will be new concerns.

In a statement, American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley blasted the decision. “Presidents don’t get to blame career workers when their policies don’t deliver,” Kelley said.

The Hill responds. It didn’t take long for Senate Democrats to sound the alarm. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer noted on the floor that the BLS head received nearly 90 votes when she was confirmed in early 2024. One of those aye votes came from now-Vice President JD Vance.

“The American people will still suffer in exactly the same way that they did an hour ago, before you fired the head of the BLS,” Schumer said.

Senate Republicans aren’t exactly enthused, either. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said the decision was a “head scratcher.”

“Sometimes, the deliverer of bad news isn’t the one who’s responsible for the news,” Lummis said. “I think it may be better to find out what’s behind the statistics, as opposed to who delivered the statistics.”

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) was more circumspect. “I have been more than frustrated with the quality of analytic output from everything from the CBO to BLS and otherwise,” Hagerty said. “So I understand the frustration. I haven’t had a chance to get the details on this, though.”

This fits into a larger trend with Trump. The president, who can’t seek reelection, is far more willing to take drastic steps to bend the mechanisms of the federal government to his will.

Trump has taken extraordinary steps in laying off tens of thousands of federal employees. The White House and OMB have withheld billions of dollars in federal spending. And Trump has launched hugely aggressive deportation campaigns, staking out dramatic new claims on presidential power.

There’s also Trump’s unprecedented pressure campaign against Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell over cutting interest rates, something the Fed has declined to do during Trump’s second term.

“Too Little, Too Late. Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell is a disaster. DROP THE RATE! The good news is that Tariffs are bringing Billions of Dollars into the USA,” Trump posted on Truth Social today.

But Trump hasn’t dared to go as far as to fire Powell, despite his threats. There would be a huge backlash from the Hill and Wall Street. Powell also has warned there would be a legal challenge to any such move.

– Brendan Pedersen and John Bresnahan