Jan 23, 2025 - Politics & Policy

Thune plunges into weekend standoff over Trump confirmations

Stef W. Kight

This is John Thune — Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is making good on his threat to keep the Senate working after hours, vowing to go straight through the weekend if Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) doesn't cut a deal to speed things up.

Why it matters: Pete Hegseth for Defense is expected to get a final confirmation vote around 9pm ET on Friday, if Democrats take up the full 30 hours of debate time.

Kristi Noem for Homeland Security is up next, with a cloture vote tomorrow and a final vote landing between 3 and 4am on Sunday.
Scott Bessent for Treasury follows, then Sean Duffy for Transportation. Their final votes could be pushed into early next week.

Zoom in: Hegseth lost two GOP votes — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — in Thursday's procedural vote.

But some Republicans hope Democrats will be more willing to cut deals on the other nominations.
Noem, Bessent and Duffy were approved by their relevant committees with bipartisan support.
Noem had just two "no" votes against her and Duffy's vote was unanimous.

The other side: CIA Director John Ratcliffe also won bipartisan support in committee, but Schumer still allowed Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) to ensure the confirmation process took as long as possible.

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Thune plunges into weekend standoff over Trump confirmations

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