Senate Can Act When It Wants to

(Editor’s note: This piece first appeared in Lyceum on August 11, 2026.)

The Senate adjourned last week for its annual five-week August recess. But senators had to work through the night before they could leave town.
 
The House had already left Washington on July 23. The Senate stayed for two more weeks to resolve disagreements over several major issues. By Friday night, senators were negotiating an agreement to finish much of their remaining business and begin their summer vacation. Because the agreement accelerated consideration of legislation and nominations, it required the cooperation of all senators.
 
They eventually got there. 
 
During a marathon session lasting approximately 20 hours, the Senate passed a continuing resolution funding the government at current levels until December 11 and legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia. The Senate also confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general and approved dozens of other presidential nominations.
 
But it left other priorities unfinished. Most prominently, the Senate did not vote on a budget resolution needed to begin work on a reconciliation bill containing the SAVE America Act and additional military funding sought by President Trump. House Republicans had already approved their version. Senate action before August would have positioned Republicans to use reconciliation – a process that can’t be filibustered – to advance parts of the elections overhaul bill when senators return in September. The Senate also failed to vote on the Protect College Sports Act, bipartisan legislation championed by Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash). 
 
The contrast is revealing. The Senate’s ability to fund the government, confirm Blanche, and process dozens of Trump nominees at the last minute demonstrates that senators can overcome obstruction using the chamber’s existing rules when they decide unfinished business must be completed. They could have approached the SAVE America Act the same way.
 
The August Recess Deadline 
 
Congress has long escaped Washington during the summer. For much of its early history, lawmakers finished their work and left town for the year. Former Vice President John Nance Garner famously captured the prevailing attitude: “No good legislation ever comes out of Washington after June.”
 
That became harder as Congress’s workload expanded. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (Public Law 79-601) directed Congress to adjourn for the year by July 31 (subject to exceptions). Congress later established the modern August break in the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970, which amended the 1946 law. The Senate began its first official August recess under the new framework on August 6, 1971.
 
Over time, the August recess evolved from a break in the congressional calendar into an important legislative deadline. 
 
Deadlines change senators’ incentives. Senators may object to unanimous consent agreements expediting legislation or nominations when doing so imposes little cost—their calculation changes when every additional hour of obstruction delays their departure from Washington.
 
The smell of jet fumes concentrates the mind.
 
That dynamic was on full display last week. Senators who had spent weeks disagreeing suddenly found ways to resolve many of those disagreements when the alternative was remaining in Washington through the weekend.
 
The Senate did not acquire new procedural tools Friday night. Its rules did not change. What changed was senators’ willingness to use the rules and time available to advance their priorities – and to impose costs on colleagues standing in their way.
 
That is why the Senate could pass the continuing resolution and confirm Blanche.
And it is why Republicans could have used senators’ desire to leave Washington to force action on the SAVE America Act.
 
Republicans Had Another Option
 
Republicans have spent months arguing that they cannot pass the SAVE America Act because Democrats will filibuster it and Republicans lack the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture.
But Republicans have not required Democrats to hold the floor and talk to prevent action on the bill. Instead, they have treated the anticipated failure of a cloture vote as proof that the legislation cannot pass.
 
Last week demonstrated why that conclusion is wrong.
 
Republicans could have brought up the SAVE America Act and kept the Senate in session. Democrats who wanted to block it could have been required to sustain a talking filibuster. Republicans could have refused to adjourn until the Senate resolved the issue.
 
There is no guarantee that strategy would have succeeded. Democrats may have been willing to continue obstructing. Republicans themselves may eventually have decided the bill was not worth the time required.
 
But that is precisely the point. The Senate’s rules would have forced senators on both sides to reveal how much they cared about the outcome. And the approaching August recess would have made obstruction unusually costly.
 
Senators demonstrated last week that they are perfectly capable of working through the night when their leaders decide unfinished business must be completed. Keeping the Senate in session forced senators to negotiate until enough of them relented to let the chamber finish its work.
Republicans could have done the same thing with the SAVE America Act.
 
They chose not to. Instead, they cited the Senate’s rules as the reason they could not act.
 
Fifty-five years after senators first left Washington for the August recess established by statute, the relevant question is no longer whether the Senate has enough time to do its work.
It is what senators are willing to do with the time they have.