Senate passes funding bill, confirms attorney general amid looming legislative battles

The Senate approved a short-term funding bill on Thursday to keep the federal government operating and confirmed Todd Blanche as the new attorney general of Louisiana. The legislation was passed quickly as the chamber prepared for its scheduled month-long recess and the upcoming election campaign season.

Lawmakers did not advance a Pentagon funding package tied to the conflict in Iran, nor did they move forward on bipartisan proposals to reform college athletics or regulate cryptocurrency. A broader effort to fund election-related provisions of the SAVE America Act, a voting-restriction proposal favored by the White House, also stalled.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the body faced a “series of things that are sort of piled up,” acknowledging the difficulty of reaching consensus. Republican Senator John Kennedy said he planned to travel to battleground states but emphasized the need to finish legislative work before adjourning.

Republicans have been pursuing a strategy to attach voter-ID provisions to the defense spending bill, hoping to bypass the Senate filibuster. The plan would allocate up to $20 billion for election-integrity programs, according to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Ron Johnson. However, a separate photo-ID measure introduced by Ohio Senator Jon Husted failed to gain support.

Senator Mike Lee, a leading advocate for the SAVE America Act, noted that no Democrats joined the effort and expressed disappointment that the votes did not occur before the chamber adjourned.

The Senate will reconvene after its summer break with several contentious issues expected to dominate the legislative agenda ahead of the midterm elections.