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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.
