Why did the Senate leave for its Easter recess? Or, perhaps more importantly, why won’t it come back? These are the questions that seem to be on every X activist’s mind. They’re being egged on by certain Senate Republicans who are demanding, in the most strident terms, that the Senate return from its recess, with some going so far as to urge President Trump to invoke his power to call the Senate back into session.
Here’s the thing: it’s all fake.
Even by the usual standards of Senate kabuki, this situation may take the cake. Every single Senate Republican acceded to this course of action. For any of them to complain about it now is chutzpah on the level of the Menendez Brothers throwing themselves, as orphans, on the mercy of the court.
What happened? When Congress funded the government for this fiscal year, it was unable to do so for DHS because of Democrat complaints about ICE. As such DHS has been unfunded for a record amount of time. Normally Democrats would be over a barrel because they’re refusing to fund homeland security while we’re at war with Iran, the greatest state-sponsor of terrorism. That isn’t how it played out.
The activist class, the House, and the President have been far more exercised about the SAVE America Act than the crippling TSA lines Democrats caused, which meant that Republicans couldn’t lay a hand on Democrats for their obstruction. Indeed, the Senate has been forced to engage in “robust debate” on the SAVE America Act, letting Democrats get out their message to independents on TSA and ICE while Republicans service their ever-needy base.
With the Easter recess approaching, this was no longer tenable. The last thing Republicans should want is airport chaos for normal Americans engaged in Easter travel because, first, Republicans are in charge so they seem like the culpable party, and, second, the SAVE America Act frolic and detour has made it impossible to put blame at the feet of Democrats. Democrats, as such, were not willing to negotiate much of a deal because, well, why would they? They look at Republicans and see endless red-on-red violence about how many Senate parliamentarians can dance on the head of a pin; the smart play was (and is) to let their opponents drown, not throw them a lifejacket.
To find some way out of the mess, Republicans proposed DHS funding minus ICE on the theory that they were funded generously in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and, if they need more, they can get more without Democrats through another reconciliation bill. It’s a course of action fraught with significant problems for ICE, but Republicans have been stuck playing a very bad hand and at least can say Democrats got none of their desired ICE reforms. Essentially this was the situation heading into the recess.
Come Thursday night, this was all coming together. Majority Leader Thune (R-SD) had explained the plan to fund DHS minus ICE at the Republicans’ Thursday lunch. Every office was put on notice that there might be late-night floor action. Thune emailed members of his conference in the evening what the plan was likely to be. And then a little after midnight a “Hotline” ran to the Republican offices proposing unanimous consent to call up a substitute DHS appropriation and pass it. The contours of the substitute were no secret. Beyond (or perhaps because of) Thune’s communication with his members, the Capitol Hill press reported on it throughout the day. Come 3am the floor action was ready and the substitute was, in fact, passed by voice vote, “without objection,” as the presiding officer, Bernie Moreno (R-OH) noted.
Any one Republican Senator could have stopped that. That’s how “unanimous consent” works: it’s unanimous. Each and every Senator had the right to stop it. Was it late at night? Sure, but this was no secret; offices had been told late-night action was likely and Thune was in communication with his conference. Each Senate office has a “legislative director” whose job it is to monitor the Hotline—even at 12:55am—in order to see if their boss will object to it. This is the least pleasant part of the job—I’ve been a legislative director—but part of the job it is.
Furthermore, a number of offices on the right flank of the conference have delegated the power to place holds on Hotline requests to the Republican Steering Committee on their behalf. It’s a power that should probably be reformed or eliminated, but it currently exists. At minimum, Steering—or any individual office—can always call in an “information hold” to prevent unanimous consent while they evaluate the proposal. This happens all the time, especially late at night.
No one objected. Any Republican senator currently complaining about what happened on Friday morning could have stopped it and chose not to do so. That’s why the complaints are fake. President Trump needs to call the Senate into session? Why’d it go into recess to begin with? It’s the hotdog guy meme.
At the end of the day this is a problem that goes back to the days of former Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC). As Mitch McConnell (R-KY) explained in his memoir, DeMint and his political operation would trash other Senate Republicans constantly online and in the press, but in person he was “almost submissive.” Any senator complaining about DHS appropriations is perfectly happy to gin up an online mob to attack his colleagues for their fecklessness, but on Friday morning they were all unwilling to inconvenience their colleagues in person. They’re keyboard warriors.
So don’t be taken in by the outrage. It’s fake. It’s pro wrestling. In the Senate, it’s the floor that’s real, and on Friday morning business on the floor was conducted “without objection.”
Michael A. Fragoso is a partner at Torridon Law PLLC and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He was previously chief counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell.
