SCOOP: John Thune touts six months of results for America

THE LOWDOWN:

• Senator Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) has only been helming the Senate GOP for six months, but he’s already amassed a suite of accomplishments from tax policy to border security and more.

• In recognition of Thune’s wins, his team compiled a list of some of the highlights that was exclusively obtained by the Washington Reporter.

• Some wins illustrated the hard work undertaken by the Senate with Thune’s leadership, including how the Senate has taken more votes this year to date than any Senate has in recent history.

• Even amidst this opposition, Thune did accomplish significant bipartisan legislation, including the Laken Riley Act, the GENIUS Act, and the HALT Fentanyl Act.

Senator Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) has only been helming the Senate GOP for six months, but he’s already amassed a suite of accomplishments from tax policy to border security and more.

In recognition of Thune’s wins, his team compiled a list of some of the highlights that was exclusively obtained by the Washington Reporter.

Many of the wins were included in the recently-passed One Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB), which Thune was instrumental in shepherding through the Senate.

Other wins illustrated the hard work undertaken by the Senate with Thune’s leadership, including how the Senate has taken more votes this year to date than any Senate has in recent history.

The 119th Congress began with 10 straight weeks of voting in the Senate — the longest continuous stretch in almost 20 years.

Additionally, the Senate has already confirmed 21 of Trump’s cabinet appointees, “putting his team in place sooner than the last three incoming administrations,” Thune’s office told the Reporter.

The Senate recently announced that Mike Waltz will have his confirmation hearing next week. Those 21 confirmations don’t even include the 12 ambassadors and almost 100 civilian nominees.

Thune’s accomplishments come despite historic, though ineffective, Democratic opposition. Trump still has not had a single civilian nominee confirmed via voice vote or unanimous consent, which has not happened since Herbert Hoover was president.

Even amidst this opposition, Thune did accomplish significant bipartisan legislation, including the Laken Riley Act, the GENIUS Act, and the HALT Fentanyl Act.

In the Republicans’ OBBB, Thune also secured $165 billion to fund Trump’s border policies amid total congressional Democrat opposition. Those wins included $46.5 billion to complete construction of the border wall, $14.4 billion for removal transportation, funding to hire 10,000 new ICE agents, and more — including billions of dollars for the Golden Dome missile defense system, another top Trump priority.

The trillions of dollars of tax cuts that Thune helped pass also include campaign trail staples for Trump, like no tax on tips and no taxes on overtime. Another Main Street priority that small businesses across America will benefit from is the full expensing of new factories and factory improvements, which would jumpstart domestic manufacturing.

Beyond just advancing the Trump agenda, Thune led the way in repealing some of the grossest excesses of the Biden administration. The Senate also passed 18 Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions, which repealed parts of Biden’s $1.8 trillion Biden regulatory agenda.