The Senate adjourned Wednesday night until the week of Nov. 9, after the midterm elections. Vulnerable Republicans are returning home to campaign as fears over losing their majority arise, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports.
Senators adjourned after confirming President Trump’s Labor secretary pick, Keith Sonderling.
What’s left for the lame-duck session?: The annual defense authorization bill, the extension of expired surveillance authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and other high-profile items have been left behind.
There are also 12 appropriations bills at stake, and the government’s funding plan ends on Dec. 11.
Senators speak up: Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said the adjournment “breaks my heart.”
“It’s bad planning. We should have started after we passed One Big Beautiful Bill [in July 2025], planning what we wanted to do and how we were going to get it done,” he added.
But vulnerable GOP senators, including Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Pete Ricketts (Neb.) and Susan Collins (Maine) are excited to return to the campaign trail.
“I think everybody’s nervous about their races,” Kennedy said. “It’s a weird year. I don’t know how these things are going to turn out.”
“I’ve done polling in my own state, and it’s a pretty red state, but people all across the political spectrum are very unsettled,” he added.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) predicted that Senate Republican losses will be “manageable” if “we let candidates execute down the stretch,” and that being in Washington can hurt their races.
“Every time you’re here, it’s a fundraiser you can’t host or it’s a town hall you can’t speak at. We need to get them back in the state. Invariably, the people who want to stick here, they all have one thing in common: They’re not up [for reelection] this cycle,” he said.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the lame-duck session will be a “golden era” for Republicans.
When the Senate returns, they will have only eight legislative days in November and 14 days in December to square away its agenda. And that includes Fridays, which aren’t typically workdays.
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