On August 8, the Senate passed a bill to extend government funding through December 11. The bill passed 90-6, but before it goes into effect will need to be considered by the House upon its return from recess in September. Republicans in the House had passed their own version of the continuing resolution earlier in the summer, with a vote of 220-205. However, the House's version of continuing resolution was much more inline with administration priorities, including a loophole which would allow the transfer of funding provided for other programs to Border Patrol. Democrat Senators were able to strip this loophole from the Senate version, a move which Senator Patty Murray lauded in her statement on the release of the CR. Senate Democrat leadership expressed earlier in August their desire to fund the government while negotiating a strong bipartisan appropriation bill. This continuation of previous funding levels does just that, while legislative priorities previously touted by the White House, such as the SAVE America Act, were left by the wayside.

President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer is now the nation’s top law-enforcement official. Todd Blanche was confirmed Saturday as attorney general in a razor-thin 50-49 Senate vote, putting a former member of Trump’s personal legal team at the helm of the Justice Department. The vote was highly controversial, with two Republicans joining all of the Democratic Senators in voting against the confirmation. Before joining the administration, he was Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney, representing the president in some of his most consequential legal battles. Blanche represented Trump during his 2024 New York criminal trial, where a jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records. He joined the Trump administration as deputy attorney general before becoming acting attorney general on April 2, 2026, following Trump's removal of Attorney General Pam Bondi. The confirmation also followed controversy surrounding a proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and provisions involving tax protections for Trump and members of his family. Blanche agreed to changes to portions of the proposal in an effort to secure Republican support.