HELP Committee moves six bills; Thune presses CR before August recess

In a floor statement, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., called on Democrats to cooperate on a clean continuing resolution ahead of the fiscal year deadline and the August recess. Thune catalogued the costs of the two shutdowns already this year: 'Government workers lining up at food banks. Charging essentials on credit cards and taking up any work they could find in hopes of being able to make ends meet.'

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, moved separately to cosponsor the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act of 2026, led by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. The bill would mandate automatic 14-day continuing resolutions at prior-year funding levels whenever appropriations lapse. 'I am proud to cosponsor the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, which would trigger automatic continuing resolutions in the event that Congress needs more time to work through a funding bill,' Cornyn said. The cosponsor list spans both parties and includes Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., among others.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., separately flagged the September 30 deadline in a public appearance, saying his near-term focus was 'can we keep the government open? That would probably be the big long-term goal here — September 30th.'

The Senate HELP Committee passed the bipartisan Patients Deserve Price Tags Act on Tuesday, requiring hospitals and insurers to publicly disclose healthcare prices. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who co-led the bill with Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., called it a milestone. 'Patients deserve price tags, not surprise bills. This is the only bipartisan healthcare reform before Congress today that can begin lowering the cost of living immediately by bringing real competition to our healthcare system,' Marshall said.

Hickenlooper added: 'Right now, Americans walk into a hospital blind and walk out with a bill nobody could have predicted. That's not a health care system — it's a gamble. Our bill makes hospitals and insurers publish their prices and backs it up with real fines, not empty threats.'

Three additional HELP Committee markups advanced Tuesday. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., announced passage of his bipartisan Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act, which reauthorizes nursing workforce development programs through FY2031. 'Our bipartisan bill ensures America's nurses have the resources and support necessary to meet care needs now and in the future, including in rural and medically underserved communities that too often face unique challenges in accessing quality and timely care,' Merkley said.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., celebrated committee approval of the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act, which she co-leads with Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Tina Smith, D-Minn. 'Almost 30% of women in Alabama do not have a birthing hospital within 30 minutes of their homes, which is significantly higher than the national average,' Britt said. 'Those 30 minutes could mean the difference between a safe delivery and a potentially dangerous one.'

Sens. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also secured committee passage of the National Plan for Epilepsy Act. 'Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders in the United States, and as the father of a child living with the condition, the fight to cure epilepsy is deeply personal to me,' Schmitt said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., HELP Committee ranking member, announced the panel voted 12-10 to advance his Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act, which would impose warning labels on ultra-processed foods and ban junk food advertising targeted at children. 'For decades, the food and beverage industry has made massive profits by enticing children to consume unhealthy products purposely designed to be overeaten — fueling the twin crises of type 2 diabetes and obesity in America,' Sanders said. 'Nearly 30 years ago, Congress had the courage to take on the tobacco industry, whose products killed more than 400,000 Americans every year. Today, on a bipartisan basis, the Senate HELP Committee finally stood up to the greed of the food and beverage industry.'

Six senators from the Environment and Public Works Committee — Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., John Curtis, R-Utah, Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and John Boozman, R-Ark. — introduced the bipartisan Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act of 2026, which would remove regulatory barriers to prescribed burns under the Clean Air Act. 'Prescribed burns are one of the best ways to reduce that risk before a fire gets out of control, and states shouldn't be penalized for taking action,' Kelly said.

Merkley invoked his state's fire history: 'When the 2020 Labor Day fires swept across Oregon, I drove over 600 miles and never once escaped the thick, dark smoke that blanketed our state. As Oregonians face yet another record-breaking fire season this year, we need to tackle this crisis at every stage.'

Separately, Merkley and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., introduced the Wildfire Reduction Market Expansion Act, a companion effort to modernize the Renewable Fuel Standard definition for woody biomass generated through forest management. Hyde-Smith said the bill 'clears the way for biomass produced from non-federal lands in heavily forested states like Mississippi to contribute to the nation's renewable fuels resources.'

The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously passed the bipartisan Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026, led by Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, and Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. The bill would ban the import, sale, and operation of vehicles manufactured in China or other countries of concern, and prohibit Chinese-developed connected vehicle technologies on American roads. 'China's auto industry was not built to compete, it was built to destroy American manufacturing, gut the middle class, and undermine our national security,' Moreno said.

Slotkin, in language carried in Moreno's release, said: 'Chinese cars are surveillance packages on wheels, with the ability to collect on American citizens and transmit that data back to Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party's playbook of heavily subsidizing their product and underselling the competition puts Michigan's auto industry and millions of American workers at risk.'

The Senate passed the bipartisan Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act unanimously, cracking down on pharmaceutical patent thicketing to accelerate biosimilar competition. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, one of four lead sponsors alongside Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged the House to act quickly. 'By putting an end to the anti-competitive practice of patent thicketing, this legislation would encourage innovation, ensure generics can enter the market, and prevent prescription costs from increasing,' Cornyn said.

Grassley framed it in constituent terms: 'The steep price of life-saving medication puts a major strain on Iowans. Our bipartisan bill will help reduce the cost of prescription drugs by ending the abusive practice of blocking generic and biosimilar drugs from entering the market.'

A coalition of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., pressed Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano over an unsolicited July 2 email sent to beneficiaries that referenced President Trump six times and credited him with 'protecting and strengthening Social Security.' The senators demanded answers by August 11.

'This was an unusual communication that served no legitimate purpose: rather than receiving necessary information about benefits or a critical communication from the SSA, recipients received a partisan, politicized message — containing multiple misleading statements — that heaped praise on President Trump,' the senators wrote. The letter also charged that the agency was 'abusing the millions of email addresses that may have been obtained through [enrollment in 'my Social Security' accounts] or other methods, bombarding Americans with blatantly partisan emails from SSA — misusing Americans' personal information and jeopardizing the mission and integrity of SSA.' The senators noted this was the second such email following a similar communication after the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025.

The Senate Appropriations Committee reviewed President Trump's supplemental funding request, including $11.1 billion for farm assistance and roughly $70 billion for defense readiness. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., voiced support for bridge payments to farmers facing commodity price pressure. 'Our row crop producers, as you've mentioned in your opening remarks, are truly in a serious situation. I've talked to multi-generation farmers back home who are the best of the best that did not even plant this year because they could not make the numbers work,' Hyde-Smith told Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

On the defense request, Hyde-Smith pressed the Pentagon on shipbuilding. 'The department is exploring options for using allied shipyards and overseas fabrication in future naval construction, which raises questions about the long-term role of the American naval industrial base or shifting work away from domestic ship builders — shipyards like Ingalls in Mississippi,' she said.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., chair of the Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee, released updated legislative text for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (H.R. 3633), merging work products from the Banking and Agriculture Committees. 'The U.S. has always been at the forefront of financial innovation, and the coming weeks are likely the last real chance we will have for years to get this right,' Lummis said. She credited Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott and Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman for their support and called on Democrats to reach a deal 'in the coming days.'

Boozman said the legislation 'establishes a clear, regulatory framework for digital commodities' and 'delivers the certainty consumers, businesses and markets have been calling for.' Majority Leader Thune separately named 'market structure legislation' as one of the chamber's near-term bipartisan opportunities.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced he voted to advance two ambassadorial nominations in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after the Trump administration committed to obligating previously appropriated PEPFAR funds. The commitments include spending plans for FY25 and FY26 funds, a guarantee that a planned $270 million transfer from the State Department to the CDC will be completed, and a pledge that all unobligated PEPFAR funds expiring in September will be obligated 'as expeditiously as possible.' Congress appropriated more than $10 billion for the program between FY25 and FY26, but FY25 funds had been obligated at slower rates than prior years.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., introduced the MediKids Act, which would automatically enroll every child in America in Medicaid's EPSDT benefit from birth through age 26, regardless of income or immigration status. 'At a time when families are watching healthcare become more expensive and MAGA Republicans and Trump are ripping coverage away from millions of Americans, we should be expanding care, not taking it away,' Padilla said. The bill comes as more than 4.4 million children nationally lack health insurance.

Separately, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., led introduction of the Children's Safe Welcome Act, a bicameral bill to establish federal child welfare standards throughout the immigration system, prohibit family separations, and ban family detention. 'Trump's total disregard for the legal process directly threatens the safety of vulnerable migrant children, which is just plain wrong under any moral code,' Merkley said. The bill carries 18 Senate co-sponsors.

The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously passed the bipartisan Accelerating Broadband Permits Act of 2026, legislation from Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo. The bill would require federal agencies to process broadband permit applications within an existing 270-day deadline and increase transparency into backlogs. 'In order to ensure rural communities in South Dakota have access to reliable broadband, it's critical that federal agencies are processing permits in a timely fashion and are being held accountable for any delays,' Thune said.

Barrasso noted a structural barrier: 'In Wyoming, nearly half the land is owned by the federal government. Washington red tape makes it harder to expand broadband infrastructure on these lands.'

Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced the Honoring the Victims of Communist China's Tyranny Act, which would place a permanent memorial in a Washington, D.C. park directly across from the Chinese embassy. 'As Xi's henchmen at the embassy walk into work every day, they should have to face the litany of crimes in which they've been complicit,' Scott said.

Scott also joined Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., in introducing the Coast Guard Leadership Modernization Act to create a Senate-confirmed Secretary of the Coast Guard, mirroring leadership structures across other military branches. 'The Coast Guard has a unique and highly specialized mission to protect our country from threats posed by smugglers, drug traffickers, terrorists, and other lawbreakers, and it deserves a service secretary to oversee and coordinate its operations, just like every other branch of the military,' Scott said.

In an op-ed published in Fox News, Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., defended Section 1217 of the FY27 NDAA — a U.S.-Israel defense technology cooperation provision — against what he described as a 'misinformation campaign fueled by rising antisemitism.' 'Section 1217 does not alter America's constitutional chain of command. It does not place a single American service member under Israeli authority,' Sheehy wrote.

At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee oversight hearing, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., pressed FERC commissioners to streamline hydropower licensing, noting that 40 percent of the nation's hydropower fleet faces relicensing in the next four years. Daines introduced the Hydropower Licensing Affordability Act this week, which would require all mandatory conditions on hydropower licenses to be directly related to the project at issue.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., used the same hearing to push FERC on the Seminoe Pumped Storage Project in Wyoming, urging commissioners to weigh the state's environmental concerns. 'Wyoming is the number one electricity exporter in the western interconnection. We have the highest net exports of energy per capita. That makes Wyoming the backbone of the grid,' Barrasso said in a separate exchange on western electricity market governance.

Sanders released a new GAO report — commissioned at his request — finding that an estimated 13.8 million working Americans were enrolled in Medicaid and 10.6 million depended on SNAP despite working full-time, up from 12 million and 9 million respectively in a 2020 report. The data, drawn from 11 states comprising roughly a fifth of the U.S. population, found Walmart, Amazon, and FedEx among the top employers of workers enrolled in both programs. 'American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the starvation wages of large corporations like Walmart and Amazon,' Sanders said. 'It is time for the Walton family, worth $485 billion, and Mr. Bezos, worth $257 billion, to get off of welfare and pay their workers a living wage with good benefits.'

In an op-ed published by National Review, Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., called on Congress to pass his Stop Insider Trading Act, which would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses, and dependent children from buying new stock. Members who sell existing holdings would be required to disclose those plans seven days in advance. Ricketts cited polling showing over 80 percent of Americans believe members of Congress fail to keep personal financial interests separate from their work. 'To be clear, no lawmaker should profit from insider information,' Ricketts wrote. 'President Trump has voiced support for this legislation. Just last week, Vice President Vance told House Republicans we need to pass it.'

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development requesting full funding of the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery program for St. Louis, which was struck by a tornado on May 16, 2025. 'Local officials in Missouri estimate the outstanding federal needs for full rehabilitation and recovery are between $1 billion and $1.5 billion,' Hawley wrote. 'However, there have been no additional appropriations for this program since the end of 2024.' The letter was addressed to Subcommittee Chair Hyde-Smith and Ranking Member Gillibrand.

Signals

• volumeWednesday output of 53 releases ran 42.9 percent below the Wednesday average of 92.8, the lowest relative volume observed on a non-recess Wednesday in recent weeks.
• coordinatedFive Democratic senators — Warren, Wyden, Baldwin, Luján, and Whitehouse — issued near-simultaneous releases on the same SSA partisan-email letter within roughly 45 minutes of each other.
• coordinatedSix EPW Committee members across both parties issued separate releases within 28 minutes for the same Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act introduction, a textbook coordinated rollout.
• coordinatedMoreno and Slotkin each issued separate releases on the Connected Vehicle Security Act within minutes of the other, part of a joint announcement pairing a Republican and Democratic sponsor on a China-focused bill.
• recessThe August state work period begins in 19 days; Thune explicitly tied the CR timeline to departing 'before we head to our states to work during August.'
• silent breaksSen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., issued a release today — his title confirms a new role as Senate Budget Committee Chairman — but the release body contained only a cross-reference headline with no substantive content.
• silent breaksThree releases from Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C. — covering a China S&T hearing, the Supersonic Aviation Modernization Act, and a civil nuclear bill — contained only truncated 'read more' bodies, yielding no quotable content.
• silent breaksSen. John Curtis, R-Utah, issued a release on the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act with an entirely empty body_text field.