CR vote set for next week as Finance Committee advances IRS reform package

In a floor statement, Sen. Thune laid out the stakes plainly: "The American people have faced two — two — record-breaking government shutdowns in the past 10 months. We need to ensure that they do not face a third."

Thune credited Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Collins with drafting the measure and said he intends to bring it to the floor next week. He described the product as "clean, bipartisan" and "free of poison pills," adding: "Funding the government is our most basic responsibility as members of Congress. And we owe it to the American people to get that job done — and done now."

The Senate Finance Committee advanced the bipartisan Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act on Thursday, prompting a cluster of statements from members claiming provisions in the package.

Sen. Bennet called it "the most significant IRS reform proposal in decades" and said it would bring "greater transparency and accountability to the tax filing process, while also removing barriers that disproportionately affect low-income families." Sen. Cortez Masto said the committee "voted to make it easier for American taxpayers to get ahead, protect their personal information, and avoid bad actors," citing her bipartisan provisions on IRS scammers and taxpayer privacy penalties. Sen. Whitehouse's Fairness in Foreign Filing Act — co-authored with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. — was included in the package; Whitehouse said the bill would "create a fairer and simpler process for those that miss filing international reporting forms while ensuring wealthy tax evaders aren't let off the hook." Sen. Luján said the package "will strengthen taxpayer rights, reduce unnecessary burdens, and make our tax system fairer."

The bill contains more than 60 provisions, according to Bennet's office.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reintroduced the Audit the Pentagon Act on Thursday, drawing a broad bipartisan cosponsor list that includes senators ranging from Rand Paul, R-Ky., to Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

The bill would withhold 2 percent of the budget from any Pentagon component that fails to achieve a clean audit opinion, returning the funds to the Treasury for deficit reduction. Sanders framed the moment sharply: "At a moment when the administration has dragged us into an unconstitutional war with Iran and is demanding the largest military budget in our history to pay for it, the Pentagon still cannot tell us where trillions of dollars have gone." Grassley, as Judiciary Chairman, emphasized the accountability angle: "Our bipartisan legislation holds the Defense Department accountable by ensuring it meets the same audit standards as other agencies, or it faces a financial penalty. Any dollar lost by the Department of Defense wastes taxpayers' money and weakens our national security."

The Pentagon failed its eighth consecutive audit in December 2025, covering $4.65 trillion in reported assets, according to the release.

Three separate releases touched on Russia policy Thursday, each from a different angle.

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., led seven colleagues in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging action against A7 LLC, described in the release as "a Russian state-backed cryptocurrency sanctions evasion network." The senators wrote: "Unfortunately, the Trump Administration has largely stood by and watched the growth of this large-scale evasion enterprise." As of January 2026, the A7A5 stablecoin had reportedly processed over $100 billion in transactions, accounting for nearly 19 percent of Russian businesses' foreign trade volume, per the release.

Separately, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., appeared on Fox News's Common Ground to advocate for the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Britt said of the legislation: "This gives President Trump the flexibility and the economic firepower he needs to actually achieve that. We talk about peace through strength all the time. To me, this is the definition of that." She also addressed Iran: "It is my opinion that this was 47 years too late in taking action."

Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led a bipartisan letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday demanding the company commit that no memory chips from Chinese military-linked firms ChangXin Memory Technologies or Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. will appear in any Apple product sold anywhere in the world.

The senators also demanded answers about Apple's reported testing of Chinese memory chips and alleged lobbying against national security restrictions. Banks put it directly: "Communist China has made stealing American technology and dominating critical supply chains their national strategy. American companies shouldn't reward Chinese military-linked firms with their business." Schumer pointed to prior federal investment: "The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act has spurred a historic build-out of American chip manufacturing, including memory chips, and Apple risks squandering that investment by opening the door to CCP-backed chips over American-made ones."

Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., joined 37 Senate colleagues in a letter demanding the Trump administration restore funding for 223 energy projects canceled in October 2025. The letter — led by Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Patty Murray, D-Wash. — follows what the release describes as an administration admission that the cancellations were "based solely" on politics, targeting states that did not vote for President Trump in 2024.

The senators wrote: "This is not only an attack on jobs, affordable energy, and America's economic competitiveness. It is an attack on the rule of law and the basic democratic principle that the federal government serves the entire country — not merely those who support the President." All 36 Democratic senators from states with canceled grants signed the letter, according to the release.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., led a bicameral letter Thursday calling on the secretaries of Labor, State, and Homeland Security to make administrative changes to the H-2A agricultural guest worker program. Six senators and 12 House members signed on.

The letter focused on extending eligibility to year-round livestock, dairy, poultry, and swine operations — industries currently blocked from the program despite what the lawmakers argue is a qualifying statutory definition. The signatories wrote: "Processing delays, regulatory imbalances, and broader immigration challenges threaten this program's effectiveness throughout the country — all at a time when our nation's agricultural producers are facing significant economic hardship." They added: "We cannot stress enough how important it is for the relevant federal agencies to consider changes to the H-2A program to better support our nation's agricultural industry — the men and women who feed and clothe us."

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer in introducing the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act, which would establish what the release calls the nation's first independent federal agency dedicated to rooting out corruption across the executive branch.

The bill would create a private right of action allowing citizens and state attorneys general to sue for recoveries from federal officials, including the president and vice president. Padilla framed the bill as a direct response to the current administration: "When a president uses the office for personal profit, that is not 'just the way it is,' despite what Trump wants you to believe." Schumer added: "Trump has turned the presidency into the most profitable scam of his life, and Republicans have helped him cash every check — all while working families struggle to afford groceries, gas, housing, and healthcare."

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced the CFTC Whistleblower Protection and Program Improvement Act ahead of National Whistleblower Day. The bill would raise the Customer Protection Fund cap from $100 million to $300 million, strengthen anti-retaliation protections, and speed up award processing.

Fetterman said: "Whistleblowers put their jobs and often their lives on the line to call out the most serious offenses in the workplace. Zero doubt that they should be protected." Grassley, who helped create the original program, said: "This program roots out waste, fraud and abuse in the commodities trading industry and operates at no charge to the taxpayer. Now, it's time for Congress to act so its success can continue."

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., reintroduced the Restoring Justice for Workers Act, which would ban forced arbitration clauses in employment contracts. The bill was first introduced in 2018 and is aimed at overriding the Supreme Court's Epic Systems v. Lewis decision.

Murray said: "If an employer does something illegal, workers should be able to hold them accountable in a court of law. But far too often, big corporations will cynically leverage long and complicated employment contracts to stack the deck against their workers. It's manipulative and wrong." The release states that forced arbitration clauses cover more than 60 million workers in the non-union private sector, including 59.1 percent of Black workers and 57.6 percent of women workers.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, issued three back-to-back releases Thursday announcing nearly $6 million in federal grants — approximately $2 million each — to Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at El Paso, and the University of Texas at Dallas for AI and cybersecurity workforce development through the National Science Foundation's CyberAICorps Scholarship For Service program.

Cornyn used identical language in all three announcements: "We must take steps to defend against cyberattacks by training students with the AI and cybersecurity skills needed to protect our critical technology systems." All three grants were made possible through the CHIPS and Science Act, which Cornyn describes as legislation he helped negotiate.

Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., introduced the Kidd's Stuttering Act, which would require stuttering screenings during Medicaid well-child visits for children ages two to six and mandate speech therapy coverage parity under Medicaid and CHIP. The bill was inspired by former NBA player Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., sent a letter to the acting FDA commissioner urging stronger oversight of baby formula following recalls tied to potential Clostridium botulinum contamination in Nara Organics and ByHeart products. Ossoff wrote: "Every parent wants to ensure that their infants are being fed in a way that is both safe and healthy."

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., introduced the RESULTS Act to modernize statewide longitudinal data systems connecting education and workforce outcomes — a response, Marshall said, to AI-driven labor market changes: "Artificial intelligence is a tool — not a replacement for the American worker."

A bipartisan quartet — Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.; Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Chris Coons, D-Del.; and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii — announced the Senate's unanimous passage of a resolution designating July as National Anti-Counterfeiting and Consumer Education and Awareness Month.

Signals

• volumeThursday release volume came in at 24 — 72.1 percent below the Thursday average of 89.8 — the lowest relative output observed in recent weeks, likely reflecting pre-recess drawdown with 11 days until the August state work period.
• coordinatedFour senators — Bennet, Cortez Masto, Whitehouse, and Luján — issued statements within 90 minutes of each other claiming provisions in the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act following its Finance Committee passage, a classic post-markup coordinated rollout.
• coordinatedSen. Cornyn issued three near-identical releases within six minutes announcing separate ~$2M NSF cybersecurity grants to three Texas universities — a single grant cycle announced as three discrete releases.
• voteSenate Majority Leader Thune announced from the floor that a continuing resolution vote is scheduled for next week, ahead of the September 30 government funding deadline.
• recessThe Senate is 11 days from the August state work period; today's low volume may reflect members beginning to wind down Washington activity.
• silent breaksSen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, has been silent for 16 days — notable given that the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, bearing his name, was cited in a release from Sen. Britt today; Graham died in office and his seat remains referenced in active legislation.

Quiet desks

Senators with no release in two weeks or more.

• Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC16d