The House Freedom Caucus just dropped the hammer on the do-nothing Senate.
On Wednesday, Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD) and his colleagues declared that if Senate Republicans under Majority Leader John Thune refuse to work the remaining 52 days of the 119th Congress, they should take a 10-day recess and let President Donald Trump install his nominees through recess appointments.
“If they don’t want to spend all 52 days, that’s fine. Let’s take a 10-day recess and let’s appoint some of the— so the president can make some recess appointments that can last for a year through the first year of Democrat rule,” Harris said.
“Republicans should not leave town until these priorities are completed and Democrats are denied every possible leverage point. We do believe that we should cut spending another trillion dollars over the next 10 years, given the size of our budget deficits.”
The demand comes just days after the Freedom Caucus issued an aggressive lame-duck agenda urging Republican leaders to use their remaining congressional majority to advance Trump’s priorities before the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027.
Among its demands: Confirm as many of President Trump’s nominees as possible before Democrats take control.
The caucus is now proposing another route if Senate Republicans cannot complete that work in time.
If Republicans cannot get the nominations through the Senate, the caucus wants leadership to create a constitutionally sufficient recess rather than allow the remaining vacancies to become another political weapon against the Trump administration.
Those brief sessions prevented the Senate from entering a continuous recess long enough for Trump to exercise his recess-appointment authority.
Critics viewed the maneuver as another example of Senate leadership protecting its institutional prerogatives at the expense of the president’s ability to staff his administration.
The issue dates back to November 2024, when Trump explicitly demanded that candidates seeking Senate Republican leadership commit to allowing recess appointments.
Trump argued that the traditional confirmation process could leave important administration positions vacant for months or even years.
Yet the pro forma sessions continued.
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