Senate Republicans are launching a final push to confirm President Donald Trump’s remaining judicial and executive nominees before Democrats take control of the chamber on Jan. 3, according to Fox News, as the effort already shows signs of friction over some of the president’s picks, according to Bloomberg Law and CNN.
At a closed-door meeting Tuesday, the Senate GOP conference agreed to a resolution pledging to “maximize the 54 days we have with congressional majorities, to confirm every judicial nominee and every executive nominee that the conference approves of, to pass our core Republican priorities, and to do everything humanly possible to pass a reconciliation bill before Jan. 3,” according to Fox News Digital, which obtained the resolution.
Senate Republicans are launching a 54-day sprint to ram through as much of Trump's agenda as possible before Democrats take the majority on Jan. 3.
Majority Leader John Thune, freshly re-elected as GOP leader, says the conference agreed to extend the calendar, stretch the hours… pic.twitter.com/CPU2BUUwmR
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) November 11, 2026
Thune: “Whatever It Takes”
Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who was re-elected as the Senate GOP leader this week, said Republicans were “committed to being here to do whatever it takes to get as much done as we can,” Fox News reported.
“That means extending the calendar here, the number of days we’re here, the number of hours we’re here, the number of votes we may end up taking,” Thune said, according to Fox News. “But we are going to finish this legislative session strong.”
The Senate had originally been scheduled to be in session roughly 20 days between Tuesday and the change in control, Fox News reported. As of Tuesday, 23 judicial nominees were pending, many of whom still needed to go through committee, along with nearly 100 executive branch nominees awaiting confirmation, according to Fox News.
Reconciliation and Election Integrity
Beyond nominees, Republicans are weighing another attempt at budget reconciliation, which Fox News described as possibly the trickiest part of the year-end agenda. “I think we’ve got to keep it realistic to probably have any chance of passing, pretty narrow,” Thune told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, told Fox News Digital he planned to present his plan to Republicans on Wednesday. Republicans are also considering including a version of the SAVE America Act that could meet Senate rules, according to Fox News. “Oh yeah, that’d be part of it, you know, to provide funding for states for election integrity type of measures,” Johnson said, according to Fox News.
The lame-duck list also includes the National Defense Authorization Act, a bipartisan permitting reform package and government funding, Fox News reported.
Friction Over an Appeals Court Seat
The compressed timeline has already forced a change on one key judicial seat. The White House on Tuesday withdrew U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit amid opposition from Arkansas’ senators and said it would nominate Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Cody Hiland, the senators’ preferred pick, instead, Bloomberg Law reported.
Republican Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton of Arkansas had been blocking Rudofsky’s nomination over their preference for Hiland, according to Bloomberg Law. CNN reported that Hiland will need a new confirmation hearing, which could slow the timeline for filling the seat.
CNN also reported that Trump’s remaining picks include nominees for judicial vacancies in Texas and South Carolina, two states that elected Democratic senators last week. Republicans fear the incoming Democratic majority may not confirm any of Trump’s judicial nominees, raising the stakes for the next month and a half, according to CNN.
Daily Beltway will continue to track confirmation votes as the lame-duck session unfolds.
Sources
Sources
- Original post: Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) on X, Nov 11, 2026
- https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-republicans-plan-54-day-blitz-push-trumps-agenda-before-democrats-seize-power
- https://edition.cnn.com/2026/11/12/politics/senate-gop-push-to-get-trump-judges-confirmed
- https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/trump-pulls-eighth-circuit-nominee-taps-arkansas-senators-pick
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