Hawaii Congressional Delegation How they Voted July 31, 2026

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Hawaii Congressional Delegation How they Voted July 31, 2026
By GovTrack .us @ 11:34 AM :: 117 Views :: Congressional Delegation

It's Different in the Senate

by Amy West GovTrack.us, July 31, 2026

We regularly note that the Senate moves more slowly than the House. This week, with the House out of session, we have a nice short set of votes to demonstrate why this is the case.

The Senate held eight votes this week. Of those eight, one was a final vote that was not procedural in nature. At least, officially it was one of eight.

But that’s the thing: in the Senate the vast majority of items require that at some point a piece of legislation garner at least 60 votes. Usually the 60 vote threshold is for some type of procedural vote. But, because a failure to clear that threshold brings work on the legislation to a halt, at least for a while, that 60 vote threshold can serve as a functional final vote. The main source of exceptions to the 60 vote threshold are nominations and certain privileged resolutions that only require a simple majority.

Director of National Intelligence

The one thing that affirmatively happened this week was that an administration nominee was confirmed:

Motion to Invoke Cloture: Walter Clayton to be Director of National Intelligence: Walter Clayton, of New York, to be Director of National Intelligence passed 51-43. “Cloture” (aka voting to end debate) is a type of procedural vote that usually requires 60 votes to pass. But this was cloture on a nomination, so it only needed 50 and just squeaked by with 51.
On the Nomination PN1092: Walter Clayton, of New York, to be Director of National Intelligence passed 51-47. Like final votes on legislation, nominations only need a simple majority which, again, Republicans just managed for the new Director of National Intelligence.

If nominations still required 60 votes to end debate / achieve cloture, then Clayton would not have been confirmed.

In other words, the Senate’s structure gives the minority party considerable power to prevent action where the 60 vote threshold exists. Where it doesn’t, then sub-60-vote majorities can prevail.

H.R. 5334: SEED Act

H.R. 5334: SEED Act, which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow early childhood educators to take the educator expense deduction and which passed the House in April had two procedural votes this week and both sailed over the 60 vote threshold. Next week, one would expect a vote on final passage which would mean the SEED Act would then go to the President for signing.

Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to H.R. 5334 passed 86-12 on Tuesday.
Motion to Proceed on H.R. 5334: SEED Act passed 84-12 on Wednesday.

En Bloc Nominations

This year the Senate approved a new and slightly clunky method of approving nominations in a group (“en bloc”) without having to reach a 60 vote threshold. Once again, there were multiple procedural votes to set up for a final vote on the nominations themselves next week:

Motion to Invoke Cloture: S. Res. 817 passed 50-45 on Wednesday. This vote ended debate on a resolution that authorizes voting on nominees en bloc. It only needed a simple majority and just barely got it.
S.Res. 817: An executive resolution authorizing the en bloc consideration in Executive Session of certain nominations on the Executive Calendar passed 50-47 on Thursday.

Needed a Simple Majority and Didn’t Get It

Finally, the last two votes of the week were still procedural and they only needed a simple majority, but they did not get it in either case.

The first was a vote on a motion to proceed to a Congressional disapproval of a Labor Department regulation. It failed 47-52. All Democrats voted for it; all Republicans against and the Republicans have the majority, so that’s that.

The second was a motion to discharge a resolution against the Iran War. Motions to discharge only need a simple majority in the Senate. However, while three Republicans voted to discharge the resolution, one Democrat voted against and it failed 49-50.

So, that’s all eight votes in the Senate this week. It might not seem like much happened, but it did because in the Senate, it’s at least as much about stopping legislation / nominations as it is passing any of them.

There’s a new DNI, next week the Senate will confirm more nominees and likely provide the final vote to make the SEED Act law.

See everyone next Friday when hopefully we have more action from the Senate to report.

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