The House Went Home. The Senate Stayed to Clear a Short, Bipartisan List.

What happened this week

The two chambers of Congress ended this week in very different places. The House finished its business and left town on Friday, July 24, 2026, for a district work period that runs until August 31 (Congress.gov, U.S. House floor, July 25, 2026). The Senate stayed. Its members are scheduled to work through the first week of August, with a target adjournment of August 6 or 7 before a break that lasts until after Labor Day (Washington Times, July 24, 2026).

Senate Majority Leader John Thune set a modest and specific goal for that window. If the plan holds, the chamber passes two or three bipartisan bills before it goes home (Washington Times, July 24, 2026). On Friday the Senate cleared small items by unanimous consent, including a resolution designating July 25, 2026, as National Day of the American Cowboy, then adjourned at 4:58 p.m. until Monday (Congress.gov, U.S. Senate floor, July 25, 2026). The larger measures are the test.

The stopgap that keeps the government open

The first item is money. Government funding runs out at the end of September, weeks before the midterm elections (Bloomberg Government, July 2026). The House already moved. On Tuesday, July 21, it passed a continuing resolution to hold agency funding at current levels through December 4 by a vote of 220 to 205, with six Democrats joining Republicans (NPR, July 21, 2026; Washington Times, July 21, 2026).

The Senate is writing its own version. Top appropriators in both parties are negotiating a stopgap that would fund the government past September 30, and Thune said he wants a floor vote before the recess (Bloomberg Government, July 2026). He also conceded the timing may slip. He would try to move it before August, Thune told reporters, but it was possible the vote gets punted into September (Washington Times, July 24, 2026). His framing for the whole stretch was cooperative. We have an opportunity now to chart a new path, he said (Washington Times, July 24, 2026).

A sanctions bill that carries a late senator's name

The second item is the Russia sanctions package now named for Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator who died on July 11, 2026, at 71 (Washington Times, July 24, 2026). The bill hits Russia's energy, financial, and defense industries and threatens tariffs on the five largest buyers of Russian oil and gas, a list that includes China and India (Washington Times, July 24, 2026). Negotiators lowered the headline tariff from the original 500 percent to a 100 percent rate to widen support (NOTUS, July 2026).

The measure has surpassed 60 cosponsors, which is the exact number needed to break a filibuster in the 100 seat chamber (NOTUS, July 2026). Having the votes and getting the vote are not the same thing. As of late this week the bill was not formally scheduled, and the calendar is the obstacle. The bipartisan reach of a package like this is what US Political Rank measures in its ranking of senators by bipartisanship, and 60 signatures across both parties is a high mark by any honest count.

The surveillance law that already lapsed

The third item is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the authority the government uses to collect the communications of foreign targets located abroad. The statute lapsed in mid June 2026 after negotiators could not agree on reforms (CNBC, April 30, 2026). The lapse did not stop the surveillance. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved the program's most recent certifications in March 2026, and those keep collection running until March 2027 (State of Surveillance, 2026).

Congress has kept the law alive in short steps. On April 30, 2026, both chambers passed a 45 day clean extension, the Senate by unanimous consent and the House by a vote of 261 to 111 (CNBC, April 30, 2026). Senate leaders now want a longer reauthorization, and the confirmation of a permanent director of national intelligence has cleared one obstacle to a deal (Washington Times, July 24, 2026). A three year extension is the version under discussion.

What to watch before August 6

The honest read on this week is neither triumph nor gridlock. It is a narrow, testable promise. Thune named a small list and a hard deadline, and the roll calls over the next ten days will show whether the Senate can clear it. Watch three things: whether the stopgap gets a floor vote before the recess or slips to September, whether the Graham sanctions bill is called up while it still holds 60 cosponsors, and whether the Section 702 reauthorization moves as a standalone measure or gets bundled with something larger.

The House stopgap already passed 220 to 205, and the House extended Section 702 in April by 261 to 111 (NPR, July 21, 2026; CNBC, April 30, 2026). Those are the receipts that a divided Congress can still finish routine work when it chooses to. Whether the Senate adds to that record before it goes home is a question the calendar answers, not the press release. The House will not be back to help until August 31.