Rick Scott Wants ‘No Days Off’ Until Democrats Take Over. The Senate Plans to Leave Dec. 18.

Republicans have run the Senate for two years. When it returns Monday, they’ll have 55 days left, and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida doesn’t want to waste one of them.

“The most important thing for the Senate to do is to stay in session EVERY DAY until the Democrats take over,” Scott posted Saturday. “Every judge and nominee confirmed, every priority done. Jobs, affordability, accountability. NO DAYS OFF!”

The Senate comes back Monday at 3 p.m. for the lame-duck session, the stretch between an election and the day the new Congress is sworn in. Democrats won at least 54 seats on Nov. 3 and take control on Jan. 3. Under the chamber’s plan, as reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, senators are targeting Dec. 18 to adjourn. That leaves 16 days on the calendar, Christmas and New Year’s included, when a Republican majority would still exist with no votes scheduled.

Why the judges are the whole ballgame

Federal judges serve for life. Once Democrats hold the gavel, every Trump pick needs their votes to even get a hearing, and the incoming Judiciary Committee chairman is already promising a different regime. “There needs to be accountability for years of Republican bad behavior, and a hard reset on the nominations process next Congress,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, in line to run the committee after Dick Durbin retires.

Mike Davis, a former chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee who now runs the Article III Project, counts 23 pending Trump judicial nominees: 19 for district courts and four for the appeals courts. Reuters counted it slightly differently, with nine nominees still waiting for a committee hearing and 13 who have had one and could get floor votes before Christmas.

The four appellate picks matter most, because the circuit courts are the last word in almost every federal case. The Supreme Court takes only about 1% of the petitions it receives, Davis noted. Trump has nominated Judge Anna St. John and attorney Todd Butler to the Fifth Circuit, Judge Lee Rudofsky to the Eighth Circuit and Judge Dan Domenico to the Tenth.

“Senate Republicans either finish the judicial job now, or they leave these seats open for the left if Democrats win back the White House in 2028,” Davis wrote. On Sunday he posted a one-line ask: “Tell the Senate: Confirm All 23 Trump Judges Before Jan. 3.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went further on Friday. “Every single federal judicial vacancy needs to be filled in the lame duck session,” he posted. “The Senate should pull all-nighters for as long as it takes. Democrats wont confirm a single Trump judge once they take over.”

What’s already moving

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa laid the groundwork before the votes were counted. Over Democratic objections, he scheduled two judicial nomination hearings in back-to-back weeks starting Nov. 10, instead of the committee’s usual one every two weeks, according to Reuters. Trump has had 56 new judges confirmed since returning to the White House, on top of 234 in his first term. A White House official told Reuters it expects all of the pending judicial nominees to be confirmed this year.

There is one snag, and it’s inside the party. Rudofsky’s committee vote is set for Nov. 17, but Davis and Rob Luther, a former Trump White House lawyer, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Arkansas’ own Republican senators, Tom Cotton and John Boozman, want someone else for the seat. Spokesmen for both senators didn’t return the paper’s calls Saturday night. Rudofsky, who has been a federal district judge since 2019, said he is “incredibly thankful for the Senate’s consideration of that nomination, including the consideration of Senators Boozman and Cotton.” Trump called him “a rock solid defender of the Constitution.”

More than judges

Rep. Chip Roy of Texas wants the whole Congress on the clock. “There is no reason GOP Congress should not meet every day from now til January 3rd,” he posted, listing a spending-cut and tax-cut reconciliation package, a ban on congressional stock trading, a law locking in border security and permitting reform. “Turn things we should have finished into things we have done. We owe it to Americans.”

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah signed on Sunday afternoon. “This is a really good set of priorities for the next eight weeks,” Lee wrote. “Let’s get to work!” He has also made clear what he expects from anyone who wants to lead Senate Republicans next year: “Anyone seeking a leadership position needs to provide a plan.”

Lee also explained why the Senate keeps holding those short “pro forma” sessions, where one senator gavels in and out within minutes. They block recess appointments. Lee said he has told the White House that “the moment the White House is ready to make a move in that direction, I will support them in supporting recess appointments and opposing pro forma sessions.” If the Senate went into a real recess, the president could fill posts without a vote at all. “That moment has not yet arrived,” Lee wrote, “but when it does I will step into action.”

Scott has been making the same argument for months. “I was hammering this before the election, and it didn’t happen,” he wrote Saturday night. “I said before the election we needed to balance the budget, secure our elections, and get the President’s agenda done! We shouldn’t have taken breaks then, and we shouldn’t now.”

What happens Monday

The first item on the Senate’s calendar is a 5:30 p.m. procedural vote on H.R. 2347, a House-passed bill that would keep damages received on account of sexual acts or sexual contact, other than punitive damages, out of taxable income, according to the official Senate Calendar of Business. The calendar also shows the Senate has met 156 days so far this year.

Davis points out that Democrats wrote this playbook. In the 2024 lame duck, after Republicans had already won the Senate, Durbin kept confirming Biden judges until just before Christmas. Scott is asking Republicans to return the favor, and then some. The schedule belongs to Majority Leader John Thune. Monday is the first chance to see whether the Senate takes the holidays off or takes Scott at his word.