Washington on One - August 10, 2026

WASHINGTON ON ONE PAGE

A weekly federal affairs brief  ·  DGA Group Government Relations

Monday, August 10, 2026  ·  Vol. 2026, No. 32  ·  Congress in recess

THE LEDE

▪  Shutdown risk moved off the pre-election calendar. The Senate cleared a continuing resolution 90–6 in the early hours of Saturday and left town. Funding now runs to December 11 — past the midterms — if the House concurs.

▪  The nomination that would not move, moved. Todd Blanche was confirmed as Attorney General 50–49, with Collins and Murkowski opposed. The vote was held after 4 a.m. and was among the last items before recess.

▪  Congress is gone for five weeks. Both chambers are now out. The House returns August 31; the Senate returns September 14. That leaves the House roughly four session weeks and the Senate barely two before FY26 funding lapses September 30.

▪  Member conduct is now a seat-count problem. A censure recommendation, a withdrawn nominee, an open investigation and a locked ballot line have put two previously safe Republican seats into contention — and none of it can be resolved on the floor until September.

▪  Primaries reshaped three statewide maps. Eleven states voted across eight days. A sitting senator won a gubernatorial nomination, a sitting House member lost a primary outright, and the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan broke toward the party’s progressive wing.

▪  The strait is still closed. Talks on a temporary Hormuz transit arrangement remain unresolved, with Tehran conditioning reopening on further concessions and ruling out direct talks with Washington for now.

WHAT MOVED

The week ended the way pre-recess weeks usually end — in the dark, at speed, with the year’s most contested items disposed of in the hours when nobody is watching. What is unusual is how much actually cleared. Going into the week, the Senate faced a funding deadline it had not addressed, an Attorney General nomination that had stalled over two Republican holds, and a floor queue including digital assets and college athletics legislation. It resolved the first two and abandoned the third.

The continuing resolution is the consequential one. By funding the government to December 11 rather than into the fall, the Senate has removed a shutdown from the six weeks before a midterm election — an outcome both conferences wanted and neither wanted to be seen wanting. The price is a December fight with a lame-duck cast, and a fiscal 2027 appropriations process that has now produced no enacted bills in either chamber.

The second story is not legislative. Over eight days, the House Ethics Committee issued its first censure recommendation against a sitting member since 2010, that member withdrew from his race, a second member asked the committee to investigate allegations against him and was obliged, and a third remains under an investigative subcommittee with a primary eight days away. The House cannot act on any of it until September. In the meantime, the consequences are being settled by state ballot deadlines rather than by the institution.

FEATURE · APPROPRIATIONS

Everything, All at Once, at Four in the Morning

The Senate spent the week trading floor time for exits. The continuing resolution announced August 2 by Appropriations Chair Susan Collins and Vice Chair Patty Murray reached the floor on a 89–4 motion to proceed, then absorbed several days of negotiation before passing 90–6 early Saturday. It funds the government at existing levels through December 11 and carries an extension of surface transportation funding.

Two provisions distinguish it from the barer measure the House passed in July. The first blocks, until December 11, an administration rule requiring senior political appointees to sign off on federal grants — a proposal that drew heavy public comment and united Senate appropriators of both parties against it. The second delays a ban on hemp-derived THC products, a White House-backed carve-out that nearly sank the package when members questioned why the administration was deferring a prohibition it had signed into law. An effort to strip the delay failed as part of the arrangement to adjourn.

What it does not do. The bill is not law. The House passed a different continuing resolution in July, on a 220–205 vote, without most of the Senate additions. It must take up the Senate text after August 31. Fiscal conservatives have objected to extending funding without reductions, and some House Republicans are expected to resist the grants-rule provision specifically. The Senate has cleared the harder chamber, but not the last one.

Underneath the stopgap, the regular process has not moved. Neither chamber has enacted a fiscal 2027 appropriations bill; the House has passed three, the Senate none. The December 11 date does not create time so much as relocate the deadline into a post-election session whose composition is unknown.

DGA VIEW

The correct read on the CR is not that a shutdown was averted but that it was rescheduled into the least accountable window on the calendar. A December 11 expiration lands after the election and before the new Congress is seated, which means the negotiators who write the December package will include members who have already lost. For clients with funding exposure, the planning horizon is now the first week of December, not the last week of September — and the relevant question is which accounts get swept into an omnibus written by a lame-duck conference rather than which get their own bill.

FEATURE · ETHICS & ELECTORAL RISK

Conduct, Ethics, and the Ballot

Three House Republicans are at three different stages of the same institutional process, and the distinctions between them matter more than the common theme. One has a formal bipartisan finding against him. One faces allegations he denies, now under an investigation he requested. One is under an investigative subcommittee with a criminal inquiry reported alongside it. Collapsing them would be convenient and wrong.

A finding. On August 3 the House Ethics Committee recommended that Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) be censured, concluding there was substantial reason to believe he violated House rules on sexual harassment and hostile workplaces through persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct toward two young female staffers. The committee interviewed 16 witnesses and reviewed roughly 1,500 pages of evidence; it found no evidence he propositioned the staffers or engaged in sexual activity with them. It is the panel’s first censure recommendation since 2010. Edwards disputes the findings, and his counsel filed a 15-page rebuttal. He withdrew from his race at 3:32 a.m. on August 5 and will serve out his term. Withdrawal does not moot the censure: he remains a sitting member and the resolution is expected on the floor after the House returns. A separate single-outlet report that he gave firearms to the staffers has not been corroborated elsewhere.

An allegation. Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) faces allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife, which he denies and has sued over. On August 4 he filed a complaint against himself; the Ethics Committee opened a review of whether he may have engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use. He has been urged to leave by his former father-in-law, Sen. Bernie Moreno, and by Sen. Jon Husted; the President and the Speaker have not joined those calls. He declined to withdraw before Saturday’s effective cutoff, and the window to certify a replacement closed. He is locked on the November ballot in a district carried by 11 points in 2024. There is no finding against him, and none is expected soon.

An investigation. Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) has been before an investigative subcommittee since November 2025 on allegations spanning campaign finance, misuse of resources, and dating violence, all of which he denies. The committee has authorized more than 20 subpoenas and called the allegations serious and complex; it noted that a decision by police not to charge is not a finding of innocence. One outlet has reported a federal criminal inquiry, citing a single source. His primary is August 18.

The mechanism, not the morality. What links the three is not conduct but calendar. In each case the consequence is being determined by a state ballot deadline rather than by the House, because the House is not in session and cannot act until September. In North Carolina, the party retained the option: the district executive committee convenes tonight to name a replacement, with state law requiring a decision by August 20 and mail ballots going out September 4. In Ohio, the option expired. Under state law a replacement had to be certified by 4 p.m. today, and the required two days’ notice for the committee meeting made Saturday the effective cutoff. The seat now has a nominee his own state’s senior senator has said should not serve.

Wait, I’ve seen this movie before. Washington has run this experiment before, and it ran it in both directions in a single cycle. In August 2006 an Ohio Republican under federal investigation withdrew ahead of his state’s substitution deadline; his party ran a replacement chosen through a special primary and lost the seat 62–38. That September a Florida Republican resigned after his deadline had passed, his name stayed on the ballot, and his party spent the closing weeks explaining that a vote for him counted for someone else. It lost that seat too. What is different now is the downside. Florida in 2006 at least permitted a substitute to inherit the votes. Ohio law this year offered no equivalent: with the window closed, there is no substitution mechanism at all.

DGA VIEW

The 2006 comparison is being made loosely; it deserves to be made precisely. That cycle established that the ballot off-ramp is not a remedy — it is damage control, and it failed in both directions. The operative lesson is narrower and more useful than the wave analogy that usually accompanies it: deadlines of this kind are one-way doors, and a party that treats one as a negotiating position rather than a countdown loses the option entirely. Two seats that were not on any competitive list in the spring are now live, and the institutional response — a censure vote — cannot occur until the ballots are already printed.

BEYOND THE HILL

Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed since fighting began in late February, and the current diplomatic track runs through Muscat rather than Washington. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has described a temporary transit arrangement with Oman as very close, while cautioning that a deal alone would not reopen the waterway — reopening remains subject to further conditions, including compensation from the United States. On August 9 he ruled out direct talks with Washington for now and accused the United States of violating the interim understanding signed in June, singling out the provision under which Iran was to arrange vessel transits. Qatari officials have described draft texts in circulation. A vessel operated by an Emirati national oil company was reportedly targeted by a missile while crossing the strait.

Why it matters here. The closure is an inflation input, not only a security story. Disrupted crude shipments have fed energy prices and, through them, the affordability politics both parties are running on this fall. A reopening would land in the middle of the campaign; so would a collapse in the talks.

EXECUTIVE & REGULATORY ACTION

▪  Grants approval rule paused — if the House concurs. The continuing resolution would block, through December 11, a rule requiring senior political appointees to approve federal grants. The provision is temporary and contested; supporters of the administration are positioned to resist any extension in December. Grant-dependent institutions should treat the reprieve as dated, not settled.

▪  Hemp-derived THC ban delayed. The Senate bill defers a statutory ban on hemp-derived THC products until December 11. An amendment to let the ban take effect in November failed as part of the adjournment negotiation. The delay is now tied to the same December date as everything else in the package.

▪  Justice Department leadership settled. With confirmation secured 50–49, the department moves from acting to permanent leadership. Two Republicans opposed; two others had earlier extracted commitments concerning an anti-weaponization fund and the scope of tax audit immunity. Those commitments are now the operative oversight hooks for the fall.

▪  Two floor items did not make it out. Digital assets legislation and a college sports bill both slipped. Consideration of the athletics measure was postponed to September by agreement, and language on the ethics provisions of the digital assets bill was still being traded when the chamber left. Both re-enter a compressed September calendar behind the CR.

PRIMARIES & ELECTORAL RISK

Eleven states held contests across the past eight days. Three results carry read-through beyond their borders.

▪  Michigan (Aug. 4). Abdul El-Sayed defeated Rep. Haley Stevens for the Democratic Senate nomination in a state both parties must contest, resolving an establishment-versus-progressive fight that had been running all cycle. National Democrats now spend the fall unifying behind a nominee much of the party apparatus did not choose.

▪  Tennessee (Aug. 6). Sen. Marsha Blackburn won the Republican gubernatorial nomination with roughly 44 percent against Rep. John Rose and state Rep. Monty Fritts, in a race the President notably declined to endorse in. She faces Democrat Jerri Green in November and is favored. A win would vacate a Senate seat, filled by gubernatorial appointment until 2028 under state law. Separately, Rep. Andy Ogles lost his primary outright to former state agriculture commissioner Charlie Hatcher.

▪  Kansas (Aug. 4). Voters rejected a Republican-backed measure to elect state Supreme Court justices rather than appoint them, one of two GOP-backed ballot initiatives to fail across the two states. Trump-endorsed candidates nonetheless won nominations in Kansas, Michigan and Washington.

Still ahead. South Carolina holds a special Republican primary tomorrow, August 11, to select a Senate nominee for November following the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham on July 11; his sister, appointed to the seat in July and serving until January 3, is seeking the full term. Florida votes August 18, including the district of a member under an active Ethics investigative subcommittee. North Carolina’s 11th District Republican executive committee selects a nominee tonight, with mail ballots scheduled to go out September 4.

SECTOR IMPLICATIONS

SECTOR	STATUS	WHAT CHANGED	WATCH
Energy & maritime	HOT	Hormuz transit talks unresolved; reopening conditioned on further concessions	Muscat track; any interim text
Federal grants recipients	HOT	Appointee sign-off rule paused only through Dec. 11, and only if the House concurs	House action after Aug. 31
Defense & national security	WARM	FY27 defense appropriations unmoved; authorization work slips to a compressed September	Sept. 14 – 30 floor window
Financial services & housing	WARM	No floor action during recess; implementation continues at the agencies	Rulemakings during the five-week gap
Technology, AI & digital assets	WARM	Digital assets bill left the floor queue unfinished over ethics-title language	September re-entry behind the CR
Trade & critical minerals	WARM	No legislative movement; executive-branch tools remain the active channel	Agency actions during recess
Life sciences & supply chain	STEADY	Dormant during recess; September calendar is fully subscribed	Post-Sept. 14 committee scheduling
Health coverage & Medicaid	STEADY	CR holds current levels through Dec. 11; no policy riders of consequence	December package drafting

THIS WEEK

DAY	WHAT HAPPENS
Mon., Aug. 10	Ohio 4 p.m. deadline to certify a replacement nominee in the 7th District passes. North Carolina’s 11th District Republican executive committee convenes at 6:30 p.m. to select a nominee; the party expects to announce immediately after.
Tue., Aug. 11	South Carolina special Republican primary for the November Senate nomination.
Wed., Aug. 12	Both chambers out. Senate in pro forma sessions only through the recess.
Thu., Aug. 13	District work period. No scheduled floor or committee activity.
Fri., Aug. 14	District work period. Agency rulemaking and comment deadlines continue.

COUNTDOWN CLOCK

DATE	MILESTONE	DAYS OUT
Aug. 11	South Carolina special Senate primary	1
Aug. 18	Florida primary	8
Aug. 20	North Carolina statutory deadline to name an NC-11 replacement	10
Aug. 31	House returns (in session through Sept. 3)	21
Sept. 4	North Carolina mail ballots scheduled to go out	25
Sept. 14	Senate returns	35
Sept. 30	FY26 funding expires	51
Nov. 3	General election	85
Dec. 11	Continuing resolution expires	123
Dec. 31	AGOA authorisation lapses	143

Washington on One Page

Produced by DGA Group Government Relations. Distributed Monday, August 10, 2026. Reporting reflects information verified as of 9:00 a.m. ET on the distribution date; items resolving after that time are identified in the Sourcing & Verification panel.

This brief is prepared for clients, prospective clients and friends of the firm. It is informational and does not constitute legal, investment or lobbying advice. Companies and organizations are named only where they are the subject of reported news. DGA View sections reflect the firm’s analytic judgment and are separated from reporting throughout.