Senate GOP eyes last-ditch push on affordability as fears deepen over midterm map

Francis Chung/Politico/AP

Inside the Senate GOP’s campaign headquarters on Wednesday, dozens of Republicans gathered for a strategy session during what was expected to be their final days in Washington before the November midterms.

Then Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio – one of the most endangered Republicans in the country – made an urgent appeal to his colleagues. He told them to stay in town, demanding they “do something real and tangible on affordability,” according to a person in the room. Among those who forcefully agreed were Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is also in one of the most competitive Senate races and has made repeated pleas of her own in recent meetings, according to a person familiar with the GOP’s internal deliberations.

Soon afterward, GOP leaders agreed: The Senate would return to Washington next week to take up a bill aimed at protecting Americans from electricity price hikes amid a data center boom.

That push is a last-ditch attempt to arm Republicans with a stronger message on the economy heading into some of its toughest political headwinds in at least a decade. With fewer than 40 days until the midterms, Republicans privately worry that their majority is at risk as gas and grocery prices spike, according to multiple people familiar with internal deliberations. They’ve seen their own voters’ confidence in the party erode, as both the war and the economy have dragged down Republicans’ campaigns from Alaska to Maine as well as Iowa, Ohio and Kansas.

But the effort appears likely to fail – it is currently expected to be blocked by Democrats, who argue the bill is not adequate.

In Washington, frustrations have been mounting among many Senate Republicans who feel their party has done little to jolt the economy since their major tax cuts package last year. And some – like Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, a red-state senator who been surprisingly critical of his own party as of late – are increasingly speaking out.

This week, Kennedy railed against his own leadership for prioritizing a bill that imposes new rules on college athletics, while failing to put economic issues front and center.

“I have been chasing my friend, Senator Thune, like he stole Thanksgiving, since we passed the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ to do more on cost of living because we haven’t done a damn thing. And it’s biting us in the a** right now,” Kennedy told reporters Thursday.

Everyday Americans, he said, are “not worried about whether the football coaches are happy… they’re worried about cost of living.”

Next week, the Senate is expected to continue work on the college sports bill, culminating in a final vote. It is also expected to take up a bill that curbs lawmakers from buying stocks that includes provisions on voter ID, a measure that does not deal with affordability concerns.

And critics of Husted’s data center bill say the measure does little to shield against rate hikes. The bill creates a federal standard that requires data center operators to cover the costs of upgrades to energy infrastructure needed to support their work. But it only requires state public utility commissions, which generally regulate the utility rates in their states, to “consider” adopting that standard.

The bill overwhelmingly passed the House last week. But when Republicans then tried to fast-track the measure in the Senate, Democrats blocked the bill from consideration, arguing it does not do enough.

J.Scott Applewhite/AP

Privately, Senate Republicans believe they can still keep their majority, especially with GOP super PACs dumping presidential-level spending into their races – but acknowledge there are a half-dozen races that are tight enough to go either way, with affordability and the war as voters’ main concerns.

Some Republicans, like Sen. Josh Hawley, are willing to consider a kitchen-sink approach to lowering prices, from suspending the federal gas tax to banning diesel exports – but time is quickly running out for the Senate with just one more week in Washington. And the House has already left to return to the campaign trail.

“The best use of time right now would be figuring out maybe how to suspend the federal gas tax so that we can get prices down, how to cap the price of insulin so that we can get medical prices down, trying to do everything we can to lower every piece of cost of living that we possibly can before this Congress leaves. I mean, that to me seems awfully urgent to voters,” Hawley said on Wednesday, adding that he’s also open to a diesel export ban, which President Donald Trump has expressed interest in.

“We need to vote on things that will actually help real people. And I’m concerned that we’re not doing that,” he said. “I don’t know how you can explain that to voters in November. I really don’t.”

Not everyone in the party even agrees on what action to take to address affordability. Senate Republicans are split on that diesel export ban – which some experts warn could cause further chaos in the energy market – and GOP leaders are skeptical that there is a simple legislative solution to the price hikes consumers are facing.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune balked when asked if the Senate should pass something to help lower gas prices, saying that most of the ideas floating around won’t have much of an impact unless oil flows again through the Strait of Hormuz.

“I think there have been some ideas out there, most of which I don’t think are going to do much to impact gas prices. Again, the best way to get gas prices in a better spot is to get things opened up and get the free flow of global commerce, which right now in the strait isn’t the case,” he said.

Francis Chung/Politico/AP

周三，在参议院共和党竞选总部内，数十名共和党人聚集在一起举行战略会议，预计这将是他们在11月中期选举前在华盛顿的最后几天。

当时，俄亥俄州参议员乔恩·赫斯特德——全国最岌岌可危的共和党人之一——向他的同僚们发出紧急呼吁。据一位在场人士透露，他要求他们留在华盛顿，并要求他们“在住房负担能力问题上采取切实有效的行动”。据一位熟悉共和党内部讨论的人士称，缅因州参议员苏珊·柯林斯也强烈响应了赫斯特德的呼吁。柯林斯同样面临着激烈的参议院竞选，并且在最近的几次会议上也多次提出类似请求。

随后不久，共和党领导人达成一致：参议院将于下周返回华盛顿，审议一项旨在保护美国人免受数据中心蓬勃发展带来的电价上涨影响的法案。

此举是共和党人为应对至少十年来最严峻的政治逆风而做出的最后努力，旨在就经济问题发出更有力的呼吁。距离中期选举不到40天，据多位知情人士透露，随着汽油和食品价格飙升，共和党内部担忧其多数席位岌岌可危。他们眼睁睁地看着选民对本党的信心逐渐消退，战争和经济双重打击拖累了共和党在阿拉斯加、缅因州以及爱荷华州、俄亥俄州和堪萨斯州等地的竞选活动。

但这项努力似乎很可能失败——目前预计会遭到民主党人的阻挠，他们认为该法案不够完善。

在华盛顿，许多共和党参议员的不满情绪日益高涨，他们认为自去年推出大规模减税方案以来，共和党在提振经济方面收效甚微。一些人——例如来自路易斯安那州的参议员约翰·肯尼迪，这位来自传统共和党州的参议员近来对本党提出了令人惊讶的批评——正越来越多地公开表达自己的观点。

本周，肯尼迪猛烈抨击自己的领导层，指责他们优先考虑一项对大学体育运动施加新规定的法案，而未能将经济问题放在首位。

肯尼迪周四告诉记者：“自从我们通过了旨在降低生活成本的‘一项宏伟法案’以来，我就一直在追着我的朋友图恩参议员，就像他偷走了感恩节一样，因为我们什么都没做。现在这让我们自食其果了。”

他说，普通美国人“并不关心足球教练是否开心……他们关心的是生活成本”。

下周，参议院预计将继续审议大学体育法案，并进行最终投票。此外，参议院预计还将审议一项限制议员购买股票的法案，该法案包含有关选民身份识别的条款，但并未解决选民负担能力问题。

批评者认为，赫斯特德提出的数据中心法案对防止电价上涨收效甚微。该法案设立了一项联邦标准，要求数据中心运营商承担为其运营所需的能源基础设施升级费用。但它仅要求各州公共事业委员会（通常负责监管本州的公用事业费率）“考虑”采纳该标准。

该法案上周在众议院以压倒性优势获得通过。但当共和党人试图在参议院快速推进该法案时，民主党人阻止了参议院对该法案的审议，理由是该法案力度不够。

J.Scott Applewhite/美联社

私下里，参议院共和党人相信他们仍然可以保住多数席位，尤其是共和党超级政治行动委员会向他们的竞选投入了总统级别的资金——但他们也承认，有六场竞选的胜负难料，选民主要关心的是经济承受能力和战争问题。

一些共和党人，例如参议员乔什·霍利，愿意考虑采取“一揽子”降价措施，从暂停联邦汽油税到禁止柴油出口——但参议院的时间已经所剩无几，在华盛顿的会议只剩最后一周了。而众议院已经休会，重返竞选活动。

霍利周三表示：“现在最应该做的，是想办法暂停联邦汽油税，从而降低油价；想办法限制胰岛素价格，从而降低医疗成本；尽一切可能在本届国会休会前降低生活成本。在我看来，这对选民来说至关重要。”他还补充说，他也对禁止柴油出口持开放态度，特朗普总统曾表示对此感兴趣。

“我们需要投票表决那些真正能帮助到民众的事情。但我担心我们并没有做到这一点，”他说。“我不知道该如何向11月的选民解释这一点。我真的不知道。”

党内甚至连如何解决能源价格上涨问题都未能达成一致。参议院共和党人对柴油出口禁令存在分歧——一些专家警告称，该禁令可能会进一步扰乱能源市场——而且共和党领导人怀疑，能否通过简单的立法手段解决消费者面临的价格上涨问题。

当被问及参议院是否应该通过一些措施来帮助降低汽油价格时，参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩犹豫不决，他说，除非石油再次通过霍尔木兹海峡流动，否则大多数流传的想法都不会产生多大影响。

“我认为目前有一些想法，但大多数我觉得对汽油价格不会产生太大影响。再说一遍，改善汽油价格的最佳方法是开放贸易，促进全球贸易自由流动，而目前海峡两岸的情况并非如此，”他说。