Congress is in legislative limbo due to Republican infighting.
While there are plenty of partisan disputes that have frustrated Capitol Hill — such as the nearly two-month shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security — the division between House and Senate Republicans has been a more significant obstacle to the laundry list of stalled legislation that might otherwise reach President Donald Trump’s desk.
Trump could have intervened to settle many of these disputes, but he has kept a distance in most cases. This has left each house to proceed with its own proposals – and against those of their counterparts in the other house.
In an instance where the President appears genuinely invested in passage of the GOP’s comprehensive elections bill, his fixation has only made internal divisions worse.
Lawmakers return to Washington next week as the legislative calendar winds down before the midterms and leaders are eyeing action on at least one party-line budget reconciliation bill — a time-consuming process that could make it even more difficult to achieve consensus on these pending items:
housing affordability
With cost-of-living concerns dominating the pre-midterm political landscape, a bipartisan effort to address housing prices should not be easy, but disputes over specific policy provisions are preventing dueling of the House and Senate housing packages.
The Senate passed a bill last month that includes a temporary ban on central bank digital currencies as well as a provision banning large investors from owning more than 350 homes. Both provisions face serious opposition from House Republicans, who joined with Democrats in their chamber to pass their own bill in February.
While the Senate wants the House to accept its version, the House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) and others in the GOP are pushing for both chambers to go into conference — potentially adding months to the process.
aviation security
Legislation aimed at responding to last year’s deadly crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has been caught in a battle of wills between GOP committee chairmen. A bill supported by the Senate Commerce Chairman ted cruz (R-Texas) earlier this year appeared poised to head to Trump’s desk as heads of two key House committees, all the way up to the Armed Services chairman. mike rogers (R-Ala.) and transportation and infrastructure chairman. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), came out in opposition, causing the measure to fail in the House.
The Senate bill’s requirement for advanced aircraft location-warning technology has been one of the biggest points of contention among Republicans, with the House version of the bill opting for more open-ended language. The House bill focuses on a different technology, which Major Aviation Labor Group Arguably the Washington disaster could not have been prevented.
Cruz has called the House’s rejection of his ROTOR Act a “temporary delay,” but the House Speaker is moving forward with his own ALERT Act, with a floor vote expected on Tuesday. It remains uncertain how policy disputes will be resolved from there.
college sports
Trump has taken a keen interest in college athletics and has issued several executive orders on the subject. But Congress has struggled to act on legislation dealing with the controversial “name, image and likeness” system for compensating student athletes.
House Republicans pushed for the SCORE Act last year, which would create new standards for paying college athletes and grant antitrust exemptions, before conservatives and many Democrats shelved it.
While there has been new discussion this month about putting it on the floor, the bill is dead on arrival in the Senate, where Cruz and Senators. maria cantwell (D-Wash.), senators on the top Commerce Committee, warned that the measure does not have enough support. Both are discussing ways to address ground zero concerns but a bill has not been introduced yet.
tech regulation
The House and Senate have failed to reach consensus on several tech-industry flashpoints, including artificial intelligence and children’s online safety.
The House GOP largely wants to codify Trump’s executive order creating a national AI rulebook, but some Senate Republicans are worried that the president’s plan could limit state-level rules that the White House might want to override.
There is a similar impasse over online security bills. The Senate approved a privacy bill by unanimous consent, but the House has not taken it up and is instead moving forward with a package that does not include key provisions passed by the Senate.
One of the main differences is on state exemptions – included in the House version but not in the Senate version. Another controversy is over “duty of care” language in the Senate bill, which would require tech companies to design their platforms with an eye on preventing harm to children. senate majority leader john thune An interview earlier this year paired the AI law with the Children’s Online Protection Act.
And then there’s cryptocurrency: A closely watched “market structure” bill is stuck in the Senate after being left out of a landmark crypto bill signed into law last year despite pressure in the House.
Trump administration is increasing pressure Treasury Secretary Scott Besant saying on Thursday That “the Senate’s time is precious, and now is the time to act.”
election inspection
Conservative lawmakers and Trump have united behind the Save America Act — a GOP bill aimed at ending noncitizen voting entirely — as a top-level, must-pass agenda item, even as many Senate Republicans doubt it could ever clear their chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Trump sees the bill as his “No. 1 priority”, and House hard-liners are pushing for a filibuster workaround. Sen mike lee (R-Utah) has pushed to force Democrats into a “talking filibuster,” where they would have to remain on the floor to block a bill, and the Senate will resume debate early next week with no indication of when GOP leaders will opt to hold the potentially doomed vote and move forward.
Some Republicans, including the Senate Budget Chairman lindsey graham of South Carolina, want to try to pass parts of the bill through the reconciliation process later this fall. But conservatives believe it’s a non-starter because much of the bill likely violates strict Senate rules governing the party-line reconciliation process.
DHS funding
There is no bigger dispute for House and Senate Republicans than DHS funding, which has already been going on for nearly a month.
A Senate-passed bill that would provide funding for all departments except immigration enforcement agencies is currently in the House. Republicans there aren’t excited about a plan that would defund ICE and other agencies through the reconciliation process – an opinion speaker mike johnson Was called “trashy” before flipping in support.
Now, many House Republicans want their Senate counterparts to pass the immigration enforcement funding before the House passes the balance of DHS spending. The hard-line Freedom Caucus has gone further, demanding GOP leaders defund all of DHS through reconciliation.
As party leaders plan to pass a narrowly targeted reconciliation bill before a June 1 deadline imposed by Trump, most Senate Republicans want the House to fund most of DHS now — or risk prolonging the infighting, which one GOP senator also called for. A “circular firing squad.”
Katherine Hapgood, Gabby Miller, Alfred Ng, Nick Niedzwiedek and Sam Ogozalek contributed to this report.
