{"id":22906,"date":"2026-05-18T08:47:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T08:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/election-season-is-almost-here-congress-is-rushing-to-legislate-first\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T08:47:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T08:47:55","slug":"election-season-is-almost-here-congress-is-rushing-to-legislate-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/election-season-is-almost-here-congress-is-rushing-to-legislate-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Election season is almost here. Congress is rushing to legislate first."},"content":{"rendered":"
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As Republicans and Democrats prepare to battle each other for control of the House and Senate, they are also scrambling to pass legislative priorities that require working together \u2014 a tall order after months of bitter infighting.<\/p>\n

Before members depart for a Memorial Day recess, the House GOP majority will try this week to ram through a party-line immigration enforcement package but also attempt to pass bipartisan housing affordability legislation and a bill that would revamp college athletics regulations.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans, when not moving the filibuster-skirting immigration bill through their own chamber, are also expected to be conferring with Democratic counterparts on bipartisan deals around a companion college athletics proposal and a framework for overhauling the federal permitting process for energy projects. There\u2019s continued discussion on how to resolve differences on legislation that would fundamentally change how digital assets are regulated after the so-called Clarity Act advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee last week following House passage last summer.<\/p>\n

And Rep. Jason Smith of House Ways and Means and Sen. Mike Lee of Senate Energy and Natural Resources, two of the most notoriously partisan committee chairs, struck conciliatory tones in recent days about their desire to work with Democrats on a framework for the taxation of cryptocurrency and streamlining energy permitting, respectively.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a desire for collaboration not just between the parties but between Republican-led chambers, too \u2014 a sentiment GOP senators shared with Speaker Mike Johnson last week when he crossed the Capitol to attend the Senate Republicans\u2019 weekly closed-door luncheon.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be working on things\u201d was the message Senate Republicans conveyed to Johnson, according to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). \u201cProgress on things like that are good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson, in an interview later, called the meeting \u201ca great visit\u201d where \u201cwe talked about how the two chambers can and should work closely together. We\u2019re committed to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers revealed a genuine interest in making progress on long-stalled measures in the few short months before the home stretch of midterm campaigning begins. Members of both parties also see passing legislation as critical to combating a narrative with voters that Capitol Hill is mired in all-time political dysfunction and lack of productivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in bipartisan work,\u201d said Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.). \u201cBut it has been my experience that the closer you get to an election, the harder it is to get that kind of work done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the happy talk amid the rapidly closing window for legislative action, however, real challenges and a lack of trust remain. The latest curve ball: President Donald Trump\u2019s social media post over the weekend proposing Republicans wedge a partisan election security bill into the pending housing affordability package or a reauthorization of a key spy authority.<\/p>\n

Even before that demand, however, Johnson \u2014 who often finds himself trying to cater to his most conservative members to move bills on the House floor \u2014 was<\/a>threatening to blow up<\/a> bipartisan and bicameral negotiations on the housing bill, which the GOP sees as central to its midterm message on lowering costs for everyday Americans. The speaker has said he plans to put the measure on the floor this week and allow his members to vote on policy changes Senate Republicans and the White House warn they can’t accept.<\/p>\n

Johnson is also negotiating changes to the college athletics bill known as the SCORE Act. That\u2019s to appease hard-liners who have issues with provisions in the bill relating to scholarships for international students, among other things. Already, some tweaks were made to woo Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a former holdout.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t know the status of the overall bill. It really just depends on what Speaker Chip Roy says we can do,\u201d quipped Rep. Shomari Figures of Alabama, one of the Democrats who has been working on the legislation that would set new standards for how college athletes are paid.<\/p>\n

Trump has made it clear he wants to see passage of the SCORE Act, saying in recent months he\u2019ll use his executive authority to enforce a set of rules surrounding eligibility, transfers and compensation in college sports that aim to protect college athletes.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers also said in interviews this week that there are bipartisan talks underway about a reauthorization of a landmark public lands package known as the Great American Outdoors Act, a regulatory framework governing the use of artificial intelligence<\/a>and a bill to boost American manufacturing.<\/p>\n

Smith, of Missouri, told attendees<\/a>of a tax conference Thursday that the Ways and Means panel can \u201cdo things on health care, trade and tax from a bipartisan perspective, and I intend to do that in the next few months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee, of Utah, in a recent interview said there was \u201ca lot of shared interest\u201d in a permitting deal and that lawmakers are exchanging drafts with hopes of releasing bill text in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), meanwhile, emphasized there\u2019s also a list of must-pass bills that can\u2019t be ignored. That includes the government funding bills, the farm bill and a surface transportation bill.<\/p>\n

The House passed its first appropriations bill last week to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs in an encouraging 400-15 vote, but other funding bills won\u2019t be so easy. It also passed its version of the farm bill earlier in the month alongside a separate measure to allow year-round sales of a gasoline blend known as E15, which a Senate GOP aide last week called a \u201cnonstarter.\u201d<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them have to be done,\u201d Lankford said. \u201cThis is not a \u2018pick your favorite child.\u2019 \u2026 Whatever we can get on first and get going, we need to get going on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mia McCarthy and Brian Faler contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Republicans and Democrats prepare to battle each other for control of the House and Senate, they are also scrambling to pass legislative priorities that require working together \u2014 a tall order after months of bitter infighting. Before members depart for a Memorial Day recess, the House GOP majority will try this week to ram […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}