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{"id":27197,"date":"2026-09-18T12:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-high-costs-hound-gop-as-house-exits\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T12:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:20:11","slug":"capitol-agenda-high-costs-hound-gop-as-house-exits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-high-costs-hound-gop-as-house-exits\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: High costs hound GOP as House exits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>A perfect storm of affordability issues is developing for Republicans, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/18\/house-republicans-affordability-recess-01083516\" target=\"_blank\">and they have all but given up<\/a> on making law to address it before November.<\/p>\n<p>GOP senators\u2019 attempt to fast-track a measure aimed at curtailing high energy bills associated with data centers, which overwhelmingly passed in the House Wednesday, was blocked Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The bill\u2019s failure \u2014 at least for now \u2014 joins several last-ditch attempts by lawmakers to tackle affordability concerns this week. And with senators now openly speculating if they\u2019ll cut their work session short before the midterms, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/16\/congress\/johnson-cancels-another-house-session-day-01079318\" target=\"_blank\">House lawmakers\u2019 early dismissal<\/a>, some Republicans are showing nerves about the rising cost of living heading into Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnough is enough. Americans are paying more at the pump, and Washington shouldn\u2019t be making it worse,\u201d House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris said <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepAndyHarrisMD\/status\/2099903559852585040\" target=\"_blank\">in a post on X<\/a>, hours before his push to temporarily suspend the federal gasoline tax fell apart.<\/p>\n<p>Speaker Mike Johnson threw cold water on that idea, saying his caucus couldn\u2019t rally around any single proposal, despite prices averaging about $4.37 a gallon for regular and $6.31 a gallon for diesel \u2014 close to the record high \u2014 according to the American Automobile Association.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, seven House Republicans defected from their party this week to rebuke the Iran war launched by President Donald Trump. They included two new votes from Iowa Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn as Midwestern farmers wrestle with soaring fuel and fertilizer price increases due to the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats are taking the opportunity to hit Republicans on pocketbook concerns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything is going to become more expensive because Donald \u2018I-love-inflation\u2019 Trump is doing everything he can to drive up costs,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said from the chamber floor Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the country\u2019s economic ails are out of Republicans\u2019 hands on Capitol Hill. The Federal Reserve, for example, just made Republicans\u2019 lives harder, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/09\/17\/congress\/republicans-fed-warsh-congress-rates-trump-01082916\" target=\"_blank\">hiking interest rates<\/a> for the first time in three years and signaling it might do so again this year as inflation continues to tick up.<\/p>\n<p>But while Johnson and GOP leaders say their party is continuing to find solutions to cost-of-living issues, any action can\u2019t happen until after the midterms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more work to do, but \u2026 it\u2019s easy to forget the mess that we inherited,\u201d House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a Thursday interview. \u201cAs much as I\u2019d like gas prices to be lower, they\u2019re lower today than where they were at the peak under [President Joe Biden], and they\u2019re going to get lower when Iran gets resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 PERMITTING TALKS CLOSE IN:\u00a0<\/b>Senators say they\u2019re at <a href=\"https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/2026\/09\/permitting-talks-reach-final-stages-01083362\" target=\"_blank\">the final stages<\/a> of negotiating long-elusive legislation to ease permitting approvals for energy projects as they race to lock in a floor vote before the November elections. Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said Thursday as senators left town for the week that a deal is \u201cvery close,\u201d while ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said negotiations are \u201cin final wrap up, but some of the most difficult issues are the last ones resolved.&#8221; Capito conceded that a resolution \u201cmay drag\u201d into the third and final week of their work session \u2014 which would be a delay from the timeline she and Majority Leader John Thune laid out this week.<\/p>\n<p>\n <br \/>\n <b>\u2014 COLLEGE SPORTS BILL KEEPS SENATORS IN TOWN:\u00a0<\/b>Opposition to advancing a sweeping college sports bill seems unlikely to derail it, but does threaten to keep senators in Washington past next week for passage. The bill overcame a second procedural hurdle Thursday with a 77-22 vote. But senators are out Monday because of the Yom Kippur holiday and would need unanimous agreement to avoid vote timing bleeding into late Friday night, at the earliest, to finish up work on the bill.\n<\/p>\n<p><i>Mia McCarthy and Josh Siegel contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A perfect storm of affordability issues is developing for Republicans, and they have all but given up on making law to address it before November. GOP senators\u2019 attempt to fast-track a measure aimed at curtailing high energy bills associated with data centers, which overwhelmingly passed in the House Wednesday, was blocked Thursday. The bill\u2019s failure [&hellip;]<\/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-27197","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\/27197","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=27197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}