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\n

Facing rising gas prices, an Iran war with no end in sight and increasingly dire midterm polling<\/a>, Senate Republicans are facing a crucial choice this week: fight or flight.<\/p>\n

Some GOP lawmakers are caught between their desire to use the rest of the scant pre-election legislative calendar to improve their standing with voters and the likelihood there probably isn\u2019t much they can do anyway.<\/p>\n

House Republicans have already fled Washington<\/a> until after the Nov. 3 election, and the Senate is set to spend the week debating a bipartisan bill<\/a> overhauling the multibillion-dollar college sports industry with no firm idea of what comes after.<\/p>\n

The split screen between the real economic pain hitting Americans and the relatively light stakes of the Senate floor agenda had several anxious GOP lawmakers raising concerns over cost-of-living issues amid signs that their majority is in real peril.<\/p>\n

The college sports bill<\/a> \u201cneeds to be done,\u201d said Sen. Ted Budd<\/a> (R-N.C.), \u201cbut I wouldn’t say it’s top priority in the minds of people in North Carolina or in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you list all the problems that they are facing right now, it’s not college sports,\u201d he continued. \u201cYeah, it’s a problem, but it’s not the top problem. I mean, it’s affordability, it’s fuel prices, it’s grocery prices. It’s getting this war behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> is for now keeping his options open about what to do once the college sports legislation is disposed of, and that topic is expected to be discussed during a closed-door GOP lunch Wednesday.<\/p>\n

But one very real option is simply joining the House in calling it quits till after the election \u2014 which is what several GOP senators and aides who were granted anonymity to speak candidly said they expect to happen this week.<\/p>\n

Should they leave, Republican senators would be essentially standing pat with their legislative record, even with voters clamoring for more help while blaming Trump<\/a> in a spate of recent polling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was something that we could get done that would help, I\u2019d be all for it,\u201d Sen. Kevin Cramer<\/a> (R-N.D.) said when asked about possible legislation to address rising costs. \u201cBut I don’t know what it would be at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The slim hope that any piece of affordability legislation could possibly get across the Senate floor in the final weeks of September has others in the GOP eager to simply get their vulnerable colleagues back on the campaign trail and make their case directly to voters. It’s highly unlikely any bill could get to President Donald Trump\u2019s desk, anyway, given the House\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

So long as senators stay in the Capitol, they are exposing themselves to a barrage of off-message questions about the Iran war and spiraling energy prices \u2014 not to mention the latest Trump-related controversies, such as his White House media ban<\/a> and reports that a Russian oligarch helped finance his son\u2019s wedding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To keep the focus on affordability, several endangered senators are making last-ditch appeals for legislative action.<\/p>\n

They include Republicans who are coalescing behind a plan to have the Trump administration temporarily curb diesel exports \u2014 including Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan<\/a>, who is running in a tough race in a state Trump easily won in 2024 \u2014 even as oil industry allies warned it would have little effect or potentially even raise prices in some parts of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican fuel should stay home with Americans,\u201d Sullivan said in a Tuesday statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jon Husted<\/a> (R-Ohio) continued to push Tuesday for further action on a bill he authored<\/a> aimed at getting data center developers to cover their own energy costs. The bill easily passed the House but was blocked from fast-track consideration last week by Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich<\/a> of New Mexico, who argued the measure didn’t go far enough<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Kennedy<\/a> (R-La.) said it would be \u201cstupid\u201d for Republicans not to stay in town and jump through the days of procedural hoops required to put Husted\u2019s bill up for a vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen moms and dads lie down and sleep at night, and can\u2019t, they\u2019re not lying there worried about the football coaches, they\u2019re worried about the cost of living,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cIt\u2019s foolish both policy-wise and political-wise not to put it on the floor. \u2026 [But] I wouldn\u2019t faint with surprise if Senator Thune said, \u2018Y\u2019all go home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Roger Marshall<\/a> (R-Kansas), who is also in a closer-than-expected race, said GOP leaders could put his bill limiting credit card fees<\/a> up for vote, claiming it would \u201clower the cost of gasoline two or three percent.\u201d Sen. Susan Collins<\/a> (R-Maine), meanwhile, said she wants to see her bipartisan bill capping insulin prices get a floor vote next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always torn, but I expected to be in session next week,\u201d Collins said when asked if it would be better to stay or go. She added that passing the insulin bill, a stalled appropriations measure and legislation to overhaul energy permitting \u201dwould make a real difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only the energy permitting bill still appears to have a shot of reaching the Senate floor<\/a> \u2014 and senators and aides acknowledge it’s a long one. Republicans believe it would let them show voters they are capable of addressing cost-of-living issues before the election, even if the effects of the legislation won\u2019t be felt for years. Some Democrats believe now is the best time to win concessions from the Trump administration that could help achieve clean energy goals.<\/p>\n

Thune pointed to the ongoing permitting talks as one of the reasons that the schedule remains \u201cup in the air\u201d \u2014 calling it \u201csomething I think most of our members believe is really, really consequential legislation and worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a floor speech Tuesday, Thune touted the work already done by Republicans, saying they had \u201cspent the last two years delivering on our agenda\u201d \u2014 putting \u201c more money in your pocket<\/a>,\u201d working to lower taxes for families and making \u201c homeownership more affordable<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he also acknowledged the political headwinds facing his party in the midterms, telling reporters that he was \u201chopeful\u201d about their chances of keeping the majority but also \u201crealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very competitive environment out there \u2014 a lot of tight races, many of them in the margin of error,\u201d Thune said, but added that Republicans had superior candidates, an aggressive ground game and a \u201ccompelling message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelsey Brugger and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing rising gas prices, an Iran war with no end in sight and increasingly dire midterm polling, Senate Republicans are facing a crucial choice this week: fight or flight. Some GOP lawmakers are caught between their desire to use the rest of the scant pre-election legislative calendar to improve their standing with voters and the […]<\/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-27247","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\/27247","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=27247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}