WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans are clamoring for a last-minute legislative win to tout on the midterm campaign trail before they leave Capitol Hill until November.
With just a week left in Washington, the remaining items on their agenda include a final vote on a bipartisan bill to overhaul college athletics, as well as a measure to take small steps toward shielding Americans' electricity bills from data centers. They may also confirm more Trump administration officials, namely the head of the Labor Department, according to Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Yet some GOP lawmakers are worried those priorities may not be enough to help the party overcome longer-than-expected odds in the fall's elections. Long-simmering frustrations about their
collective legislative track record are coming to a boil at a critical political moment, and the rapidly closing window to add more to it could influence whether they retain control of the chamber.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, said he'll be spending much of October stumping for Republican candidates in key states like Michigan and Texas. He argued that he's been chasing Thune "like he stole Thanksgiving" to do more to address Americans' cost-of-living concerns before the midterms.
"We haven't done a damn thing," he told reporters. "And it's biting us in the (expletive) right now."
'At least we're not socialists'
Kennedy isn't alone in his frustrations about the GOP's recent track record.
Since the passage of the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" — President Donald Trump's signature legislative accomplishment that expanded tax cuts and overhauled social safety net programs — many Republicans have bristled at Congress' legislative pace.
As gas and grocery costs have risen amid the Iran war, and the president's popularity has plunged, the urgency to notch some pre-election wins has intensified among many Republicans.
"We've accomplished quite a bit, but not as much as I wish we could," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said.
Despite holding lots of congressional hearings and passing tax cuts, voters want to know "what you did for me recently," said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota.
"We're not very functional," Cramer said, later adding: "At least we're not socialists."
Senate eyes college sports overhaul
Much of the Senate's energy since it returned from its annual August recess has been funneled into a push to overhaul college athletics.
Painstaking bipartisan efforts, led by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, have been in the works for years to address a mounting crisis in collegiate sports. As giant checks for student athletes have dramatically altered the finances of American higher education, onlookers have called on Congress to intervene.
Despite opposition to the legislation, particularly among some Black lawmakers who say forms of regulation could hurt students of color, the legislation is poised to become one of the Senate's main accomplishments heading into the fall elections. While it's a big issue that a lot of sports fans and university leaders care about, some senators aren't so sure it's something that will deeply resonate with voters.
"I can assure you that moms and dads out there across America, when they lie down to sleep at night, they're not worried about the football coaches," Kennedy said.
Data center bill hitting the floor
Some Senate Republicans are pinning their hopes next week on the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill they say would help protects consumers' energy bills from spiking due to nearby data centers.
The Senate version of the legislation, which already passed the House of Representatives overwhelmingly, is sponsored by Jon Husted, a Republican running in one of the most competitive races in the country. The nationwide debate over the pros and cons of data centers, the infrastructure that houses AI systems, has become a defining issue in that Ohio campaign and many others.
Democrats, however, have criticized Husted's bill as too meager. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a "fraud" because its requirements are "voluntary." Democrats, he said, have offered a "stronger" measure to more forcefully mandate that tech companies realistically protect consumers' utility bills.
In the lead-up to a high-stakes election, though, politics may overshadow any finer debate over legislative technicalities. Republicans are already jumping at the chance to characterize Democrats as defenders of data centers.
"These Democrats in the Senate are playing games with that bill," Sen. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, said. "At the end of the day, they're hurting families and working-class people across the country by not passing it."
Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. Reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com and on Signal @zachschermele.02. Follow him on X at @Zach
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Senate Republicans are desperate for last-minute win before midterms
