Senate Republicans are grumbling publicly about their own party's priorities as they head into their last scheduled week in session before the November midterms.
According to the Washington Post, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) decided against sending senators home early last week to campaign, and instead he kept the chamber in session to pad the GOP's legislative record.
But some Republicans are questioning what that record amounts to.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he had urged leadership to take up a bipartisan bill capping insulin costs at $35, legislation suspending the federal gas tax and other measures to ease costs for working families.
"My view is that ought to be our sole focus," Hawley said. "If we're not going to do that, it's not clear to me what we're doing here."
Instead, Senate Republicans have spent the past two weeks on a bill from Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) to overhaul regulation of college sports. The choice drew a scathing rebuke from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
"With gas at over $4 a gallon, a persistent war with Iran, $40 trillion in debt, the Senate has decided that the most urgent thing now is to dictate how college sports are run from Washington," Paul said.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who may still back the bill, dismissed it as a way "to make the football coaches happy."
"I haven't met a single person on the campaign trail, when they lie down to sleep and can't, who are worried about the football coaches," Kennedy told reporters.
The frustration comes as Republicans confront the once-unthinkable prospect of losing the Senate in November's midterm elections. Democrats need to flip four seats, and are competitive even in some states President Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2024.
Among the most endangered Republicans is Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), whose data center electricity bill faces a vote this week. His Democratic challenger, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, has spent millions hammering Husted over data centers. A National Republican Senatorial Committee memo last month warned that the ads are working and called data centers an "anchor hanging around Husted's neck."
Sixty-nine percent of likely Ohio voters say data centers are mostly bad for home energy costs, according to a Bowling Green State University/YouGov poll. Husted's bill wouldn't fully take effect for two years, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called it "a fraud."
Meanwhile, Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), who is locked in a tight Senate race, called on the House to return and vote on suspending the gas tax. The House has no plans to come back before Election Day.
