Big Ticket Items in Doubt as Partisan Clashes Dominate Congress

Lawmakers’ legislative ambitions are clashing with a powerful force: the calendar.

Republicans have focused attention in recent weeks on voting legislation favored by President Donald Trump and a budget bill to fund immigration enforcement—both contentious and challenging partisan efforts jeopardizing a slew of must-pass and want-to-pass legislation and leaving senators jockeying for limited floor time in the seven months before the midterm elections.

“Nothing’s going to be smooth around here from now until the midterms,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said.

Senators looking to make progress on their priorities face challenges with timing, partisanship, and chamber divisions. The array of issues on the agenda with looming deadlines includes spy powers, surface transportation, farm programs, and appropriations. There’s also a long slate of want-to-pass bills, such as permitting reform, housing costs, cryptocurrency regulation, and potentially supplemental funding for the Iran war and other aid.

“There are a number of things that we can do, and I hope we will be able to do,” said Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).

Some senators are optimistic about the prospects for legislating. But divisions between Democrats and Republicans are always tense in election years, and discord between the House and Senate has been inflamed by intraparty disagreements over the voting bill and reconciliation process, neither of which has been resolved.

Thune blamed Democratic intransigence over the Department of Homeland Security shutdown as the reason the GOP is turning to a party-line budget reconciliation process to fund immigration enforcement—a process expected to eat up a chunk of Senate floor time and committee resources.

“The Democrat leader should be embarrassed by what his party has done to the federal government and to the Senate itself,” Thune said.

The multi-step reconciliation process is already complicated and time-consuming, involving both chambers, multiple committees, lengthy floor debate, unlimited amendments, and often overnight sessions that drain floor time. Democrats are threatening to make the reconciliation process as taxing as possible by challenging provisions and politically tough amendments—likely to elevate the already strained tensions.

“They’re dragging the Senate through a painful, arduous, and partisan reconciliation process,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “That is dysfunction—plain and simple. And to make matters worse, they can’t even agree among themselves on how to do it.”

Lack of Trust

The fight over DHS funding created rifts on both sides of the aisle. Republicans said Democrats strung them along in the now-derailed debate over immigration policy changes, while the minority says they can’t trust the administration.

“If they’re willing to break and go against the Constitution, of course they will be willing to go and break any type of agreement within the Senate,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said. “I just do not trust this president.”

That’s bleeding into other bipartisan talks. Democrats and Republicans restarted negotiations on permitting after administration divisions previously broke them apart. But some of those divisions quickly formed again.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), often a bipartisan negotiator, said he won’t participate in permitting talks if the administration is “arbitrarily” canceling wind and solar projects.

“Not until the administration takes its thumb off the scale,” King said. “It’s a waste of time otherwise.”

Lawmakers are working on bills with deadlines this year, including surveillance authorities that expire at the end of this month, reauthorizing major highway and transportation programs by the end of September, and re-upping water resources at the end of the year.

The April 30 deadline for reauthorizing spy powers puts even more pressure on the time crunch, with the Senate expected to be more involved after the House failed to secure a long-term agreement. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Friday he and allies would be “ready to go to the mat and fight for a full package of reforms.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), ranking member of the panel overseeing highways, said he couldn’t say whether they’d make the surface transportation deadline, but they’re continuing to negotiate. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), chair of that committee, said they’re trading paper back and forth.

Trump has also called for passage of a long-awaited farm bill—which has an end of September deadline—after partisan tensions stalled attempts.

“I think we have a shot of getting the farm bill done,“ Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said. “But I know we’ll get reconciliation done.”

Even when one chamber manages to pass a bill in a big bipartisan margin, that’s no guarantee of success across the Capitol. Both chambers have passed affordable housing and aviation safety bills, but are at loggerheads on consolidating them.

“House and Senate function very, very differently,” Thune said. “We’re just trying to figure out pathways to get stuff done, and nothing about it is easy.”

Partisan Pathway

Some Republicans think divisions are too deep and the only way to get anything done is through reconciliation—a party-line process that allows them to bypass the filibuster and Democratic opposition, but with strict rules that items must be budgetary. Hurdles are expected there too.

Leaders are pointing to the potential for a third reconciliation bill to avoid a windfall of requests for the narrow push on immigration enforcement. But some Senate Republicans argue this is their chance to move legislation this year.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he pressed his colleagues in a closed-door lunch last week, calling it a mistake to not fund immigration enforcement for 10 years. He also argued reconciliation shouldn’t be limited because it’ll be the only path to pass GOP priorities.

Others agree this is the best shot to catch a ride to Trump’s desk.

“Only thing we’ve gotten done in the last year is Big, Beautiful Bill. Now we’re going to have one this year, let’s put a saddle on it and ride it,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said, suggesting they should add war funding and election policy. “I’d like to do as much as we can, because it’ll be the last thing.”