Hello, readers. Welcome back to On Politics. Zach Schermele here, USA TODAY's congressional correspondent. It's Thursday, and I'm still here in the Capitol (though many senators are not). They'll be back early next week for one final legislative burst before they head home for the midterms.
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'Haven't done a damn thing' |
Senate Republicans are clamoring to use their last week in Washington until November to notch a last-minute legislative win they can tout on the campaign trail. The remaining items on their agenda, per Senate Majority Leader John Thune, include a final vote on a bipartisan bill to overhaul college athletics, plus a House-passed measure to take "small" steps toward shielding Americans' electricity bills from data centers.
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Yet some GOP lawmakers are already worried those priorities may not be enough to help the party overcome longer-than-expected odds to retain control of the chamber. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, for instance, told reporters today he'd been "chasing my friend Senator Thune like he stole Thanksgiving" to "do more on the cost of living."
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"We haven't done a damn thing," Kennedy said. |
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"We've accomplished quite a bit, but not as much as I wish we could," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, added. |
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"We're not very functional," Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, said. He later added: "At least we're not socialists." |
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Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, reacts during a Senate hearing on Pentagon funding on July 21, 2026.
Eric Lee, REUTERS
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For what it's worth: Other Republicans think there's not much they could do at this point to change the "baked-in" election outcome, as retiring North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis put it. "It's good policy," Tillis said of the data center bill. "But if people are doing it under the assumption that it creates a sea change, I just don't buy it."
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Daily photo gallery: See protests outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's United Nations speech
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In the Senate's last vote on the Iran war before the midterm elections, Republicans largely opposed ending the conflict — even as it continues to drag down some of their party's most vulnerable candidates. The war powers resolution, which was already approved by the House of Representatives, failed narrowly, 49-50, with just four Republican senators supporting it. It was one of congressional Democrats' last political chess moves before the midterms. While Republicans claimed a victory, Democrats said they succeeded in putting their GOP colleagues on the record in support of an unpopular war.
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White House lets media back in |
All three media outlets that President Trump banned from the White House were allowed back in today, after a judge ruled that the revocation of their credentials probably violated the Constitution. CNN , MS NOW and Politico announced that their reporters were let back in just after noon, though many of them were initially denied access in the morning. My colleagues have more reporting on the story here.
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That's all from me for this week, folks. Until Monday...
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"It's a bunch of BS," Sen. John Cornyn, who has worked alongside Collins for more than two decades, told USA TODAY.
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The Senate's narrow avoidance of a largely symbolic resolution underscored just how central backlash to the war has become in the midterms.
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Belum ada tanggapan untuk "GOP itches for a pre-midterm win"
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