Republicans race for legislative wins ahead of midterms

Republicans are scrambling to secure more legislative wins this summer as the issue of affordability increasingly becomes a liability heading into November’s midterms.

President Trump and Republicans scored a huge victory last year with their “big, beautiful bill,” a package of tax and spending cuts that GOP lawmakers are trumpeting on the campaign trail. But that accomplishment has done little to address the rising cost of many consumer goods — an inflationary trend that’s been only aggravated by President Trump’s global tariffs and military conflict with Iran. 

Now, as the big, beautiful bill approaches its one-year anniversary, Republican leaders are racing to pass a series of proposals that tackle the high cost of living. At the top of the list is a long-stalled bill to make housing more affordable and a new proposal to pause the federal gas tax to bring down prices at the pump.

The trend is a tacit acknowledgement that Republicans need more legislative victories to sell to voters in a cycle that’s been largely defined by lengthy government shutdowns and economic anxieties outside the Beltway. 

But battles among House Republicans, and between Republicans in the House and Senate, could complicate passage of those very bills.

In a CBS News interview on Monday, Trump said he’s looking to suspend the federal gas tax for a “period of time,” noting that when the price of gas goes down, “we’ll let it phase back in.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) immediately seized on Trump’s remarks, saying they will introduce bills to suspend the gas tax.

“People’s gas prices are very high, energy prices are high, everything’s high,” Hawley told Politico’s E&E News. “We, Congress, need to do everything we can to get that down. So, you know, maybe we should take some votes on some things to lower those costs, lower health care costs, lower the cost of gas.”

Luna wrote on the social platform X that, “American families need this relief on gas prices. My office will be working directly with President Trump to ensure we deliver this win for the American........

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