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A full rundown of this week's congressional action: 7 bills headed to the President, a stalled data center bill, and the votes lawmakers wanted on record.
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House Crams in Votes Before Extended Break
Sep 21, 2026
The House wasn’t expected to stay in session past this week and, in fact, they left a day early after Rep. Massie (R-KY4) introduced an impeachment resolution against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Nonetheless, they powered through many more votes than usual. We’ll cover the seven soon-to-be new laws and the bills of interest we highlighted in this week’s preview. As is its usual function, the Senate mostly acted as a break on legislation that had passed the House.
New Laws
These bills have all passed both chambers in identical form, so they next go to the President for signing.
- S. 759: Modernizing Access to Our Public Oceans Act which would provide for standardization, publication, and accessibility of data relating to public outdoor recreational use of Federal waterways. This passed by voice vote, so no recorded votes are available.
- S. 550: A bill to provide for the equitable settlement of certain Indian land disputes regarding land in Illinois would extend the time for settling treaties from the 19th century for one year into the future from passage and designate a federal court to handle the case. This passed by voice vote, so no recorded votes are available.
- S. 195: American Music Tourism Act of 2025 passed by voice vote, so no recorded votes are available.
- S. 2398: Kay Hagan Tick Reauthorization Act would reauthorize funding for public health responses to tick-borne diseases. This passed by voice vote, so no recorded votes are available.
- S. 2403: Retire through Ownership Act, which passed 401-14, would establish rules for independent evaluators of employee pension plans where such evaluators are needed, according to Congress.gov.
- S. 766: Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2025 would require an annual report of taxpayer-funded projects that are over budget and behind schedule. This passed by voice vote, so no recorded votes are available.
- H.R. 5334: Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which passed 262-159 may in fact do the opposite of its title. According to an analysis on The Bulwark, the sanctions part provides no new powers nor imposes no new requirements on the President. As for tariffs, the wording is extremely vague and Catherine Rampell, the Bulwark author, argues persuasively that it would significantly expand the President’s ability to tariff globally as he sees fit.
Back to the Senate
These bills did pass the House, but with changes so now they go back to the Senate. The Senate can agree to the changes, amend them again and send them back to the House or just not act.
- S. 283: Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act would require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and the Administrator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop a standard methodology for identifying the country of origin of seafood to support enforcement against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. This passed by voice vote, so no recorded votes are available.
- S. 240: Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Amendments Act of 2025 would make changes described by Congress.gov. This passed by voice vote, so no recorded votes are available.
Stalled in the Senate
This bill passed the House by an overwhelming margin of 417-3. An attempt to move it quickly through the Senate failed because the bill only recommends that increased costs due to data center expansion be borne by companies building the data centers, but does not require them to bear those costs. Therefore, it did not get unanimous consent in the Senate to move forward. In order to get to a vote, the bill will likely have to be amended. However, there won’t be any action on it until at least after the election in November.
- H.R. 9340: Ratepayer Protection Act would, despite its name, mostly provide support for data centers and other intensive users of existing power resources, according to The Guardian
Bills Passed by Voice Vote
These bills will all go to the Senate next now that they’ve passed the House by voice vote. They are not close to becoming law.
- H.R. 979: AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025. The rationale for this bill is that other communication technologies are not guaranteed in rural or mountainous areas while AM stations are readily available. This would effectively be a new regulation since it would require car makers to include AM which they don’t always do now.
- H.R. 2004: Tyler’s Law would require testing for fentanyl for suspected overdoses in emergency rooms. We wrote about the complexities of getting bills passed using this bill as an example a year ago. What we said then is necessarily even more true now.
- H.R. 10167: Common Cents Act; this bill would codify the end of the penny as well as direct retailers to round all prices down or up to the nearest nickel.
- H.R. 10204: Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act. This bill would eliminate “the presidential nomination process for appointment of the Librarian of Congress and Director of GPO, allowing them to be chosen exclusively by Congress through a bipartisan commission. It also removes the Librarian’s supervisory authority over the Register of Copyrights and the Copyright Office while maintaining the support it receives from the Library. The bill also establishes an Office of Inspector General at the Copyright Office and requires GPO to establish a human management system” per our colleagues at First Branch Forecast
Bills Legislators Wanted to be on Record About
All of these bills are still early in the legislative process. They will go next to the Senate where they may be amended or simply not acted on.
- H.R. 4646: Whistleblower Protection Act of 2025, which clarifies that whistleblower protections described in section 4712 of title 41, United States Code, apply to any contract funded from amounts appropriated to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, passed 424-0.
- H.R. 8278: Fostering the Use of Technology to Uphold Regulatory Effectiveness in Supervision Act, which would require federal financial regulators to assess how their technological systems inhibit real-time supervision of regulated entities and how their procurement rules limit the testing of new technologies, passed 417-7
- H.R. 9497: Water Resources Development Act of 2026, which provides for improvements to the rivers and harbors of the United States and provides for the conservation and development of water and related resources, passed 415-9.
- H.R. 2978: GUARD Act, which would permit State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies that receive eligible Federal grant funds to use such funds for investigating elder financial fraud, pig butchering scams, and general financial fraud, and to clarify that Federal law enforcement agencies may assist State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies in the use of tracing tools for blockchain and related technology, passed 414-7.
- H.R. 9500: Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the limitation on deductions for personal casualty losses and to provide for increased taxpayer relief with respect to theft losses involving fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation, passed 408-17.
- H.R. 4219: National Wildlife Refuge System Invasive Species Strike Team Act of 2025, which would authorize the appropriation of $10 million each year over the 2027-2033 period for the Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a regional program to identify and respond to invasive species threats within or adjacent to National Wildlife Refuge System land and water (CBO), passed 371-33.
- H.R. 9576: National Fraud Enforcement Division Act of 2026, which would create such a division within the Department of Justice, passed 352-72.
- H.R. 3276: Local Communities & Bird Habitat Stewardship Act of 2026, which would provide statutory authority for the Urban Bird Treaty Program, which is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This program works with communities to support conserving and managing birds that live in and migrate through urban areas. This support includes grants administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and provided to entities including government agencies, community groups, and academic institutions for conducting activities related to the program. It passed 345-60.
- H.R. 2140: Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2025, which reauthorizes an existing diesel emissions reduction program, passed 343-79.
- H.R. 10326: PROOF Act which would enhance information-sharing capabilities between Federal law enforcement and State agencies to detect, investigate, and prosecute fraud in certain Federal programs, and to protect individual privacy, passed 217-207.
- H.J.Res. 213: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to the “California State Nonroad Engine Pollution Control Standards; Commercial Harbor Craft Regulations; Notice of Decision”, passed 214-208.
- H.J.Res. 210: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to “California State Nonroad Engine Pollution Control Standards; Ocean-Going Vessels At-Berth; Notice of Decision”, passed 216-211.
House Crams in Votes Before Extended Break was originally published by GovTrack and is republished with permission.
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Republicans Are Walking Away From Congress’s Core Duties
Sep 20, 2026
The story of this political moment keeps getting written like President Donald Trump is the main character — his impulses, his conflicts, his latest post on Truth Social.
But the more important story is happening one branch over, where a Republican-controlled Congress has spent the last several weeks demonstrating, in real time, what it looks like when a legislature declines to legislate.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, introduced articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for carrying out unlawful orders, including keeping troops deployed without congressional authorization — squarely Congress's job to examine.
The articles were never going to pass, and that wasn't the point. What matters is what Speaker of the House Mike Johnson did next: recess the House early, ahead of the midterms, a move that also stalled Massie's other project, a discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act II.
During the same week in a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel spent a chunk of a five-hour session fielding questions about a policy change removing bestiality as an automatic disqualifier for FBI applicants.
It's a real question, but it consumed the hearing's attention while Patel's more consequential claims about crime statistics and FBI leadership churn went largely unexamined — exactly the kind of Article I oversight the committee system exists to handle seriously.
Then, over the weekend, came a warning of a different order of magnitude. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay arguing that artificial intelligence (AI) development is moving too fast and that companies need to slow down deliberately — an assessment Sam Altman and Elon Musk, not exactly natural allies, both found themselves agreeing with.
When the people building the technology start telling Washington to hurry up and regulate them, that is not a partisan talking point. That is a fire alarm.
Congress's response, when it returned from recess with only four legislative days left before campaign season, was to do almost nothing.
Johnson's own words to reporters are the most damning evidence available: "We do not want to jump in. The reflex of legislative bodies is to cover things up with red tape and hyper-regulation. If you do that, then you lose your edge."
That is not an argument against a specific bill. It is an excuse for not governing at all — dressed up as competitiveness. And it wasn't isolated: Sen. Rand Paul blocked a colleague's attempt to pass a modest, bipartisan AI "kill switch" bill by unanimous consent because Congress didn't yet have enough facts to act.
The pattern is the same: when a decision or even a debate arrives at Congress's door, the institutional reflex is to find a reason not to open it.
Article I of the Constitution put the legislature first for a reason: the framers wanted the branch closest to the people to decide things, not just occupy the building. A Congress that won't vote, won't examine, won't legislate isn't neutral — it's ceding that ground by default.
None of this is about whether Hegseth committed misconduct, what an AI kill switch should look like, or how strict Epstein-related disclosure ought to be. Congress isn't being asked to solve those questions — it's being asked to show up and try, hold the vote, sit through the hearing, read the bill.
A Republican majority that recesses to dodge an impeachment fight it could have easily defeated on the merits, and that shrugs at researchers warning about existential risk because acting might be politically inconvenient before an election, isn't exercising judgment. It's abdicating the job.
The presidency will always attract the cameras. But our republic was built to run on the branch that doesn't need them — the one whose entire purpose is to do the slow, unglamorous work of deciding things. Right now, that branch is choosing not to.
Congress only has something to lose if losing is a real possibility. Right now, too many members have concluded it isn't. That's the only check voters hold — and the only one that will make abdication cost something, whoever's in charge.
Lynn Schmidt is a columnist and Editorial Board member with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She holds a master's of science in political science as well as a bachelor's of science in nursing.
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A man in a green shirt and a man in a flannel shirt marched and chanted down the street in protest.
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Failed Supply-Side Economics Needs Immigrants as Scapegoats
Sep 20, 2026
From a political economy perspective, supply-side economics relies on immigrant scapegoating to divert public attention from the structural inequality and wage stagnation caused by its own policies.
By shifting the blame for economic anxiety away from corporate deregulation, underfunded public services, and upward wealth distribution onto a vulnerable out-group, proponents of supply-side policies can protect their core economic agenda.
Deflecting Accountability for Wage Stagnation
Supply-side policies prioritize cutting corporate taxes, reducing labor unions' power, and weakening labor regulations to stimulate production. When these policies lead to stagnant real wages for the working and middle classes, political rhetoric frequently shifts to frame the issue as a "supply and demand" labor crisis caused by immigrants stealing jobs or depressing wages. This rebrands structural inequality as a migration crisis, neutralizing demands for corporate accountability or minimum wage hikes.
Masking the Deficits of Underfunded Public Goods
A central tenet of supply-side economics is the reduction of government spending and the shrinking of the welfare state. When local infrastructure—such as public schools, healthcare facilities, and affordable housing—deteriorates due to chronic underinvestment, immigrants are weaponized as a convenient scapegoat. Blaming a surge of newcomers for "draining public finances" or crowding hospitals shields austerity-driven budgets from public backlash. It reframes a crisis of state capacity and governance into a crisis of border control.
Splintering Multi-Ethnic Labor Solidarity
For supply-side capitalism to maximize profits, it must keep labor costs low. A unified working class threatens profits through collective bargaining and demands for stronger safety nets. Scapegoating immigrants creates sharp social divisions between native-born and foreign-born workers. This disunity prevents collective labor advocacy, keeping workers fighting each other for perceived scarce resources rather than uniting to challenge policies that favor the top 0.01%.
Sustaining an Exploitable, Subsidized Underclass
Paradoxically, while supply-side rhetoric publicly demonizes immigrants, the economic model actively profits from them. Maintaining a highly securitized, hostile immigration system forces millions of undocumented immigrants to live in constant fear of deportation. This fear ensures they are highly compliant, hesitant to report workplace abuse, and willing to accept unlivable wages. The political act of scapegoating creates a permanent, legally precarious underclass that functions as a direct labor subsidy for sectors like agriculture, construction, and hospitality.
Weaponizing "Trickle-Down" Failures as Status Loss
When the promised prosperity of trickle-down economics fails to materialize for the vast majority of the population, voters experience severe economic insecurity and status anxiety. Populist strategies aligned with supply-side interests capitalize on this fear. Instead of explaining complex macroeconomic transformations (like automation or financial deregulation), they offer a simplistic, emotionally resonant villain: the immigrant. This redirects legitimate class anger toward people with the least systemic power to change the economy.
Path Forward: Shift to a Unity Narrative
Expose the distraction: Clearly articulate how elite-funded rhetoric uses division to distract from corporate deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, and wage stagnation.
Highlight shared interests: Emphasize that working-class citizens and immigrant laborers both strive for fair wages, affordable healthcare, and strong community infrastructure.
Frame it as "Top vs. Bottom": Reframe the political conflict away from "Horizontal" divisions (citizen vs. immigrant) to "Vertical" realities (working class vs. self-interested elite).
Champion Kitchen-Table Economics
Focus on corporate accountability: Connect local economic struggles directly to corporate monopolies, union-busting tactics, and offshoring, rather than migrant labor.
Promote universal labor standards: Argue for strict penalties for employers who exploit undocumented workers to undercut local wages, which protects all workers.
Demand fair taxation: Keep public attention on tax codes that allow ultra-wealthy individuals and corporations to pay lower effective rates than working families.
Build Multi-Racial, Working-Class Coalitions
Organize locally: Bring diverse communities together through labor unions, tenant organizations, and community advocacy groups to fight for collective material gains.
Demystify immigration: Use clear, data-driven messaging to show how immigrants contribute to local tax bases, sustain rural economies, and support social safety nets like Social Security.
Empower trusted messengers: Utilize faith leaders, local small business owners, and labor organizers to deliver messages that cut through partisan media echo chambers.
Hugh J. Campbell, Jr., CPA, is a Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) professional and a student of W. Edwards Deming, the American statistician often credited as the catalyst for the Japanese economic miracle after WWII.
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Moral Leadership Can Protect Service Members' Psychological Well-Being
Sep 20, 2026
It has recently been reported that President Trump and Secretary of War Hegseth disparaged the mental health concerns, including suicide attempts, expressed by the sailors serving aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during the carrier’s record deployment. Their comments brought back the disquiet I felt several months ago while attending a performance of the US Naval Academy Glee Club at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan. Usually, when I attend choral concerts in the church’s imposing Baroque sanctuary, my mind quiets, and I find myself immersed in the music. But not on that occasion. Instead, as I enjoyed the exuberant singing, my mind filled with resentment. The Glee Club, handsome midshipmen in formal dress, is a multiethnic group of men and women. The harmonious singing of a chorus composed of individuals of widely varied backgrounds seemed a metaphor for how our country and its military should work.
My upset originated with the realization that during their time at the Naval Academy, these midshipmen had witnessed the firing of the Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C. Q. Brown, Jr., as part of an apparent purge of those supporting diversity in the military. Even uglier was the implication that Brown, a highly decorated officer, had been elevated to his position as a ‘DEI’ hire. They also had seen the firing of trailblazing women leaders in the military, including Admiral Linda Fagan, the first woman Coast Guard Commandant, and Admiral Yvette Davids, the first woman Superintendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, the very institution they were attending. I was offended and angered by the message these firings conveyed to the men and women of the Academy’s Glee Club, especially the women and minority midshipmen, who had volunteered to serve their nation and, ultimately, to place themselves in harm’s way for it.
I also wondered about the message and potential consequences of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s firing of top military lawyers whose responsibility is to advise military officers and help them avoid violating U.S. law and the laws of armed conflict. It was in this context that I recalled being moved by the sight of former Marines weeping in front of pictures of what they had wrought during their time of combat when visiting the Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi some years ago. What I witnessed served as a vivid reminder of the price paid by Vietnam vets who suffered with PTSD across their lives. The prevalence of that diagnosis has increased for those who served in operations Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom, as have the clinical consequences of moral injury in those who have found themselves at odds with their deeply held values during their time of service. As a psychiatrist, I found myself concerned about how such firings may increase the likelihood of the young midshipmen I was listening to, as well as that of others who serve, experiencing moral injury, PTSD, and, ultimately, difficulty reintegrating into civilian life after deployment.
Our service men and women deserve leadership, both civilian and military, which they can respect and which in turn demonstrates respect for them by preparing them for the successful execution of their missions, shows equal esteem for all who serve regardless of their gender, ethnicity, or faith, and strives to minimize the likelihood of their incurring physical and psychological harms. Unfortunately, from my perspective, those currently serving lack the thoughtful and moral civilian leadership they deserve.
Dr. Barry B. Perlman is a retired psychiatrist. He was president of the New York State Psychiatric Association and past chair of the New York State Mental Health Services Council. “Rearview: A Psychiatrist Reflects on Practice and Advocacy In a Time of Healthcare System Change,” his memoir, was published in 2021.
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