Democrats Play Politics By Tanking Popular Bills Ahead Of Midterms

Democrats appear to be ready and willing to pull out all the stops to prevent Republicans from notching even a single win ahead of the November midterm elections — even if that means pulling the plug on bills that previously enjoyed bipartisan support.

One such bill is the Ratepayer Protection Act — which passed the House by overwhelming margins (417-3) with majority support from both major parties only to stall in the Senate on Wednesday. Sponsored in the House by Reps. Gabe Evans (R-CO)) and Kathy Castor (D-FL), it had the support of a few Senate Democrats — Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) — but not enough to overcome the filibuster. Democrats blocked the measure in a procedural vote, 57-43.

The bill, designed to address concerns about new data center construction, would require states to consider adopting standards that would force the tech companies building those data centers to shoulder the utility costs connected to their operation. Democrats who voted against the bill argued it is “toothless” because it does not require states to adopt those standards.

“Americans are demanding real guardrails on AI and data centers, but all the Republicans offer is a toothless messaging bill. The bill is a fraud. I can sum up the shortcomings of the Republican data center bill with one word: optional. The bill is optional,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on Tuesday.

“They’re cooked. I think Donald Trump is going to tweet five more times that he loves data centers. And that is the official position of their party,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Semafor. “This is panic.”

Senate Democrats also blocked the Stop Insider Trading Act on Wednesday — which passed the House with the support of 13 Democrats — in part over the inclusion of a measure regarding voter ID.

H.R. 7008 would prohibit members of Congress — as well as their spouses and dependents — from buying new individual stocks, and would require them to give seven to 14 days’ notice prior to selling any stocks they already owned. In addition, it would lay out financial penalties for any violations of the rules.

Every Democrat in the Senate voted against the measure (53-47) — largely because of the included language requiring voter identification — even though a majority of Americans support both banning congressional stock trading and requiring voters to show identification.

A 2023 University of Maryland study found that 86% support banning members of Congress from trading stocks while in office.

Schumer blamed Republicans for adding the voter ID provision, arguing that it had been an intentional move to prevent the stock trading ban from passing.

“They don’t want this bill to become law. So they put a poison pill in that they knew would tank it,” he said. “It’s really trickery. Skullduggery. If Republican senators really cared about stopping stock trading by members, they wouldn’t have loaded it up with a poison pill voter ID bill, which Senate Democrats have defeated already twice.”

But Americans largely support voter ID laws, too. A 2023 Pew Research Center poll indicated that 83% of Americans — including 71% of Democrats — support laws requiring voters to show identification at the polls.

“The bottom line is this: Voter ID is NOT controversial in this country. A photo ID to vote is NOT controversial in this country. It is not controversial by party and it is not controversial by race. The vast majority of Americans agree,” CNN data analyst Harry Enten said.

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas pointed out the fact that it wasn’t the voters who opposed identification requirements — it was just Democrats in elected office who did: “Voter ID rules do have wide public support, but the vast majority of Democrats on Capitol Hill oppose them.”

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