2026-09-25T09:00:30.295Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/25/politics/senate-republicans-affordability-data-centers
周三，在参议院共和党竞选总部，数十名共和党议员聚集在一起召开战略会议，此时距11月中期选举仅剩数日，按计划他们将在这几天离开华盛顿。
随后，来自俄亥俄州的参议员乔恩·赫斯特德——全美处境最危险的共和党议员之一——向同僚发出紧急呼吁。据在场一名知情人士透露，他要求议员们留在华盛顿，敦促他们“在民生负担问题上拿出切实可行的举措”。据熟悉共和党内部 deliberations 的人士透露，缅因州参议员苏珊·柯林斯对此表示强烈赞同，她同样身处竞争最激烈的参议院席位争夺战中，近期在多次会议中也反复提出了类似诉求。
不久后，共和党领导层达成一致：参议院将于下周返回华盛顿，审议一项旨在在美国数据中心产业蓬勃发展之际保护民众免受电价上涨影响的法案。
此举是共和党在未来十年遭遇的最严峻政治逆风之一的背景下，为自己在经济议题上争取更有力竞选说辞所做的最后努力。据多名熟悉内部讨论的人士透露，距中期选举仅剩不到40天，共和党人私下担忧随着汽油和食品价格飙升，他们的多数党地位岌岌可危。从阿拉斯加到缅因州，再到艾奥瓦州、俄亥俄州和堪萨斯州，战争和经济问题拖累了共和党的竞选活动，他们已看到自身选民对党的信心不断下滑。
但这项举措很可能以失败告终——目前预计该法案将被民主党否决，民主党认为该法案力度不足。
在华盛顿，许多参议院共和党人的不满情绪日益加剧，他们认为自去年通过重大减税法案以来，共和党在提振经济方面几乎无所作为。其中一些议员——比如路易斯安那州参议员约翰·肯尼迪，这位红州议员近来出人意料地批评自己所在政党——开始越来越公开地表达不满。
本周，肯尼迪抨击自己所在政党的领导层优先推进一项针对大学体育赛事的法案，却未将经济问题置于核心位置。
“自从我们通过‘一项宏伟法案’以在生活成本方面采取更多行动以来，我一直在追着我的朋友图恩参议员不放，就好像他偷走了感恩节一样，因为我们他妈的什么都没做。而现在这正在反噬我们，”肯尼迪周四对记者说道。
他表示，普通美国人“并不担心橄榄球教练是否开心……他们担心的是生活成本”。
下周，参议院预计将继续审议大学体育法案，并最终进行投票。参议院还预计将审议一项限制议员购买股票的法案，其中包含选民身份证相关条款，这项措施并未涉及民生负担问题。
赫斯特德提出的数据中心法案的批评者表示，该法案几乎无法帮助民众抵御电价上涨。该法案制定了一项联邦标准，要求数据中心运营商承担支持其业务所需的能源基础设施升级成本。但该法案仅要求州公共事业委员会——这些委员会通常负责监管本州的公用事业费率——“考虑”采用这一标准。
该法案上周在众议院以压倒性优势通过。但当共和党随后试图在参议院快速推进该法案时，民主党阻止了法案的审议，辩称该法案力度不足。
私下里，参议院共和党人认为他们仍能保住多数党地位，尤其是在共和党超级政治行动委员会向竞选活动投入总统级别的资金的情况下——但他们承认有大约六个席位的竞争势均力敌，生活成本和战争是选民最关心的主要议题。
一些共和党人，如参议员乔希·霍利，愿意考虑采取全面措施降低物价，从暂停联邦汽油税到禁止柴油出口——但留给参议院的时间已经不多了，他们在华盛顿仅剩一周时间。而众议院已经离开华盛顿返回竞选活动。
“现在最好的时间利用方式，或许是思考如何暂停联邦汽油税以降低油价，如何限制胰岛素价格以降低医疗成本，竭尽所能在本届国会结束前降低所有可能的生活成本。在我看来，选民们对此非常迫切，”霍利周三说道，他还补充表示自己也支持柴油出口禁令，唐纳德·特朗普总统对此已表示出兴趣。
“我们需要对真正能帮助普通民众的事项进行投票。我担心我们现在并没有这么做，”他说。“我不知道该如何在11月向选民解释这一点。我真的不知道。”
并非党内所有人都就如何解决生活成本问题达成一致。参议院共和党人在柴油出口禁令问题上存在分歧——一些专家警告该禁令可能会加剧能源市场的混乱——而共和党领导层对找到简单的立法解决方案以应对消费者面临的价格上涨持怀疑态度。
当被问及参议院是否应该通过相关法案帮助降低汽油价格时，参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩表示退缩，称目前流传的大多数举措不会产生太大影响，除非霍尔木兹海峡重新恢复石油通行。
“我认为目前有一些想法，但其中大多数我认为不会对汽油价格产生太大影响。再说一次，让汽油价格回到更好水平的最佳方式是放开管制，实现全球贸易自由流通，而目前霍尔木兹海峡的情况并非如此，”他说道。
本文标题已更新。
Senate Republicans plan a last-ditch effort to lower costs ahead of midterms
2026-09-25T09:00:30.295Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/25/politics/senate-republicans-affordability-data-centers
Inside the Senate GOP’s campaign headquarters on Wednesday, dozens of Republicans gathered for a strategy session during what was expected to be their final days in Washington before the November midterms.
Then Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio – one of the most endangered Republicans in the country – made an urgent appeal to his colleagues. He told them to stay in town, demanding they “do something real and tangible on affordability,” according to a person in the room. Among those who forcefully agreed were Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is also in one of the most competitive Senate races and has made repeated pleas of her own in recent meetings, according to a person familiar with the GOP’s internal deliberations.
Soon afterward, GOP leaders agreed: The Senate would return to Washington next week to take up a bill aimed at protecting Americans from electricity price hikes amid a data center boom.
That push is a last-ditch attempt to arm Republicans with a stronger message on the economy heading into some of its toughest political headwinds in at least a decade. With fewer than 40 days until the midterms, Republicans privately worry that their majority is at risk as gas and grocery prices spike, according to multiple people familiar with internal deliberations. They’ve seen their own voters’ confidence in the party erode, as both the war and the economy have dragged down Republicans’ campaigns from Alaska to Maine as well as Iowa, Ohio and Kansas.
But the effort appears likely to fail – it is currently expected to be blocked by Democrats, who argue the bill is not adequate.
In Washington, frustrations have been mounting among many Senate Republicans who feel their party has done little to jolt the economy since their major tax cuts package last year. And some – like Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, a red-state senator who been surprisingly critical of his own party as of late – are increasingly speaking out.
This week, Kennedy railed against his own leadership for prioritizing a bill that imposes new rules on college athletics, while failing to put economic issues front and center.
“I have been chasing my friend, Senator Thune, like he stole Thanksgiving, since we passed the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ to do more on cost of living because we haven’t done a damn thing. And it’s biting us in the a** right now,” Kennedy told reporters Thursday.
Everyday Americans, he said, are “not worried about whether the football coaches are happy… they’re worried about cost of living.”
Next week, the Senate is expected to continue work on the college sports bill, culminating in a final vote. It is also expected to take up a bill that curbs lawmakers from buying stocks that includes provisions on voter ID, a measure that does not deal with affordability concerns.
And critics of Husted’s data center bill say the measure does little to shield against rate hikes. The bill creates a federal standard that requires data center operators to cover the costs of upgrades to energy infrastructure needed to support their work. But it only requires state public utility commissions, which generally regulate the utility rates in their states, to “consider” adopting that standard.
The bill overwhelmingly passed the House last week. But when Republicans then tried to fast-track the measure in the Senate, Democrats blocked the bill from consideration, arguing it does not do enough.
Privately, Senate Republicans believe they can still keep their majority, especially with GOP super PACs dumping presidential-level spending into their races – but acknowledge there are a half-dozen races that are tight enough to go either way, with affordability and the war as voters’ main concerns.
Some Republicans, like Sen. Josh Hawley, are willing to consider a kitchen-sink approach to lowering prices, from suspending the federal gas tax to banning diesel exports – but time is quickly running out for the Senate with just one more week in Washington. And the House has already left to return to the campaign trail.
“The best use of time right now would be figuring out maybe how to suspend the federal gas tax so that we can get prices down, how to cap the price of insulin so that we can get medical prices down, trying to do everything we can to lower every piece of cost of living that we possibly can before this Congress leaves. I mean, that to me seems awfully urgent to voters,” Hawley said on Wednesday, adding that he’s also open to a diesel export ban, which President Donald Trump has expressed interest in.
“We need to vote on things that will actually help real people. And I’m concerned that we’re not doing that,” he said. “I don’t know how you can explain that to voters in November. I really don’t.”
Not everyone in the party even agrees on what action to take to address affordability. Senate Republicans are split on that diesel export ban – which some experts warn could cause further chaos in the energy market – and GOP leaders are skeptical that there is a simple legislative solution to the price hikes consumers are facing.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune balked when asked if the Senate should pass something to help lower gas prices, saying that most of the ideas floating around won’t have much of an impact unless oil flows again through the Strait of Hormuz.
“I think there have been some ideas out there, most of which I don’t think are going to do much to impact gas prices. Again, the best way to get gas prices in a better spot is to get things opened up and get the free flow of global commerce, which right now in the strait isn’t the case,” he said.
The story headline has been updated.
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