Republicans fear they ‘haven’t done a damn thing’ to lower prices ahead of midterm reckoning

Republican senators are growing uneasy that the chamber is heading home to campaign without having done much about the cost of living. The economy is the central issue in this election, as in many earlier ones, yet the Senate has devoted its final weeks in Washington to regulating college athletics. Some Republicans who want to keep control of the chamber worry that they are not responding to voters' anxieties about prices, according to Fox News.

The legislation is the Protect College Sports Act, authored by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, and the Senate approved it easily late Monday night. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told Fox News Digital he hoped the measure would justify the time it consumed, joking that it might be "the most perfect and pristine piece of legislation ever." He hoped colleagues would also address costs for fuel, prescription drugs and health care, along with the financial strain from the artificial intelligence boom. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said he is voting for it but insisted parents nationwide are not losing sleep over football coaches.

Senators are expected to leave Washington on Wednesday. Since the summer of 2025, several shutdowns and partisan fights have crowded out pocketbook concerns, in the view of some anxious Republicans. Party members nonetheless point to last year's "big, beautiful bill" as their signature answer to affordability, a theme at the midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →