Senate Republicans only have a few working days before they skip town until after the election, and are unlikely to pass any legislation that deals with skyrocketing costs and affordability.
That’s not stopping lawmakers from lobbying to get their bills on the floor — especially the ones they’d like to campaign on.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is trying to hold on to her seat in a “toss-up” race, wants to see her bill to lower insulin prices move through the chamber as soon as possible.
“I’m encouraging the bill to be brought up,” Collins said of its prospects ahead of the midterm elections. “It’s completely bipartisan and it would make a big difference to a lot of people.”
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For now, Senate leadership has not included the bill in its list of major priorities before November. The upper chamber has spent most of this past week debating a bill to establish a national framework for college athletics.
“I think a lot of people are pitching bills,” Collins said of Senate leadership’s response to the request to vote on her bill.
The legislation, which would cap monthly insulin costs at $35 for people with private, employer-sponsored insurance, passed the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee by a vote of 17-5 in July. The bill would also establish a pilot program to cap insulin prices for people without insurance in 10 states. It comes as Americans continue to grapple with the cost of living as gas prices reach record highs amid the war in Iran. Collins co-sponsored the legislation with retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) and Sens. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) and Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia).
In Maine, around 10% of Affordable Care Act enrollees dropped their coverage in 2026 due to spiking premiums. The Democratic candidate in the state, Troy Jackson, has hammered Collins on the cost of living throughout his campaign.
When asked about the agenda for the remaining week of the Senate’s session, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that leadership is considering a number of bills, but emphasized that moving onto any new legislation might be difficult.
“There are a couple of things that would be good candidates if you are looking at something that reinforces that message,” Thune said when asked about affordability legislation the Senate could possibly consider. The Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill that deals with costs stemming from data centers “is for sure front and center on that list, and that’s why we are teeing it up.”
The insulin bill went unnamed despite there seeming to be a groundswell of support for it.
Co-sponsor Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said it “would be great” to see the bill passed before the midterms and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), who has also signed onto the bill, said the measure would “absolutely” be a win for Republicans.
But its supporters see little chance of the bill passing before it’s time for Republicans to leave Washington. Sen. Jim Justice (R-West Virginia) said “everybody here is running to get home.”
Justice lamented the fact that Republicans are on the defensive in this election, given spiking costs across the country. He said Republicans should have had a better finger on the pulse of what voters were thinking heading into November.
“We’ve got all kinds of diabetes, all kinds of issues and everything. To get the costs down, it’s going to help a big sector of the folks,” Justice said of the bill.
Kennedy said that Republicans have not done nearly enough to tackle the cost of living ahead of the midterms. He told reporters that he has repeatedly expressed to leadership that it’s a shame that Republicans “haven’t done a damn thing” about affordability in 2026.
“It should have been brought up a long time before now,” Kennedy said of the insulin bill.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), another co-sponsor, agreed that there’s simply not enough time to get the bill done ahead of the election. But, he said, senators defending their seats should get back in their states to campaign rather than turning to an entirely new bill.
“Sure it would,” Tuberville said of whether passing the affordability measure before the election could help Republicans. “That’s not going to change a lot of people’s minds. But it would be good to get it done for the people. I don’t worry about the politics part.”
A Democratic aide familiar with the conversations around the bill said that the Trump administration seems “eager” to move the bill forward, emphasizing the idea that the biggest outstanding issue is that Senators are only scheduled to be in Washington for one more week.
Lawmakers are already discussing ways to attach the bill to must-pass legislation like the National Defense Authorization Act or an appropriations measure when they return, the aide added.
“That’s the enemy of the bill right now,” the aide said. “It’s time.”
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