Senate GOP pushes test votes on data center costs, voter ID laws
Fox News Chief Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram reports that Senate Republicans initiated test votes to protect consumers from high data center-related utility rates and forced Democrats to formally declare the SAVE America Act’s voter ID requirements.
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Senate Democrats have shut down Republicans’ attempt to address two key issues for voters as the midterm elections approach.
Republicans have tried, unsuccessfully, to pass a bill that would marry different policy issues: prohibiting lawmakers from using their insider knowledge to trade stocks and implementing a nationwide voter ID policy — the latter measure the Republican Party has so far failed to accomplish with its SAVE America Act.
The Stop Insider Trading Act passed the House earlier this month, where a majority of House Democrats voted against it. Although voters strongly support both, Democrats in the House and Senate argued that the stock trading ban was not strict enough, while the voter ID element was too aggressive.
But the efforts to block votes appear to build on a growing trend heading into November’s midterm elections: Democrats don’t want to hand Republicans two massive victories before a must-win election for both parties.
SCHUMER PREACHES MEDIUM-TERM DEM AFFORDABILITY WHILE SABOTATING GOP FIXES FOR RISING COSTS
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leaves after a weekly Senate Democratic Politics luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, July 29, 2026. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argued that Republicans knew the bill would never pass and “designed it that way.”
“They don’t want this bill to become law,” Schumer insisted. “So they put in a poison pill that they knew would make her fall.”
“It really is a hoax. Skull,” he added. “If Republican senators really cared about stopping members’ stock trading, they wouldn’t have saddled him with a poison pill voter ID bill that Senate Democrats have already rejected twice.”
These are two issues, although far apart, that consistently fail in Congress.
Senate Democrats have blocked voter ID and the SAVE America Act — and its many iterations throughout the year — repeatedly, while the ban on lawmakers trading stocks has been largely stifled by intraparty bickering on both sides of the aisle.
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House Republicans are also unhappy with the legislation’s failure.
“No lawmaker should be able to profit from inside information. I will continue my work to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act,” House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. “I am encouraged that 53 senators voted this afternoon to prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats obstructed this common-sense ethics reform.”
Yet these are issues that Americans overwhelmingly support.
A University of Maryland poll released in 2023 found that 86% of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum supported banning lawmakers from trading stocks. And a 2025 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 83% of Americans supported “requiring all voters to present a government-issued photo ID to vote.”
It’s the first of two bills Republicans will try to pass Wednesday to address voters’ concerns ahead of the midterm elections, where President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and its effects on the economy could make or break the Republican Party’s hold on power in both chambers.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks with reporters as he walks into the Senate Chamber at the U.S. Capitol March 12, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The securities trading bill was pushed by Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., who is seeking re-election.
The other bill will create standards for AI companies and data centers to bear the bulk of electricity costs, a key issue that has emerged during this midterm cycle that has candidates in battleground states scrambling to craft policy positions against towering, windowless structures.
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The bill is being championed by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, who is running in one of the most hotly contested races this cycle. Democrats say the GOP’s attempt to pass the data center bill is nothing more than a political lifeline for Husted’s campaign.
“Both pieces of legislation strike at the very heart of issues that matter deeply and passionately to the American people,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.. “And we’ll see if Democrats are willing to take yes for an answer.”
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