Senators are seizing opportunities to pass legislation in 2016, hoping to overcome election-year gridlock and a raging battle over the Supreme Court.
The Senate has gone first in passing bills to beef up airport security and combat the opioid epidemic, and are working toward a compromise on funding for the Zika virus.
The actions are giving vulnerable Republican lawmakers accomplishments to tout on the campaign trail. The drug abuse bill is already being promoted in a new campaign ad for Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), whose state has been hard hit by the prescription drug and heroin epidemic.
The Senate’s actions are also raising pressure on lawmakers to act across the Capitol, but it’s unclear if the House will follow their lead. Democrats, hoping to take back the Senate and make big gains in the House, may be unwilling to hand Republicans easy legislative victories.
Here are three issues where the Senate has moved first on legislation that could score members big political points in 2016.
Opioid abuse
Senators coalesced around a sweeping plan to curb drug abuse last month in the face of a growing prescription drug and heroin epidemic.
A measure from Sens. Portman and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) easily passed the chamber in a 94-1 vote. It would expand addiction treatment and prevention efforts, increase access to anti-overdose drugs and improve prescription drug-monitoring programs in states.
The plan is also backed by Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who both face competitive races back home.
But some Democrats loudly complained that the bill doesn’t appropriate new funding. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) demanded that the measure also include $600 million in emergency supplemental funding, but they ultimately supported the legislation without it.
Instead of clearing the Senate’s bill, the House has opted to push its own proposals. The Energy and Commerce Committee is slated to mark up a dozen opioid bills next week, hoping to expand on the Senate’s blueprint.
Portman, who worked for three years on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), didn’t hide his frustration about the House’s plans.
“It doesn’t make sense for the House to just set CARA aside to start from scratch. CARA is ready to become law today,” he said on the Senate floor. “There are other ideas out there, but before the House takes them up, the House should pass CARA.”
Airport security
In the House, a six-year reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration has stalled – largely due to a contentious proposal to spin off the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) system.
But in the Senate, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee advanced a bill without the air traffic privatization language that green lights FAA programs though fiscal 2017, establishes new consumer protections and addressed drone safety and privacy concerns.
Lawmakers also sought to assuage mounting public concern over airport security following the deadly terrorist attacks on a Brussels airport and subway station in March. A package of amendments that would beef up airport security was attached to the FAA bill before it passed overwhelmingly this week.
Senators have hailed the legislation as the most consumer friendly aviation bill in years, citing provisions that would require airlines to offer refunds for lost or delayed bags and standardize the way they disclose fees.
Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), considered one of the most vulnerable GOP senators this year, wasted no time highlighting priorities in the bill.
Those included improving access to allergy medication on planes and requiring FAA to take steps to better prevent air traffic control outages. A fire at an air traffic facility in Aurora, Ill., in 2014 wreaked havoc on the nation’s airways, grounding or delaying flights.
It remains to be seen whether the House will take up the Senate’s FAA bill, forge ahead with privatization plans, or even pass another short-term extension, which would likely be an unpopular move.
FAA’s legal authority expires July 15.
“In a complicated bill like this, it doesn’t contain everything that everybody wants,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla) said on the Senate floor. “But we hope our counterparts in the House will take up and pass this bill without delay.”
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, isn’t giving up on the House bill yet.
“We will take a look at the completed product, but in the House, we will continue to push forward with the AIRR Act,” Shuster said in a statement.
Zika virus funding
The White House and Democrats are ramping up pressure on Republicans to provide new funding to address the Zika virus.
Public health officials are warning the virus could be worse than expected and fear a spike in cases, especially in Southern states and Puerto Rico, as the weather warms.
After the mosquito-borne virus began spreading in Brazil last year, the White House pleaded with Congress for nearly $2 billion in emergency funding to help stop the spread of Zika – which has been linked to abnormally small heads in babies and other birth defect.
The request stalled, and the administration shifted some leftover Ebola funds for Zika prevention efforts in the meantime.
The Senate, though, passed a measure — then cleared by the House and signed into law this month — that adds Zika to a priority review program at the Food and Drug Administration to speed up vaccine development.
Senate appropriators have also signaled that they will soon vote on a bipartisan Zika funding package.
“We’re happy a Zika supplemental is finally in play,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement to The Hill this week.
Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.