The 118th Congress, with politically opposed House and Senate majorities, was not known for passing bipartisan bills.
But there were still deals, with some bipartisan bills getting close to passage or even through one chamber.
Several of them were set to hitch a ride on the year-end spending bill but were dropped by House Republicans after President-elect Donald Trump said the measure was full of Democratic “giveaways.”
Those measures, ranging from a major crackdown on prescription drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers to restrictions on outbound investments to China, could resurface again next Congress.
But what about other bipartisan measures that did not make it as far? Here’s a look at four bipartisan deals that didn’t get enacted and their prospects in the next Congress.
Energy permitting
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a bipartisan energy permitting reform bill this summer on a 15-4 vote.
Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a Democrat turned independent and the panel’s outgoing chairman, blamed House GOP leaders for “letting the perfect be the enemy of the good” in keeping it out of the year-end spending bill.
He called the House GOP opposition a “disservice to the incoming Trump administration,” which he said will have less flexibility to issue permits for energy and infrastructure projects.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the Energy committee’s outgoing top Republican who worked on the deal, told The Washington Times he hopes there is still “bipartisan appetite” to get permitting reform done next Congress.
“We’ll continue to work to try to accomplish the needed reform in permitting so that we can get projects built,” he said.
Child online safety
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, also decided to hold off on passing legislation to protect children on social media platforms.
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which passed the Senate on a 91-3 vote in July, requires social media companies to turn off data-driven algorithms for minors, ensure their accounts default to the strongest safety and privacy settings and implement design standards that protect minors from specific harms.
House GOP leaders said the legislation needs tweaks to guard against potential censorship.
“It’s essential to get this issue right, and House Republicans look forward to working with the Trump administration to get the right bill into law,” Mr. Johnson said.
Lead sponsors Sens. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, had worked out changes clarifying that the bill could not be used to censor or penalize users for their viewpoints.
They put out a scathing statement saying “the House sat on its hands at the behest of Mark Zuckerberg,” resulting in more deaths of kids like 15-year-old Jesse Harrington, who died by suicide in October after becoming addicted to Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
“To be clear: the blockade against safeguards and accountability was about padding Big Tech’s financial bottom line, not principle,” they said, accusing Washington politicians of parroting “falsehoods crafted in Silicon Valley boardrooms.”
Mr. Blumenthal told The Times he foresees “a growing outcry and outrage among the American public” and support from prominent backers like Donald Trump Jr. and X owner Elon Musk pressuring House Republicans to act next Congress.
Radiation compensation
Mr. Johnson took heat for blocking other bipartisan deals, including legislation to reauthorize and expand the expired Radiation Exposure Compensation Program, which provides restitution to individuals who developed serious illnesses after presumed exposure to radiation released during U.S. nuclear weapons development tests from 1945 to 1962.
The Senate passed the measure in March on a 69-30 bipartisan vote. The radiation compensation program lapsed in June as Mr. Johnson cited concerns about the cost of renewing and expanding it to include victims in areas not covered under the law, which the Congressional Budget Office has projected could cost $147 billion over a decade.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican championing the measure, said other House Republicans signed off on a deal to include a $5 billion spending cap.
He said lawmakers should be able to overcome Mr. Johnson’s opposition in the next Congress.
“Our coalition is just too broad to deny at this point,” he said.
Credit card swipe fees
One bipartisan bill that didn’t make it as far as any of the others was a measure designed to reduce the fees businesses have to pay to process credit card transactions.
The Credit Card Competition Act, sponsored by Sens. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, and Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican, would require banks with more than $100 billion in assets to offer its users at least two credit card networks, one of which must be something other than Visa and Mastercard. The goal is to increase competition for credit card companies and, in turn, reduce credit card swipe fees.
The measure is opposed by various industry groups, including the American Bankers Association, America’s Credit Unions and the Electronic Payments Coalition, who said government intervention in the credit card market “will do nothing to help small businesses — it will only entrench large merchants that already have a stranglehold on the retail market.”
Mr. Marshall was promised the bill would get a vote in 2024, but he told The Times he was “a little bit apprehensive” to force it because senator absences in an election year could impact the vote.
Incoming Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, promised a hearing on it early next Congress, Mr. Marshall said.
“I think with this new cast of members coming in, that the numbers look really good for us to win the vote,” he said. “So you measure twice, cut once, and it looks like next spring is the better opportunity.”
Mr. Durbin noted that Vice President-elect J.D. Vance cosponsored the bill while serving in the Senate, saying, “That may be a good sign.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.