LEESBURG, Virginia — House Democrats say they’re intent on putting a legislative agenda behind their midterm affordability message. They don’t know yet what’s going to be on it.
But they have gathered at a resort outside Washington to spitball some options for putting specifics behind their pledge to address Americans’ rising costs of living, with sessions devoted to utilities, housing, groceries and the “care economy.”
“We know it’s not enough to just lay out the issues and what the problems are,” said House Minority Whip Katherine Clark. “Our goal is to have simple solutions that we can put out and lay out that vision, that if you give Democrats the gavels back, this is exactly what we’re going to do.”
A few Democratic evergreens have started to emerge as consensus proposals — such as expanding the child tax credit and increasing the federal minimum wage. But by and large, the policies that most unify Democrats are simply reversing what President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have already done.
That includes things like ending Trump’s global tariff campaign and reviving the Obamacare health insurance subsidies that lapsed this year amid Republican opposition, as well as reversing cuts to federal safety-net programs made in last year’s GOP megabill.
Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, said reversing the Trump tariffs is the one of the top priorities Democrats should communicate as they seek election this fall.
“He’s raised prices on people all across the country without the authority to do so,” DelBene told reporters. “But it has had an incredible impact on families all across the country and they’re doubling down on it.”
The effort to assemble a campaign agenda represents a reprise of prior efforts from a party out of power to put some specifics behind their election-year messaging. Republicans set the modern standard with their 1994 “Contract With America,” but Democrats did much the same 12 years later with their “Six for ’06” agenda and again in 2018 with “A Better Deal.”
In each of those cases, the insurgent party claimed dozens of seats and retook the majority.
This time, Democrats could have a tougher path, thanks in part to the effects of partisan gerrymandering putting fewer seats in play. Many in the party are also dubious that focusing only on an unpopular president will be enough to guarantee midterm victory.
“We can’t be just anti-Trump. We have to have an agenda,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who described this week’s retreat as the place that “lets every Democrat have a voice in inputting what we will be rolling out this year.”
The problem for Democrats is likely to be the sheer number of voices wanting input, as well as the diversity of policy prescriptions being proposed.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), a co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, said that Democrats, should they win the majority, would aim to move a comprehensive housing package “that will help make safe, stable, affordable housing a fundamental American right for everyone.”
But he said the details of that proposal are as yet undefined. Complicating the issue is that a bipartisan housing bill passed the House earlier this month and will get Senate consideration next week. Trump could sign a bill in the coming months, defusing the issue.
“We don’t have specifics because it’s part of what this conference is for,” Frost said Thursday, pointing to the need to expand homeownership, lower rental costs and address a “crisis” in the homeowners insurance market.
The New Democrat Coalition — a large group of free-market-oriented members — put forward one of the more robust packages of policy proposals seen at the retreat, addressing matters such as broadband connectivity and data center construction. The group’s leaders are hoping to develop their own agenda that battleground Democrats can campaign on.
“Leadership is working through how they’re narrowing their focus,” Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), a New Democrats vice chair, said in an interview. “We want our agenda to be what comes top of mind for them.”
The Democratic Women’s Caucus highlighted the need to address costs facing American families, particularly those having to care for both their children and their aging parents — a message that former Vice President Kamala Harris put at the center of her 2024 presidential campaign with limited success.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) said in an interview she was not worried that the message might fall flat again.
“This is an issue that’s affecting not just kids, not just families,” she said. “It’s affecting businesses in the economy. So I’m not concerned that the message won’t get through.”
To be sure, the chances that any of the Democratic proposals would quickly become law are thin. Even if Democrats retake the House, Trump will still be president for another two years and the Senate could still be controlled by Republicans.
But Democrats are mindful that the ideas they put forward now could get real momentum if their party wins the presidency in 2028.
Back in Washington Thursday, Democratic senators joined in the effort with a Capitol Hill roundtable focused on spiking food costs.
Lawmakers and leaders of advocacy groups who appeared at the event emphasized the need to enforce antitrust laws and maintain competitive markets.
Basel Musharbash, managing attorney at the Antimonopoly Counsel, suggested Democrats push legislation to break up dominant firms in critical industries such as meatpacking, fertilizers and grocery sales, as well as to increase funding for antitrust enforcement agencies.
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