Freedom Caucus Members Criticize Senate for Letting Over 600 Bills ‘Die’ While ‘Operating Like a Retirement Home’

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—In the last week of the Senate’s session before the midterms, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are speaking out against the Senate for not taking up over 650 bills passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bills, which the House would have to reintroduce, include legislation to advance President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, such as the SAVE America Act, and nonpolitical bipartisan bills, such as one to add a statue of Benjamin Franklin in the Capitol.

“All good bills go to die in the Senate,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told the Daily Signal. “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.”

In his statement to the Daily Signal, Self added that despite showing up to vote and passing legislation such as the SAVE America Act numerous times, the bills then “go to die in the so-called greatest deliberative body in the world,” which he claimed is “a body that debates little, votes on little, and delivers almost nothing of substance.”

“The Senate has become an institution of complacency, more comfortable with Washington pageantry than results for the American people,” Self continued.

Previously, Self and other members of the Freedom Caucus refused to vote for any legislation sent down to the House unless the upper chamber passed the SAVE America Act, a bombshell voter-integrity bill championed by the president, which the House has passed four times.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., echoed his colleagues’ remarks and told the Daily Signal that “the House has done its job,” but that the over 650 bills it has passed are now just “sitting there” in the Senate, adding that this stands as an insult to the American people.

“The American people didn’t send us to Washington to do nothing or hide behind excuses,” Gosar continued. “They sent us here to deliver results.”

The representative then issued advice for Senate Republicans, stating that if they would like 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, explained his frustration with the Senate for “operating like a retirement home” that “hides behind” Senate rules in order to avoid getting the job done.

“Time and again, the House has kept its promise to the American people, passing conservative, commonsense legislation such as my SAVE America Act, only to see it stall in the Senate,” Roy stated. “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.”