Eight bipartisan ideas that Congress could act on this session

As the AI revolution transforms every part of society, the harms are also having an outsized impact. Among the most disturbing problems: Women and girls are facing an onslaught of deepfaked sexualized images. Yet until recently, there have been few legal protections in place to address the very real danger these images can pose to the mental health and physical safety of those targeted.

Enter Paris Hilton working the halls of Congress in January. She herself was subject to unauthorized distribution of sexualized images and has been a relentless advocate for young people in recent years. After successfully lobbying Congress to pass the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, which became law last year, she has thrown her growing political influence behind the DEFIANCE Act. This relatively simple legislation allows victims of nonconsensual, intimate deepfakes to sue those who create or distribute them, offering a meaningful legal remedy to go after perpetrators and hold them accountable. The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate. In the House, where it now awaits a vote, it is co-sponsored by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican Rep. Laurel Lee and enjoys the support of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

Mitigating the worst of AI’s harms, especially when it comes to women and girls, has been a powerfully bipartisan movement on the Hill. The TAKE IT DOWN Act passed quickly into law last year; many are hopeful that the DEFIANCE Act will be the next piece of progress. Ultimately victims and advocates agree there should be more legislation to prevent these images from being generated in the first place. Still, the DEFIANCE Act would be an important step forward.

Lauren Leader is the founder and CEO of All In Together, a nonpartisan women’s civic education and mobilization organization.

Congress is well-positioned to put NASA’s commercial space station program back on track. This beleaguered initiative has left participating companies waiting far longer than they expected for NASA to clarify requirements and select companies for the program’s next phase — and the Trump administration has put forward two remixes of the program that actively made the situation worse.

Time is starting to run out as the International Space Station is slated to retire in 2032, and the only feasible replacements at this stage are commercial space stations. Industry and investors have poured billions of dollars into creating these commercial stations — which, once functioning, would ensure the U.S. remains competitive with China in space, a crucial economic and national security priority.

Now the nation needs to answer the key question: How can we buy services on these stations in a way that benefits the American taxpayer and keeps multiple space stations running? There’s a clear blueprint from NASA’s program to develop transportation to and from the International Space Station, which birthed our commercial launch industry. Crucially, that program gave companies clarity on how NASA was structuring agency investments with minimal requirements.

The good news is that NASA authorization legislation addressing these problems is moving through both chambers of Congress, signaling a clear pathway to passage.

Mary Guenther is the head of space policy at the Progressive Policy Institute.

There are not too many policies with bipartisan support these days, and even fewer that would improve the nation’s finances. But here is one that is so sensible it should be a no brainer: site-neutral payments for Medicare.

Currently, Medicare pays more for a physician to carry out many of the same procedures and services in a hospital or hospital-owned outpatient department than it would in a doctor’s office — regardless of whether there is any additional benefit for the patient.

We should end this practice. Both parties in both chambers have shown support: In 2023, the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act passed the House on a bipartisan basis, and in 2025, Sen. John Kennedy introduced the Same Care, Lower Cost Act, which my organization estimates could save $150 billion over a decade. Site-neutral payments are a rare win-win: lower costs for the federal government and lower premiums for beneficiaries.

Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Life for everyday Americans is unaffordable — from gas and groceries to child care and health care. This crisis is driven in part by market concentration.

Take groceries. Most Americans shop at stores, like Safeway or Walmart, that are owned by a few firms. Following waves of deregulation, national grocery-market concentration increased 458%. The CEOs of these national chains don’t have Americans’ pocketbooks top of mind. Their market dominance gives them power to pressure upstream suppliers to sell discounted products, while the lack of competition enables them to keep extra profits — or jack up prices.

Antitrust enforcement isn’t governmental overreach — it promotes competition and protects American consumers across party lines. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have the authority to challenge the fleecing of consumers and other monopolistic practices. Their 2023 Merger Guidelines focused enforcement on a merger’s effect on competition, rather than just market share, placing greater weight on metrics that measure how many competitors a market has. Congress should use its oversight powers to encourage the FTC to adhere more closely to the 2023 guidelines and press for thorough review of proposed mergers. This should be a bipartisan priority. If we don’t act, almost everyone will pay the price.

Heather Boushey is a professor of practice at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. She served in the Biden administration as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Permitting reform for energy infrastructure is the best chance for bipartisan success this session. Electricity demand is surging, thanks in part to growth in artificial intelligence and data center buildout. We must add massive amounts of wind, solar, nuclear and natural gas power to the grid to meet this demand, but restrictive federal permitting processes make it difficult.

Both sides of the aisle now realize the urgency of pragmatic permitting reform. Democrats want to modernize energy infrastructure and accelerate the deployment of clean energy. Republicans want to cut red tape and boost domestic energy production. Both parties want to protect energy affordability for constituents and keep America competitive in the AI race. Permitting reform can accomplish these goals.

A deal would likely be based on the 2024 Manchin-Barrasso permitting reform bill, which secured significant bipartisan support but did not pass. Any version of the bill this year would need to streamline environmental and judicial reviews for all types of energy infrastructure; strengthen federal permitting authority for vital regional transmission lines; and establish guardrails to protect projects from politically motivated delays and reversals.

Both parties are eager to rein in rising costs, and many of the country’s most influential industries are converging on permitting reform as their top priority. This might create the pressure Congress needs to pass sound, bipartisan policy that lowers costs and delivers tangible economic benefits to Americans.

Josh Freed is a senior vice president for climate and energy at Third Way.

Recent court decisions demonstrate why momentum is building for congressional passage of a bipartisan children’s online safety bill. A jury in California decided that social media platforms are addictive in nature and lead to serious personal harms due to their algorithmic operations, autoplay features and serial scrolling. A New Mexico court, meanwhile, found that platforms failed to protect users from online predators.

Both cases illustrate why Republicans and Democrats could come together to enact needed protections for young people on social media. There are concerns about the internet’s impact on mental health, self-image and physical harm. Researchers have found high rates of depression, anxiety and sleeplessness among those who rely heavily on social media.

The Senate already has passed a bill known as the Kids Online Safety Act. It is sponsored by Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. Advocates are waiting on the House to act. Many of the key provisions, such as mandating parental controls and requiring online platforms to accept a duty of care, are common-sense ideas that are supported by political leaders across the ideological spectrum.

Darrell M. West is a senior fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings.

Congress could impose targeted penalties on ships built in certain Chinese shipyards, as well as fleets containing them, to reduce U.S. exposure to the national security and economic risks of China’s shipbuilding dominance. The SHIPS for America Act, reintroduced last year, would impose fees on ships built at foreign shipyards of concern. It’s a noteworthy first step, but the evolving nature of China’s shipbuilding ecosystem requires sustained attention to ensure policy measures deliver the intended strategic outcomes.

The urgency of this idea is driven by the scale of China’s shipbuilding dominance. China accounts for more than half of the global commercial shipbuilding output, and many of the yards producing those ships are dual-use facilities that also support the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Foreign demand, including from U.S. allies and partners, helps sustain this ecosystem. As a result, foreign companies are effectively subsidizing the industrial base behind China’s growing maritime power, while deepening their own strategic dependence.

Targeted restrictions or fees on vessels built in these dual-use yards offer a practical, bipartisan solution. They would begin to shift global demand away from Chinese producers toward trusted allies like Japan and South Korea, while creating a dedicated funding stream to invest in U.S. shipbuilding, repair capacity and workforce development.

Matthew P. Funaiole is vice president of the iDeas Lab, Andreas C. Dracopoulos Chair in Innovation and senior fellow in the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Housing stands out as an area with real bipartisan momentum. A broad housing package that increases supply and lowers costs is well within reach this Congress. There’s recognition on both sides of the aisle, and in both chambers, that high housing costs are straining families and preventing economic mobility. We’re seeing lawmakers converge around policy ideas like cutting red tape that delays construction, modernizing federal housing programs, scaling financing and tax tools that support development and expanding pathways to homeownership and rental stability. While these pieces are advancing in different forms, my colleagues at the Bipartisan Policy Center and I are optimistic that lawmakers will find a way to shape these ideas into a comprehensive package that meaningfully expands housing supply, improves affordability and supports economic growth.

Margaret Spellings is the president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center.