With Democrats increasingly confident they will win control of the House next month and hopeful of a majority in the Senate, party leaders are turning to the next challenge: deciding what they will do with their power if they get it.
For months, they have promised voters they will address an “affordability crisis” they blamed on failed Republican policies, pledging to lower the high cost of groceries, gas and health care. And they have vowed to combat what they say is rampant corruption by President Trump and his administration, though they have shied away from promising an impeachment after their first two efforts to remove him from office failed.
Should they win in November, top House Democrats are planning a shock-and-awe legislative sprint to demonstrate within hours of taking power that they are passing bills to deliver on their promises, including restoring health care subsidies and Medicaid resources and moving to end Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the war with Iran.
They will face steep challenges given that Republicans are all but certain to retain the ability to block legislation in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to advance major measures. (Democrats would have to make a net gain of 13 Senate seats to win a filibuster-proof majority, something not even the most bullish among them expect to come close to next month.) And Mr. Trump will still have veto power. The president and his advisers are also unlikely to bow to congressional oversight, having stonewalled past efforts by lawmakers to investigate their actions.
But Democrats argue they would be able to use a majority to check the president and roll back some of his worst policies. And they expect their actions to set the conversation for the 2028 presidential campaign.
“While Trump is still president, we’re not going to pass visionary progressive legislation,” Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who is in line to be the No. 2 Democrat next year, said in an interview. “If you give us power, we will in some cases reverse his decisions, stop him from making terrible decisions and in other cases slow him down.”
Here’s what Democrats are planning to do if they win.
First 100 Hours: Undoing Unpopular Trump Policies
Should Democrats prevail next month, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat and minority leader who would be in line to be speaker, is planning to quickly pass broadly popular bills that unite the Democratic Caucus and would undo Mr. Trump’s most disliked policies.
Mr. Jeffries, according to aides, plans in the first 100 hours to speed legislation to the floor that would:
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Reinstate expired Affordable Care Act health care premium subsidies.
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Reverse the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts that were included in the president’s domestic policy law.
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Move to end Mr. Trump’s tariffs and restore congressional power over trade policy.
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Direct Mr. Trump to end the war in Iran or seek authorization from Congress to continue it.
Democratic leaders believe the measures are all consensus items among their members that are basic enough to bypass time-consuming committee consideration and go straight to the floor. They could be voted on before committees were even set up, and would be all but certain to pass in the House, where a simple majority is needed.
Reaching for Republican Support in the Senate
The picture is more complicated in the Senate, where Republicans would still have the ability to filibuster legislation even if Democrats capture the majority.
But some Democrats argue the first batch of bills they have in mind are so broadly popular that they could draw enough G.O.P. support to pass the Senate and make it to Mr. Trump’s desk, where he would face steep political consequences if he vetoed them.
“When Trump looks bad over and over again in public opinion, he chickens out,” said Representative Deborah K. Ross, Democrat of North Carolina, who has been serving on an internal working group giving feedback to Mr. Jeffries on the agenda for next year.
“If we’re passing hugely bipartisan bills that are wildly popular, he has a choice,” Ms. Ross said. “And in the past, he has chosen to not buck public opinion on those things.”
Rahm Emanuel, the former congressman and White House chief of staff who has been advising House Democratic leaders on strategy, said the initial slate of bills would give the party the chance to shape the political agenda.
If Democrats propose popular policies that attract Republican votes, “it’s game on, baby,” said Mr. Emanuel, who is eyeing a presidential run in 2028. “Trump then has to make a decision: Signs it, we win. Vetoes it, we win. The whole strategy is what unites us and divides them.”
Democratic leaders in the Senate see a path to reversing the Medicaid cuts and reductions in nutrition assistance enacted as part of the tax cut law, as well as a bipartisan appetite to pass a serious ban on lawmakers’ trading stocks, which emerged as a major issue on the campaign trail.
But first, they plan to address the war in Iran.
“The first objective is to bring this war to a conclusion,” said Mr. Schatz, who declined to outline exactly what legislative actions the Senate would consider, but said there were a number of ways to do so. “It’s costing regular Americans too much, it’s not working, it’s not making us safer. Everyone knows it, and that should be our No. 1 objective.”
Some Democrats have been discussing the possibility of withholding their votes to fund the war, which would be Congress’s most potent tool to halt it.
Investigations and Oversight
Whether or not they make any progress on legislation, Democrats are planning to use their congressional oversight powers aggressively to investigate Mr. Trump and his administration. They have made combating corruption a central plank of their closing midterm campaign message, arguing that it is costing voters money.
“If the president is going to veto our actions, well then in the meantime, we’ll be zeroing in on all of the corruption, which is the true commitment of this administration,” said Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who would be in line to be the chairman of the Judiciary Committee next year if his party were to win power.
He declined to outline his first targets, but he named a few preliminary areas of focus:
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Potential corruption in public contracting and the awarding of no-bid contracts.
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The rivers of cryptocurrency that are flowing into the government and to the Trump family on an anonymous basis.
Mr. Raskin said he expected Trump administration officials to disregard subpoenas. He plans to seek information from whistle-blowers, private entities that have been involved in government shakedowns, political bribes and influence peddling through various slush funds, and other sources of public information.
Democrats are expecting intraparty friction about when and whether to impeach Mr. Trump or any of his cabinet officials, whom they have routinely condemned as corrupt and unfit to serve.
Scarred by their experience with two past impeachments of Mr. Trump that fell flat and emboldened him, they have been hesitant to participate in a replay. They are aware that any action that looks overtly political can rebound the president’s approval numbers by making him a martyr to his supporters.
“We haven’t ruled anything in, and we haven’t ruled anything out,” Mr. Jeffries has said repeatedly when pressed on the subject.
But they are under pressure from a large share of their voters to take that action. More than 70 Democratic lawmakers have called for either Mr. Trump’s impeachment or the invocation of the 25th Amendment to remove him.
“We understand from our own experience that impeachment is no panacea,” Mr. Raskin said, noting that it is unlikely that Democrats would be able to persuade the requisite two-thirds of the Senate needed to convict and remove him. “We are sober about the constitutional arithmetic.”
First 100 Days: Tax Credits, ICE Limits and Stock Trades
Beyond their initial sprint, Democrats have yet to agree on a full slate of policies they would pursue with a majority. People familiar with their plans say leaders intend to take some action to make ICE more accountable, as well as on legislation to raise the minimum wage and ban congressional stock trading.
In interviews, Mr. Jeffries has indicated that he would look to use the tax code to address high living costs. He would seek to expand the low-income housing tax credit for companies that build affordable housing, as well as refundable tax credits — those available to people who earn too little to owe income taxes — including the child tax credit and the earned-income tax credit.
Democrats would most likely have to grapple with how to regulate artificial intelligence, which has become a major political issue. And they will have to decide whether they want to use spending bills to try to force policy changes on the Trump administration, knowing that doing so could result in a government shutdown fight.
Different factions are also vying to shape the agenda:
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The Democratic Women’s Caucus wants to focus on child care and elder care issues.
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Democratic socialist candidates have campaigned on Medicare for All and abolishing ICE.
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Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, has been pushing to position his “Medikids” legislation — which would provide universal health insurance to children — as the party’s marquee health care bill. “Who is going to look us in the eye and say they don’t want to give health care to kids?” he said. “We all want universal health care; this is the right first step to get us there.”
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Progressives are pushing a “New Affordability Agenda” that address narrow issues related to the cost of living, paid for by tax increases on wealthy Americans. “We should pass sick leave; the next week, raise minimum wage; the next week we should pass family leave; the next week we should pass vacation leave,” said Representative Greg Casar of Texas, the chairman of the House Progressive Caucus. “I want us to be passing so much.”
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