Dave McCormick promised he’d work in the Senate to lower costs on day one. He hasn’t.
The Pennsylvania Republican senator filed his first and so far only bill, to create an opioids task force, in March.
During his 2024 campaign, Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick promised that if he was elected to the U.S. Senate, he would champion specific policy priorities in the Senate from day one. Since taking office in January, he has done little to keep the promises to lower costs for families.
The “Dave McCormick’s Day One Promises for Pennsylvania” page on his campaign website listed “10 key priorities and actions that Dave will champion on Day One in the Senate.” These included legislation it said would lower costs “for working families and those on fixed incomes,” reduce energy prices, “shake up Washington” with ethics reforms and term limits, balance the federal budget, and assist families by providing child care and fertility tax credits.
A Pennsylvania Independent review of the Congress.gov database found that McCormick introduced no legislation of his own on his first day or in his first month. As of April 1, McCormick had filed just one bill, the Joint Task Force to Counter Illicit Synthetic Narcotics Act of 2025, a bipartisan proposal to streamline efforts to combat trafficking of opioids.
McCormick’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
McCormick has cosponsored 24 bills, one joint resolution repealing a cryptocurrency regulation, and nonbinding resolutions celebrating the Philadelphia Eagles, memorializing President Jimmy Carter, and remembering Sen. Alan Simpson.
None of the cosponsored bills would lower consumer costs, reform Washington, D.C., balance the budget, or cut taxes for working families.
The bills McCormick is cosponsoring would restrict access to abortion; eliminate the estate tax on estates valued at more than $13.6 million; provide tax credits for donations to nonprofits used to provide scholarships for private and religious education; override state gun safety requirements; make permanent a tax deduction for businesses; exempt whole milk from school lunch nutritional rules; and force banks to lend money to gun companies.
According to the data collection website Datasembly, Pennsylvania grocery prices have increased by 2.5% in the past three months. Oregon was the only state that had higher grocery price increases during that time.
