Economic Populism Bills and the Living Project 2025 Agenda
A reported Democratic push for economic populism, including the Price Gouging Prevention Act (S.2321, pending July 2025), now faces a 53% Project 2025 implementation rate as of February 2026 — but key cited bills (American Innovation and Choice Online Act, PRO Act) are not currently pending in the 119th Congress based on available sources, weakening the claim of a current legislative fight.
At an Open Markets Institute conference, Senator Chris Murphy called for an 'aggressively populist party' and cited legislative bills to fight corporate concentration. The Price Gouging Prevention Act (S.2321), introduced July 17, 2025, is pending in the 119th Congress and would empower the FTC to prohibit 'grossly excessive' prices during supply-chain disruptions. However, two other cited bills — the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the PRO Act — do not appear in the current research bundle as pending legislation in this Congress. Both were prominent in prior Congresses but have not been shown as reintroduced in 2025-2026. This absence weakens the claim that these particular bills are part of a current legislative fight. Meanwhile, the Center for Progressive Reform reports as of February 2026 that the Trump administration has initiated or completed 53 percent of Project 2025's domestic administrative policy agenda, including executive orders and rulemaking that roll back antitrust enforcement, weaken worker protections, and deregulate price-gouging behavior — building the wealth-concentration infrastructure Project 2025 envisions without countervailing legislation or legal pushback.
The humanitarian alternative
Instead of continuing to deregulate and concentrate market power, Congress should advance a comprehensive economic bill that includes anti-price-gouging measures, a public option for health insurance, strengthened antitrust enforcement, and a federal jobs guarantee. This approach would directly address the affordability crisis without dismantling safety nets. The Trade and Competitiveness provisions of the PRO Act and the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act offer ready-made bipartisan starting points.
Falsifiable predictions
What this entry claims will happen, and what data would prove it wrong. The Reckoner revisits these against current reality.
- Within 90 days, at least one of the anti-monopoly or price-gouging proposals championed by Murphy will be introduced as formal legislation in the Senate.
- After the conference, polling within 60 days will show a 5+ point increase in Democratic voter trust in the party's economic agenda among low- to middle-income voters.
Grounded in
- Are Democrats Finding Their Spines? | The Nation
- Development in the Age of Populism
- Populism and the Economics of Globalization - NBER
- Indication of Economic Populism in Local Governance
- Murphy looks to be guiding force for Democrats in new Trump era
- 'We've got to become an aggressively populist party': Chris Murphy ...
- Can the Democrats Reclaim Economic Populism?
- What Chris Murphy Learned From the New Right - The Atlantic
Original source — excerpted
news Are Democrats Finding Their Spines?"Politics / Are Democrats Finding Their Spines? At an Open Markets Institute conference, economic populism was on the agenda. Democratic Senators Chris Murphy a..."