The issues

Whether abortion should be legal and up to what point in pregnancy, which each state has set for itself since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.¹

The rules for mifepristone, a pill the FDA has approved for ending pregnancies through 10 weeks, including whether it can be prescribed through telehealth and sent by mail, which FDA rules have allowed since 2023; in 2026 the Supreme Court paused, while Louisiana's challenge goes on, a lower-court order that had suspended those rules, and the FDA said it is studying the pill's safety before deciding whether to change them.^2,3,4

Whether federal law should guarantee a right to use birth control and to get in vitro fertilization (IVF), the fertility treatment in which embryos are created in a lab, and how much of the cost insurance should cover.

Whether public programs such as Medicaid can pay for abortions, which the Hyde Amendment bars federal money from doing except in cases of rape, incest or a threat to the woman's life, though states may use their own money, and whether clinics that provide abortions, such as Planned Parenthood, can be paid for other care; a 2025 law barred federal Medicaid payments to some of these clinics for one year, and the Supreme Court ruled in 2025 that Medicaid patients can't use the program's free-choice-of-provider rule to challenge a state that drops such a clinic.^5,6,7

Whether Congress should pass one national abortion law for every state, or leave each state to set its own rules, as states have done since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.⁸

Federal laws on how animals are treated, such as care standards for animal dealers, including commercial dog breeders, and the ban on animal fighting, and whether to ban slaughtering horses for food or testing cosmetics on animals.^9,10,11

The Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires fuel to include set amounts of biofuels such as corn ethanol, and whether gasoline with 15% ethanol (E15) can be sold all year.^12,13

Federal programs that pay farmers when crop prices or revenues fall, help pay for their crop insurance, and give one-time aid after disasters or trade disputes.^14,15,16

Whether to limit or ban purchases of US farmland by foreign buyers, especially people and companies tied to China and other countries the US government considers adversaries.

The H-2A program, which lets farms that expect a shortage of US workers hire foreign workers for seasonal jobs, if they pay at least a set wage and provide free housing.^17,18

Whether a single federal district judge can block a federal law or policy for everyone in the country, not just the people who sued, a power the Supreme Court limited in 2025.¹⁹

Whether federal law should bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, public places such as stores, federally funded programs and other areas, as the Equality Act would, beyond the job protections the Supreme Court recognized in 2020.^20,21,22

Whether federal agencies, federal contractors, public colleges and state governments should run diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which 2025 executive orders ended across federal agencies and some states, such as Texas, have barred at public colleges.^23,24,25,26

Whether Supreme Court justices should be bound by an enforceable ethics code; the court adopted its own code of conduct in 2023, under which each justice decides whether to step aside from a case.²⁷

Whether to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which lets intelligence agencies collect the communications of foreigners abroad without a warrant for each person targeted, and whether searching those records for Americans' messages should require one; a 2026 law extended it only until June 12, 2026, and a bill to extend it further failed in the House the day before.^28,29,30

How many justices sit on the Supreme Court, a number set by Congress rather than the Constitution, which has been nine since 1869.³¹

When people, businesses and religious organizations can be excused from laws, such as anti-discrimination rules or health coverage requirements, because following them would conflict with their religious beliefs.

Whether social media companies should keep deciding which posts to allow or remove, and keep Section 230, the law that shields them from most lawsuits over what users post.³²

Whether Supreme Court justices should keep their lifetime appointments, which the Constitution provides, or serve fixed terms so that each president appoints justices on a regular schedule.³³

The federal law against racial discrimination in voting, including whether places with a history of discrimination should again need federal approval to change voting rules, as they did until a 2013 Supreme Court ruling, and how far it reaches district maps, which a 2026 ruling limited to cases with strong evidence of intentional discrimination.^34,35

Whether people charged with a crime must pay money bail to be released before trial, or whether judges decide whether to release or hold them based on their risk instead.

Whether people convicted of the most serious crimes, such as murder, can be sentenced to death, which federal law and about half the states allow.³⁶

Laws that set the shortest prison sentence a judge may give for certain crimes, such as some drug and gun offenses, even when the details of the case would call for less, with narrow exceptions such as some low-level drug cases.^37,38,39

Whether adults should be allowed to buy and use marijuana for recreation, which about half the states allow and federal law does not; a 2026 federal rule moved marijuana used under state medical marijuana licenses to a less restricted drug category (Schedule III).^40,41

Whether presidents should send National Guard troops or other military forces into US cities to respond to crime or protests or to protect federal officers and buildings, including when the state's governor objects; in 2025 the Supreme Court left in place an order blocking a deployment in Illinois, finding that the law the president relied on likely did not allow it.⁴²

How much money cities, states and the federal government spend on police departments, and whether some of it should go to other services such as mental health crisis teams.

A legal rule from Supreme Court rulings that usually protects police officers and other officials from personal lawsuits over violating someone's rights, unless earlier court rulings had clearly established that such conduct was unlawful.⁴³

How the federal government regulates banks, lenders and stock markets, from how companies raise money from investors to the federal consumer financial laws, covering products such as bank accounts and loans, that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) enforces.⁴⁴

Whether government workers such as teachers, police officers and federal employees can negotiate as a union over pay and working conditions; a 2025 executive order removed union bargaining rights at many federal agencies, citing national security, and the House passed a bill in December 2025 to cancel that order, which the Senate has not voted on.^45,46

How the federal government regulates digital currencies such as Bitcoin and stablecoins, and the companies that trade and hold them; a 2025 law set federal rules for stablecoins, and a bill setting rules for other crypto markets passed the House, but a September 2026 Senate vote to take it up failed.^47,48

Whether managers of retirement plans and other investment funds may weigh environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, such as climate risks or how companies treat workers, when choosing investments and casting shareholder votes.

The lowest hourly wage employers can legally pay in the US, which has been $7.25 since 2009, though many states set higher minimums.^49,50

Whether the Federal Reserve should keep setting interest rates without direction from the president, or whether elected officials should have more say; its governors serve 14-year terms and can be removed only for cause, and in 2026 the Supreme Court refused to let the president's firing of a governor take effect while her lawsuit goes on.⁵¹

Whether people who drive or deliver through ride-hailing and delivery apps count as independent contractors or as employees under the law, which decides whether federal minimum wage and overtime rules cover them.⁵²

Federal programs, many run by the Small Business Administration (SBA), that help small businesses with loan guarantees, research awards and government contracts set aside for small firms, and who can qualify for them.^53,54,55

Taxes on imported goods, which the importer (the business or person bringing the goods in) owes to the federal government when the goods arrive.^56,57

Deals with other countries that lower tariffs or set rules for trade, such as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.⁵⁸

State laws that bar union contracts from requiring workers to pay union dues or fees to keep their jobs; about half the states have one.⁵⁹

The federal rules for how private-sector workers form a union, including how union elections work and the penalties for breaking the rules.

Whether the president can impose tariffs alone under emergency and trade laws, or whether new tariffs should need approval from Congress; in 2026 the Supreme Court ruled that the emergency-powers law (IEEPA) does not let the president impose tariffs, while other trade laws allow some tariffs within set limits.⁶⁰

Who decides which books stay in public school libraries and classrooms when parents or others challenge them, and what standards apply.

Whether states should limit or require teaching about race, gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools, and whether parents must be notified or give consent; in 2025 the Supreme Court ruled that parents with religious objections were entitled, while their lawsuit continues, to advance notice and to excuse their children from lessons using LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks.⁶¹

Whether public schools can or must post religious texts such as the Ten Commandments, lead prayer or employ chaplains; the Supreme Court has barred school-led prayer since 1962, and in 2026 a federal appeals court upheld a Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments in classrooms, a ruling the Supreme Court has been asked to review.^62,63,64

How much a state spends on public elementary, middle and high schools.

Whether the federal government should cancel some or all of what people owe on federal student loans.

Whether transgender students can play on school and college sports teams that match their gender identity; in 2026 the Supreme Court ruled that states and schools may limit girls' and women's teams based on sex at birth, as 27 states have done by law.⁶⁵

Whether community colleges, public universities or both should be free of tuition for students, with governments covering the cost.

Whether to keep, shrink or close the federal agency in charge of federal student aid, federal money for schools and civil rights enforcement in education; a 2025 executive order directed the education secretary to work toward closing it as far as the law allows, and the department has since begun moving day-to-day work on many of its programs, including special education and civil rights enforcement, to other federal agencies through agreements.^66,67,68

Programs, often called school choice, that give families public money to pay for private school, homeschooling or other education costs.

The rules for raising and spending money in elections, including the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision letting corporations and unions spend unlimited amounts if they act independently of candidates, and its 2026 decision striking down limits on what political parties spend in coordination with their candidates.^69,70

Who draws the lines for congressional and state legislative districts and how often, after several states, including Texas, California and North Carolina, redrew their congressional maps in 2025, between censuses.⁷¹

How much power federal agencies have to write binding regulations under the laws Congress passes, and how Congress and the courts can check them; Congress can vote to overturn a new rule under the Congressional Review Act, and in 2024 the Supreme Court ended the rule that courts defer to an agency's reading of an unclear law.^72,73

How many people the federal government employs and how easily they can be fired, after a 2025 executive order directed agencies to prepare large-scale layoffs and a 2026 rule made some policy-related career jobs at-will.^74,75

Whether people must show documents such as a passport or birth certificate proving US citizenship when they register to vote, since only citizens may vote in federal elections; in 2026 the Supreme Court let a federal program that checks voters' citizenship against federal records keep running while a lawsuit against it goes on.^76,77

Whether voters should rank candidates in order of preference, with last-place candidates dropped and their votes moved to the next choice until one candidate wins a majority; Alaska and Maine use it in statewide elections, and 19 states bar it in some or all elections.⁷⁸

The Senate rule requiring 60 of 100 votes to end debate and hold a final vote on most bills, which lets a minority of senators block them.⁷⁹

Whether states should hand over their full voter lists, including private details such as driver's license and partial Social Security numbers, when the federal government asks for them.⁸⁰

Whether members of Congress, who must report their stock trades within 45 days, should be allowed to own or trade shares of individual companies while in office.⁸¹

Whether to limit how many terms members of the House and Senate can serve, which would take an amendment to the Constitution.⁸²

Whether voters must show identification to cast a ballot and what kinds of ID count, which states mostly decide for themselves.⁸³

Whether voters can mail in their ballots instead of voting in person, and who qualifies, under rules that differ from state to state.⁸⁴

Whether to charge for carbon dioxide emissions, through a tax or a cap-and-trade system in which companies buy permits to emit, as some states already do.^85,86

Federal tax credits for clean power and home energy, such as wind, solar, nuclear and battery projects and home solar panels; a 2025 law ended or phased out early many of them, including those for wind, solar and home solar, while mostly keeping the nuclear and battery credits.⁸⁷

How states and utilities supply the large amounts of electricity new data centers need, including those for artificial intelligence, and who pays for the power plants and lines they require.

Federal policies that encourage electric vehicles, such as buyer tax credits and emissions limits for new vehicles; a 2025 law ended the credits for cars bought after September 2025, and in 2026 the EPA repealed its greenhouse gas limits for vehicles.^88,89

Federal standards for how much energy appliances such as stoves, washers and water heaters may use, and whether federal rules may restrict or phase out gas stoves and other gas appliances.^90,91

Federal limits on the carbon dioxide that coal- and natural gas-fired power plants can release; in September 2026 the EPA finalized a repeal of most of the 2024 limits, taking effect in November, kept efficiency standards for new gas plants, and proposed repealing the rest.⁹²

Whether the US should take part in international agreements to limit climate change; in 2025 the president ordered the US to leave the Paris Agreement, and in 2026 he ordered it to withdraw from the United Nations climate treaty.^93,94

Whether and how to build new nuclear power plants, including how the federal government reviews their safety and how much it helps pay for them.

Whether to build wind farms in federal ocean waters off the US coasts, where the federal government leases the sites and approves each project; in January 2025 the president withdrew all of those waters from new wind leasing.^95,96

How much federal land and offshore water the government leases to companies for oil and gas drilling, and on what terms; a 2025 law requires at least four lease sales a year on federal land in each of nine states and regular offshore lease sales in the Gulf and Alaska's Cook Inlet.⁹⁷

How long federal environmental reviews and permits take for projects such as pipelines, power lines and power plants, and how easily people can challenge them in court.

Whether a state should require its utilities to get a rising share of their power from renewable or other low-carbon sources by set dates, as about 30 states do.^98,99

Federal Clean Air Act limits on pollution that harms health, such as smog, soot and toxic chemicals from vehicles, factories and power plants, and the national air-quality standards that states must work to meet.^{100,101,102,103}

Which wetlands, streams and other waters are covered by the Clean Water Act, the main federal law against water pollution; a 2023 Supreme Court ruling narrowed that coverage, and in 2025 the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers proposed a rule that would narrow it further.^104,105

How the government balances protecting federal lands with uses such as drilling, mining, logging and grazing.

How the Endangered Species Act protects plants and animals at risk of extinction, including their habitat, and when a species has recovered enough to lose protection.

Whether the federal government should sell some of the land it owns, such as for housing near growing towns, or hand large areas over to state governments.

How federal agencies reduce wildfire risk on public land through tree thinning, logging and controlled burns, and how much environmental review those projects get.

How much government should help families pay for child care and early education, through federal child care funding for families with low incomes, programs such as Head Start and tax credits.^106,107,108

A yearly tax break of $2,200 per child under 17, set by a 2025 law; families who owe little or no income tax get only part of it, and those with no earnings get none.^109,110

Who qualifies for SNAP, the federal program that helps low-income households buy groceries, and its work rules for adults, which a 2025 law extended to more people, exempting by age only adults over 65 and exempting parents only if they have a child under 14, while shifting some costs to states.¹¹¹

Whether workers should be paid during time off for a new child or a serious illness; federal law guarantees some workers only unpaid leave, a federal tax credit helps employers that offer paid leave, which a 2025 law made permanent, and 13 states and Washington, DC, have passed laws creating paid leave programs.^112,113,114

Whether same-sex couples can marry on the same terms as other couples, which the Supreme Court made the law nationwide in 2015.¹¹⁵

Whether and how the US should send weapons, money and other help to Ukraine in its war with Russia; since July 2025, NATO allies and partners have paid for more than $6 billion of US weapons for Ukraine, and a 2025 defense law authorized $400 million a year in US military aid for 2026 and 2027.^116,117

How far the US should go in limiting trade, investment and sales of advanced technology, such as computer chips, between the US and China.

US spending on health, food, disaster relief and development programs in other countries; in 2025 Congress canceled billions of dollars of foreign aid it had already approved.¹¹⁸

How the US should deal with Iran's government over its nuclear program and its support for armed groups, after US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites in 2025, a US military campaign against Iran in early 2026 and a short-term agreement between the two governments in June 2026, which the president said in July that Iran had broken.^{119,120,121,122}

The weapons and military funding the US gives Israel, including about $3.8 billion that Congress approved for 2026, and whether that aid should come with conditions, such as on its use in Gaza.¹²³

Whether the US military should attack drug-trafficking groups abroad or at sea, as it did in 2025 with strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific against groups the government has designated as terrorist organizations.^124,125,126

How much the US spends each year on its armed forces and weapons.

The US commitment to NATO, the alliance of the US, Canada and 30 European countries that treat an attack on one as an attack on all.^127,128

Whether the president can order military strikes or send troops into combat without approval from Congress, which has the power to declare war; a 1973 law says the president must end combat Congress hasn't approved within 60 days, with up to 30 more days only if needed to withdraw troops safely.^129,130

Whether to ban the sale of semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15, which supporters of a ban call assault weapons and many owners call modern sporting rifles, and which a federal law banned from 1994 to 2004, except for ones already lawfully owned.^131,132

Whether a background check should be required for every gun sale, including sales between private individuals, which federal law requires only when the seller is a licensed gun dealer.¹³³

Whether every state should have to accept concealed-carry permits issued by other states, or each state should decide which permits to accept.

Whether adults who can legally own a handgun should need a state permit, such as one that requires training and a background check, to carry it concealed in public.

Laws that let a judge temporarily take guns from someone found to pose a serious risk to themselves or others, at the request of people such as family members or police.

How federal law treats gun accessories and parts such as stabilizing braces for pistols, suppressors and kits for building guns at home, including which ones must be registered with the federal government or sold with a serial number and background check; a 2025 law ended the federal tax on suppressors and short-barreled rifles from 2026 but kept their registration, and the Supreme Court upheld a rule covering some gun kits in 2025.^{134,135,136,137}

Whether to bring back the larger tax credits that lowered premiums for health plans bought on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces from 2021 until they expired at the end of 2025; the House passed a bill in January 2026 to extend them through 2028, but it has not become law.^138,139,140

Whether to tie what Americans pay for prescription drugs to the prices drug makers charge in other wealthy countries, which a federal study found were lower in 2022, especially for brand-name drugs.¹⁴¹

How much the federal government pays toward Medicaid, the health program for people with low incomes, which a 2025 law changed, for example by tightening limits on the taxes states charge health care providers.¹⁴²

How the federal government decides which vaccines to recommend, including the childhood schedule set by the CDC and its vaccine advisory committee, whose current members all began their terms in 2025.¹⁴³

Whether communities should add fluoride to public drinking water to prevent tooth decay, which Utah banned statewide in 2025.^144,145

How Americans get health coverage: through private insurance and employers, through public programs, or through a single government plan.

Whether a state covers adults with incomes up to 138% of the poverty line through Medicaid, as the Affordable Care Act lets states do, with the federal government paying 90% of the cost for those adults.^146,147

Whether adults covered by Medicaid must work, train, go to school or volunteer a set number of hours to keep their coverage, which a 2025 federal law requires states to begin by January 2027, with possible extensions to the end of 2028, for many adults covered through the Medicaid expansion.¹⁴⁸

Whether people under 18 can receive puberty blockers, hormones or surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria, which more than 20 states ban; in 2025 the Supreme Court upheld one such state law, and since October 2026 a federal rule bars Medicaid from paying for these treatments for minors.^149,150

Whether terminally ill people should be able to get a doctor's prescription for medication to end their own lives, as Oregon has allowed since 1997.¹⁵¹

What federal and state officials can require during a disease outbreak, such as vaccines for health care and other workers, business and school closures or limits on visiting nursing homes, and how long emergency declarations can last.

Whether children must get certain vaccines, such as those for measles and polio, to attend school, and what exemptions families can get.

Whether the government should give first-time buyers money or tax credits toward a down payment.

How governments respond to people living outside or in shelters, including whether housing help should require treatment and whether to enforce bans on camping in public places.

Whether large investment firms should be allowed to buy single-family homes; a 2026 federal law bars firms that control 350 or more such homes from buying more, starting in early 2027, with exceptions such as homes they build to rent.¹⁵²

Whether state or local governments should cap how much landlords can raise rents each year.

Whether state or federal governments should push cities and towns to change local zoning rules so more homes, such as apartments, townhouses and duplexes, can be built; a 2026 federal law will raise or cut some cities' and counties' federal community development grants, starting in fiscal year 2029, based on whether their housing supply grows faster than before.¹⁵³

Who can get asylum, which protects people who fear persecution in their home country, and whether people who enter the country between official entry points can apply; in 2026 the Supreme Court ruled that people turned back while still in Mexico at a border entry point have no right to apply until they cross into the US.¹⁵⁴

Whether children born in the US automatically become citizens when their parents are here without legal permission or only temporarily, such as on a student or tourist visa; in 2026 the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution makes them citizens, rejecting a 2025 executive order that would have denied them citizenship.¹⁵⁵

Whether to build more walls and fencing along the US-Mexico border; a 2025 law set aside $46.55 billion for border barriers and the roads and detection technology that go with them.¹⁵⁶

Which noncitizens can get federal benefits such as food assistance and health coverage, which a 2025 law narrowed for some groups, and other federal help such as small business loans.¹⁵⁷

How Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents find, detain and deport people living in the US without legal permission, and which people they focus on.

How many people get green cards to live in the US permanently each year, about one million or more in most recent years, and how many come on temporary work visas.¹⁵⁸

Whether people who have lived in the US for years without legal status, including Dreamers brought here as children, should be able to gain permanent legal status or citizenship.

Whether federal immigration officers must show their faces, display a name or badge number, and wear body cameras while making arrests.

How many refugees the US resettles each year, a ceiling the president sets, which fell from 125,000 for fiscal year 2025 to 7,500 for 2026, later raised to 17,500, the same ceiling set for 2027, with the places since 2026 mainly for Afrikaners from South Africa.^{159,160,161,162}

Whether state and local police and jails should help federal immigration officers, such as by holding people in jail for federal pickup or signing 287(g) agreements to take on some immigration duties.¹⁶³

Whether all employers must use E-Verify, the federal online system for checking that new hires can legally work in the US, which federal contractors must already use under many federal contracts.¹⁶⁴

How much the federal government, mainly through FEMA, helps states and communities prepare for and recover from hurricanes, floods, wildfires and other disasters; in 2025 the president created a council to review FEMA, including whether it should support states rather than direct disaster relief itself.¹⁶⁵

How to pay for federal highway and transit programs, including whether to change the federal gas tax that helps fund them, which has been 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993.^166,167

How federal transportation money is divided among highways, public transit and other projects.

How much federal money goes to passenger trains, including Amtrak's routes and new high-speed rail projects.

Whether people with incomes above set levels should pay federal income tax on part of their Social Security benefits, as they do now; a 2025 law added an extra deduction of up to $6,000 for people 65 and older from 2025 through 2028, which lowers their taxable income.^168,169

The option for people on Medicare to get their coverage through private insurance plans that Medicare pays a set amount each month; most offer extra benefits such as vision, hearing and dental care, and plans can require using their network of doctors and getting approval before some care.¹⁷⁰

Which tests and services Medicare covers and who decides, including whether Congress should require coverage of more, such as permanent telehealth visits from home and testing and treatment by pharmacists; a 2026 law lets Medicare cover approved blood tests that screen for many cancers at once from 2029 and extended telehealth from home through 2027.¹⁷¹

Whether traditional Medicare should cover dental care, eyeglasses and hearing aids, which it mostly does not cover today.^172,173,174

The program, created by a 2022 law, that lets Medicare negotiate the prices it pays for some of the brand-name drugs it spends the most on.¹⁷⁵

How much Medicare pays doctors and other health professionals for each service, and whether those rates should rise automatically each year with the cost of running a medical practice.

How much Social Security pays retirees, people with disabilities and survivors each month, and whether the benefit formula should change.

Social Security's payroll tax on wages applies only to earnings up to a yearly cap, which is $184,500 in 2026 and $192,300 in 2027.¹⁷⁶

The age at which people can collect their full Social Security retirement benefit, which is 67 for people born in 1960 or later.¹⁷⁷

Whether a state should use its own money to keep programs such as Medicaid and SNAP food aid at current levels as a 2025 federal law shifts more of SNAP's cost to states and changes federal Medicaid funding.¹⁷⁸

How hard it should be for citizens to put proposed laws and constitutional amendments on the state ballot and pass them, and whether lawmakers can later change what voters approve.

The lowest hourly wage employers can pay in a state, which states can set above the $7.25 federal minimum, as most states do.¹⁷⁹

A proposed change to the Constitution that would require the federal government to spend no more than it collects each year, with possible exceptions such as war.

Special deductions and credits that lower taxes for businesses, such as writing off research costs in the year they're paid and breaks for particular industries; the main credit for hiring certain workers covers only people hired through 2025 unless Congress renews it.^180,181

The federal tax rate on corporate profits, which has been 21% since 2018.^182,183

How much of their earnings people pay in federal income tax at each income level, including the top rate on the highest incomes.

How much the federal government should spend overall each year on its programs, agencies and benefits.

How the federal government prevents and recovers improper payments, which are payments that shouldn't have been made or were made in the wrong amount, whether by mistake or through fraud, in programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, food assistance and unemployment insurance.^184,185

Whether federal programs should keep getting money automatically when Congress misses its deadline to pass yearly funding, after federal funding lapsed from October 1 to November 12, 2025, and lapsed again for parts of the government in 2026, for the Department of Homeland Security from mid-February until April 30.^186,187,188

How state and local governments tax homes and other property, and whether a state should cap or eliminate those taxes for homeowners.

How much of the state and local taxes people pay, such as income and property taxes, they can deduct on their federal return; a 2017 law capped the deduction at $10,000, and a 2025 law raised the cap through 2029, after which it returns to $10,000.^189,190

How much a state spends overall from its budget each year.

Whether a state taxes its residents' income and at what rates, which governors and state legislatures decide.

How much a state charges in sales tax on purchases, and which items, such as groceries, clothing or services, are taxed.

Special deductions, credits and tax-free savings for particular costs and events, such as saving for education in 529 plans, adopting a child or the profit from selling a home.^191,192,193

Whether money workers earn from tips and overtime pay should be exempt from federal income tax, which a 2025 law partly does through 2028 with deductions that have yearly caps and income limits.¹⁹⁴

Whether to tax the wealth of the richest households directly, such as an annual tax on net worth or a minimum tax that counts gains on unsold stock as income.

Whether a president can hold back or cancel money Congress has approved; a 1974 law requires the money to be spent unless Congress agrees within 45 days to cancel it, and the Government Accountability Office found in 2025 and 2026 that agencies had broken that law by withholding some funds.^195,196

Whether and how governments should limit children's and teens' use of social media, through age limits, age checks, parental consent or rules for how apps are designed.

What personal information companies may collect, use and sell, and what rights people have over it, which some states, such as California, have set in their own privacy laws.¹⁹⁷

How much government should spend to bring high-speed internet to homes and businesses that lack it, and to help people afford monthly service.

What rules, if any, should apply to companies that build and use artificial intelligence (AI), such as safety testing, labels on AI-made content and responsibility when AI causes harm.

Whether federal law should override state AI laws, such as Colorado's, so that one national approach applies instead; a 2025 executive order directed the attorney general to set up a task force to challenge state AI laws in court.^198,199

Whether Washington, DC, should become a state, keep its current local government or come under more federal control; Congress can overturn DC's local laws, as it did with a DC tax law in 2026.²⁰⁰

Whether Puerto Rico, a US territory, should become a state, stay a territory or become independent; people born in Puerto Rico are US citizens.²⁰¹

How power over policing, courts, taxes and regulation on tribal lands is divided among tribal governments, states and the federal government.

When veterans can get care from private doctors paid for by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which the VA allows when its own care is too far away or takes too long, such as a drive of more than 30 minutes or a wait of more than 20 days for primary care.²⁰²

How many doctors, nurses, benefits claims processors and other workers the Department of Veterans Affairs employs, after it moved in 2025 to reduce its staff by nearly 30,000.²⁰³

The payments that veterans disabled by their service and the survivors of those who died can receive, and how they claim them, including whether more military retirees with disabilities can collect full retirement pay and full disability pay at the same time.²⁰⁴