Congress
Senators bullish on chances for a July vote on college sports bill
Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz is hopeful the Senate will be able to vote this month on his bipartisan college athletics legislation as he makes “minor modifications” to win support.
The Texas Republican said Wednesday he has been meeting throughout this week with “several dozen” commissioners and university presidents to solicit feedback on the bill he introduced last month with the Commerce Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington.
“We continue to make significant progress,” he said, declining to get into the “active discussions” around negotiations.
“I believe we will vote on it this month,” Cruz added.
The so-called Protect College Sports Act would establish a federal rule book for college athletics by enacting new policies for student-athlete transfers, banning coaches from moving schools mid-season and enshrining certain “name, image and likeness” protections in law.
Time is running out to schedule a floor vote in July, however, and it remains unclear how much work needs to be done to build consensus in the next two weeks.
A person granted anonymity to share private discussions said Senate Majority Leader John Thune has expressed interest in moving the bill to the floor once it can get 60 votes. But members in both parties have misgivings — including Democrats concerned about student athlete labor protections as well as some Republicans attuned to concerns from major college athletic conferences.
Cantwell, in an interview Thursday, said there’s a “possibility for sure” the bill could land on the Senate floor by the end of the month, while acknowledging there was still some work to do.
“I think right now we have a bill that’s like really in the middle and then there’s people on both sides trying to make change,” she said. “And I think we’ll have to see what we can do that still preserves that agreement but grows the votes.”
Two lobbyists actively engaged in talks around the bill, who were granted anonymity to comment on private conversations, said the legislation is far from ready for a floor vote, adding that the Commerce Committee has not made substantial progress on winning over key players in college sports.
Several universities and conferences — including Louisiana State University, the University of Alabama and Auburn University — have reiterated in recent days that they believe the Cruz-Cantwell bill still requires substantial changes like clarifying liability protections for schools and closing potential loopholes around non-NIL payments for student-athletes.
The bill has also faced strong headwinds as the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference — the two largest college athletics conferences in the country — have pushed back on a provision aimed at allowing conferences to pool their media rights, insisting the bill clarify that any such provision is entirely voluntary.
Several major conferences were at one time more enthusiastic about the rival proposal in the House known as the SCORE Act, which would offer strong antitrust protections and preempt state NIL laws. But that bill stalled amid opposition from GOP hard-liners and others, emboldening Cruz and Cantwell to forge ahead with their own plan.
Both measures, however, have faced pushback from the Congressional Black Caucus, which has continued to vow to boycott any college sports legislation amid efforts by GOP-led states to redraw congressional maps across the South.
The ranking Democrat on the House Oversight committee is demanding the White House answer questions related to President Donald Trump’s decision to ban BLN, MS NOW and Blue Light News from the White House, calling it the president’s “most blatant, assault on press freedom.”
In a letter sent Monday to White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) requested that Cheung provide by Oct. 5 a detailed account of when and how he was informed of the ban, how he responded, who was consulted before the decision, the legal justification for it, the facts the White House relied on and whether the outlets had any opportunity to respond.
“The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, not freedom from criticism,” wrote Garcia. “The American people need to understand what consideration—if any—the White House gave to this serious and unprecedented decision to protect the President’s ego.”
Garcia also asked for all White House staff documents and communications about the ban and for any other relevant materials to be preserved.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump on Friday announced that he was seeking to block journalists from Blue Light News, MS NOW and BLN from the White House, complaining about “constant ‘reporting’” of what he called “FICTION and LIES.” The Trump administration first denied the media outlets entry into the White House grounds on Saturday morning.
The three news organizations are now jointly suing Trump, Cheung and two other top advisers in a bid to immediately restore access for their reporters, calling the ban a “direct assault on the First Amendment.”
Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.
Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers said Monday that the war with Iran “needs to end” to bring prices down, making him the second Republican to break with the White House on the issue that day.
“The war with Iran needs to end, and end quickly,” Rogers said in a video published Monday to social media.
“Michigan families can’t afford to wait,” he added. “Here’s what we can do now: place a temporary embargo on Diesel exports. American energy should provide relief to American families first.”
Earlier Monday, Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican Senate candidate in Iowa, expressed similar frustrations about the war’s impact on Iowans’ pocketbooks. Both Rogers and Hinson called for a suspension of the state and federal gas tax in their statements.
Ahead of the midterms, GOP candidates have expressed concern about the war in the Middle East, saying it has made it difficult for them to run on affordability. The war with Iran, which began in February, has led to marked increases in gas and diesel prices. On Monday, regular gas was just over $4.45 per gallon, according to AAA; diesel prices hit a record of $6.50 per gallon.
Rogers, a former representative, is facing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in the race for a Senate seat in battleground Michigan.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins warned Monday that President Donald Trump would be defying Congress if he moves forward with empowering top political appointees to decide who gets grant funding for health research.
“Any attempt to politicize grantmaking … is contrary to congressional intent,” the Maine Republican said in a statement.
Trump wants to issue an executive order to seat White House budget director Russ Vought and National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya on a board that would decide which grants the NIH should fund, according to two administration officials granted anonymity to describe a private meeting in the Oval Office last Friday.
Following reports of that meeting, Collins noted Monday that the stopgap funding patch Congress cleared this summer bars the White House from finalizing a separate proposed rule to put political appointees in charge of approving federal grants, or “any substantially similar” plan.
The Office of Management and Budget “should not be involved in agency decisions on the awards of grants,” Collins said, adding that “imposing a political review … undermines the long-standing principle that the government funds awards based on scientific need and merit, rather than political ideology.”
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the House’s top Democratic appropriator, called the White House’s latest idea an attempt to “take control over federal funding, so they can use it to punish their perceived enemies and reward their friends.”
Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, warned that the move would mean “a single political appointee could kill a cancer study or an Alzheimer’s trial with no scientific reason at all.”
A spokesperson for House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole did not return a request for comment regarding the Oklahoma Republican’s position.
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