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title: "\"We must act now\""
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Senate clears college sports bill. ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­    ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­  

| View in browser September 24, 2026 Good Monday evening. In this edition: Senate approves landmark bipartisan college sports bill. Plus, fuel efficiency standards, pocket rescissions, Starship launch and steel plant. College Sports The Senate this evening passed a bipartisan bill intended to regulate the college sports industry, which has grown increasingly chaotic amid a series of court rulings that have upended the NCAA's longstanding limits on athlete compensation and movement. The final tally, which followed a lengthy series of amendment votes, was 77–22. The Protect College Sports Act — co-authored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) — seeks to rein in Division I athletics, which has been marked by ballooning athlete compensation, increasingly frequent transfers between schools and constant legal fights over eligibility and compensation rules. The upheaval accelerated with the Supreme Court's unanimous 2021 decision in NCAA v. Alston, which struck down NCAA limits on certain education-related benefits for athletes and rejected the organization's argument that its compensation rules should receive broad protection from federal antitrust law. The ruling itself did not allow schools to directly pay athletes or establish the current name, image and likeness (NIL) system. But it opened the NCAA's compensation restrictions to greater legal scrutiny just as states were beginning to allow athletes to profit from their NIL. Since then, a series of lawsuits and NCAA rule changes have further eroded the organization's traditional amateurism model, allowing athletes to transfer more freely and eventually paving the way for schools to directly share revenue with players. The Senate bill would grant the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption, allowing the industry to set and enforce certain eligibility, transfer and compensation rules without facing the type of legal challenges that have become commonplace. The measure would generally limit student-athletes to one transfer to another school without penalty. Football coaches would also be prohibited from moving midseason to another job. It would also codify a new five-year eligibility rule, generally granting athletes five seasons of competition over a continuous five-year period and eliminating traditional redshirts while allowing exceptions for serious injuries and medical conditions. The legislation would also codify key provisions of the $2.8 billion antitrust settlement reached in House v. NCAA, which allowed Division I schools to directly share revenue with players. It would significantly increase the amount schools could pay athletes beyond the roughly $21.5 million revenue-sharing cap established under the settlement, creating a new $22.5 million retention fund that could increase by up to another $5 million based on spending on women's and Olympic and other non-revenue sports. It would also allow the NCAA to crack down on schools skirting limits on athlete compensation through NIL deals funded by corporate sponsors, collectives or school boosters. Sen. Cruz and other supporters of the bill, including 24 athletic conferences, say the measure would bring order and consistent regulation to college sports. "Will we protect the future of women's sports, of Olympic sports, of non-revenue sports, or allow college athletics to be consumed by uncontrollable bidding wars that force schools to cut programs simply because they don't generate headlines or massive television contracts?" he said on the floor ahead of the vote. "The answer to this question should be simple: We must act, and we must act now. We must pass the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act." Opponents of the measure, which include some players and labor organizations as well as the NAACP, argue the bill would restrict athletes' ability to negotiate their compensation while giving the NCAA and schools new legal protections. "What this bill does, at its core, is protect a system of exploitation," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in a press release. "This bill protects the billions of dollars that coaches and executives are making by suppressing compensation for some of the most highly valued athletes in the world." President Trump, who attended the Texas–Tennessee football game over the weekend, supports the bill and plans to sign it into law. "THE PROTECT COLLEGE SPORTS ACT is a great Bill, and the Senate will hopefully stay in D.C. until it passes," he wrote on Truth Social last month. "Without this Bill, millions of young Athletes will be hurt, programs will be canceled, Women's and Olympic Sports will go away, the fans will be robbed, and Universities will go broke." Sen. Cruz told Semafor that he's lobbying Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to bring the House back into session to approve the bill before the midterms. "I believe the speaker will do that, and I urge President Trump to sign the bill on the set of College Game Day at a game this fall. And I believe we will see this bill signed into law before Election Day," the Texas Republican told the outlet. The bill could also face changes in the House, potentially threatening its passage before the 119th Congress adjourns at the end of the year. Several power conferences are crafting contingency plans for self-governance under the House settlement should the bill not be signed into law by the New Year, including on player payments and a potentially larger pool of money to share with players. Watch the Senate debate and vote. In other news… The Trump administration finalized a plan to reduce fuel efficiency standards for new cars and trucks sold in the U.S., reversing Biden-era standards intended to improve fuel economy and accelerate America's shift toward electric vehicles. Under the new rule, cars and light trucks are expected to average 34.9 miles per gallon by 2031, far below the 50.4 miles per gallon projected under President Biden's standards. The administration argues the Biden-era requirements forced automakers to produce more expensive electric and hybrid vehicles to comply with increasingly stringent standards. President Trump says the lower standards will make cars more affordable and give consumers more choices, while critics say Americans will spend more on gas over time and warn the rollback could hurt U.S. automakers as other countries continue investing heavily in electric vehicles. The White House announced Friday night that it was rescinding $810 million in congressionally appropriated funds across a range of government programs. President Trump similarly clawed back billions in funds at the end of 2025 using the controversial "pocket rescission" maneuver. Pocket rescissions occur when a president asks Congress to cancel funds shortly before they expire, effectively preventing lawmakers from using the 45-day review period provided under federal law. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the Appropriations Committee chair, blasted the move as an illegal attempt to "undermine" Congress's power of the purse. "The independent Government Accountability Office has concluded that pocket rescissions are unlawful and not permitted by the Impoundment Control Act," she said. "Any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law." SpaceX launched the first orbital test flight of its Starship rocket from South Texas. Starship, the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, successfully deployed all 26 of the new Starlink V3 satellites before splashing down in a fiery blaze in the Pacific Ocean, north of Hawaii. The rocket was set to orbit Earth six times over 10 hours, but SpaceX cut the mission short after three hours due to an engine failure. SpaceX envisions Starship, with its large payload bay, as an eventual replacement for its Falcon 9 rocket, which accounted for more than half of the global total of commercial launches in 2025. Starship is also one of two spacecraft NASA has selected to land astronauts on the moon, with the first crewed landing currently planned for as early as 2028. President Trump announced plans for a new $15 billion steel plant in Iowa, which he said will be the largest steel plant in U.S. history. Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota-based company, plans to construct the plant with the goal of starting production in 2030 and eventually producing 10 million tons of steel per year. President Trump said the project is expected to create 6,000 new construction jobs and 2,000 new manufacturing and mining jobs. He attributed the plant's announcement to his administration's "pro-American" policies, including its 50% tariffs on foreign steel. "Our steel industry is roaring back to life," he said. "Everyone's building their plant here because they don't want to pay tariffs. It's really not that complicated." For your radar… Jack Smith testifies Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on allegations of targeting Republican lawmakers during his tenure as special counsel. Watch LIVE on C-SPAN at 9am ET. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here C-SPAN is on YouTube. 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