The Senate cleared a college sports NIL bill with limited antitrust protection for the NCAA, while leaving AI rules, the $40 trillion debt and Flock cameras unaddressed before midterms.
The Senate on Sept. 15 voted 74 to 24 to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold on the Protect College Sports Act of 2026, then advanced it again on a second procedural vote Thursday. The measure sets federal rules for college athletes’ name, image and likeness deals and grants the NCAA, conferences and schools limited immunity from federal antitrust laws so they can enforce transfer limits and compensation caps.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell pushed the bill out of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Cruz is now pressing House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the chamber back and send the bill to President Donald Trump before November’s midterms, a push the Daily Caller reported as other major files stay idle on Capitol Hill.
Cruz told Semafor on Monday he expects quick House action and a signature timed for maximum visibility.
"I believe the speaker will call the House back and pass this bill, and the House could pass the bill in a day. 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."
That timeline would give Republicans a concrete sports win to carry into the fall campaign. It would also leave a stack of harder national problems unresolved before voters cast ballots, much like the recent House vote to fund the government only through December.
The legislation would establish a federal NIL right and bar schools and conferences from blocking athletes who enter NIL deals. Athletes would have to disclose any NIL compensation worth more than $600 to their schools.
Division I schools would have to cover out-of-pocket medical costs for sports-related injuries. Athletic departments that pull in more than $80 million a year would be barred for nine years from cutting roster spots, grant-in-aid opportunities, or women’s or Olympic sports teams below 2024-25 levels.
The same package would give the NCAA, conferences and schools limited antitrust immunity so they can enforce rules on transfers and compensation caps, and it would ban end-runs around revenue-sharing limits with athletes.
Cruz framed the stakes in plain terms.
"This is what is at stake. If Congress doesn’t act, we’re going to keep seeing programs canceled, roster spots eliminated, scholarships lost, and women’s and Olympic sports put at risk."
Thirteen conservative organizations backed that case in an Aug. 6 letter urging the Senate to pass the bill. Cruz has used his committee perch on other high-profile fights this cycle as well, including when Cruz advanced a separate measure tied to broadcasters and public criticism.
Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy tried to revise a key section with language from his College Athlete Right to Organize Act. That approach would have treated college athletes as employees of their schools if they received direct compensation, treated the schools as employers, and blocked any deal that waived collective-bargaining rights.
Murphy attacked the underlying bill on the floor.
"What this bill does at its core is to protect a system of exploitation. Over and over again, courts have determined that colleges and the NCAA and conferences are violating the law."
Cruz answered on X the next day, Sept. 16, arguing Murphy’s real audience was trial lawyers and unions.
"Chris Murphy is running for president, so the only thing he cares about is making every trial lawyer in America happy. He wants every college to be sued nonstop. He wants no rules whatsoever. He wants every college athlete turned into an employee and a union member to give union dues to Democrats. But the good news is Chris Murphy has almost no support for his position because yesterday Chris got 24 votes out of 100. He didn’t even get a majority of Democrats to agree with him."
Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker joined the criticism, saying the bill handed antitrust exemptions and financial protections to the NCAA and major universities. The AFL-CIO and its Sports Council lobbied against the measure and labeled it a “union-busting” bill that capped athlete pay without collective bargaining or a seat at the table for players.
Athletes.org made a similar case in a May blog post.
"College athletes deserve the same freedoms and opportunities as every other American citizen. Yet this bill would put federally protected limitations on athletes, which were otherwise ruled illegal, with no guardrails on coaches (except to not leave mid-season), administrators or any other party who benefits financially from college sports."
The College Football Players Association raised the same objection: limits on athletes, not on coaches or administrators.
OpenSecrets found lobbyists spent at least $31 million on college athletics, including this bill. The push involved 36 members of the NCAA’s four most powerful conferences and more than 60 colleges. Notre Dame, Ohio State and Western Michigan University were among the heavy spenders.
That money helped deliver a bipartisan Senate majority even as labor groups and athlete organizations fought the antitrust shield. The fight over who controls the billions in college sports cash is no longer a side issue; it is a full-scale lobbying contest with clear winners and losers in the final text.
Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told reporters Thursday he expects the chamber to pocket the sports win and leave town.
"I hope I’m wrong, but I think we’re going to make the football coaches happy and then go home. That’s what my prediction is. I’m not saying I’m happy with that, I’m actually not. But I mean, I could bubble wrap it and look in the eye and lie to you. But that’s what I believe."
Kennedy’s forecast matches the broader pattern of Congress moving the files that are ready and parking the ones that are not, even as White House legislative operations shift in the final weeks before the election, including the recent exit of Trump’s legislative point man weeks before the midterms.
While the sports bill moved, lawmakers have introduced dozens of AI bills that remain stalled. Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders offered legislation to ban AI “superintelligence” that could surpass human intelligence or overthrow governments. Republican California Rep. Jay Obernolte and Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Lori Trahan filed a separate bill for federal oversight of frontier AI development and deployment. None of those measures have received the kind of floor time the college sports package just got.
No senator has introduced legislation aimed at the $40 trillion national debt. Neither chamber has voted on automated-surveillance limits tied to Flock Safety cameras. Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett did introduce a bill to bar federal agencies from using automated surveillance, but no lawmaker has filed a bill to ban Flock cameras outright.
Households are already paying the price of other unresolved shocks. AAA put the national average gas price at $4.47 a gallon as of Tuesday, up from roughly $2.98 before the Iran war that began in February. CBS News estimated typical grocery costs at $200 to $240 per household because of higher fuel and transportation expenses from that conflict.
Cruz wants the sports bill signed on a College Game Day set before Election Day. That would give the White House and Senate Republicans a visible win with coaches, athletic directors and fans. It would not reduce the debt, set national AI rules, or settle the fight over automated license-plate cameras. Senate Republicans have already shown they will press Trump when they disagree with him on high-visibility foreign-policy optics, as they did in recent clashes over a red-carpet welcome for China’s Xi.
Congress found the votes for NIL contracts, roster floors and a limited antitrust shield. The harder files, debt, AI and surveillance, remain where Kennedy predicted they would: waiting until after the football coaches go home.
Voters can enjoy Saturday kickoff. They should not confuse a sports fix with a government that has faced the bills that actually drive costs, debt and power in American life.