This week: Senate still at work on college sports bill
Published in Political News
WASHINGTON — The Senate returns Tuesday, and with the House already on recess until after the midterms, the big question might be: How long will senators stay in town?
The Senate is also scheduled to be in session next week before departing for election season, unless GOP leaders decide to cut it short like House leadership did. In the meantime, this week’s agenda is headlined by ongoing consideration of the name, image and likeness legislation for college sports.
The Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee released an updated version of the college sports bill text last week, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has already taken procedural steps to limit amendments.
“Fans, student athletes, coaches, and representatives on both sides of the aisle agree: college sports desperately needs stability,” Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a Sep. 17 statement. “This updated bipartisan bill text incorporates feedback and ideas from our Republican and Democrat colleagues who have been meeting with student athletes and others about how to improve upon a sensible piece of legislation. For the hundreds of thousands of student athletes and millions of fans tired of the chaos, we are going to get this done.”
The bill’s most recent procedural vote was 77-22, and even some of the bill’s detractors have acknowledged that the measure appears likely to pass.
But first, the Senate will vote Tuesday on a motion to limit debate on President Donald Trump’s nomination of Angela Veronica Colmenero to be a U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Texas.
There’s also an accumulation of privileged items of business that are likely to be called up before senators depart, including a pair of House-passed resolutions that would nullify Biden-era EPA waivers that allowed California to set its own emission standards for certain ships.
The Senate is planning to vote on clearing the measures this month, a Senate aide said last week.
Democratic senators have also been busy introducing disapproval resolutions related to Trump’s foreign policy agenda. Among the recent proposals is a joint resolution led by Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., that would block a weapons sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
“I am deeply concerned by the Kingdom’s human rights abuses, the security of the region as the war in Iran rages on, and the proxy war that is escalating between Iran and Saudi Arabia in Yemen,” Markey said in a statement last week. “Further escalation in the Saudi-Iran proxy war will worsen an already dire humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen and risks setting off a nuclear arms race between Iran and Saudi Arabia.”
Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Adam B. Schiff of California last week unveiled a war powers resolution designed to bar U.S. engagement in hostilities against Oman.
“The American people don’t want more war, but instead of listening to them, President Trump is threatening to bomb Oman,” Kaine said in a statement. “The use of the U.S. military has a time and a place, but President Trump’s chaotic and expansive use of the military isn’t making Americans more secure.”
Committees busy
There’s a slate of hearings and markups at the committee level as Republicans try to queue up more of the president’s executive and judicial nominees.
The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has a markup scheduled Thursday that includes the nomination of Nicole Saphier to be surgeon general, followed by a confirmation hearing on the nomination of Heidi Overton to be FDA commissioner.
And at a Judiciary subcommittee, senators on Wednesday will hear testimony about concerns related to artificial intelligence-driven Flock cameras.
—David Jordan contributed to this report.
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