U.S. Senator · South Carolina
Darline Graham
RepublicanSenate Class 2Term through January 20273 tracked votes
3 votes total
- S 4668Sep 28, 2026Passed ChamberYea
Protect College Sports Act of 2026
Senate vote · 77-22
Democrats26-19Republicans50-2Independents1-1What this does
This bill rewrites college sports rules across three areas. On athlete rights, it bars colleges, conferences, and the NCAA from stopping a student athlete from earning money for their name, image, or likeness, or from cutting scholarships or eligibility over it, with narrow exceptions for code of conduct violations or unauthorized use of school trademarks or facilities. It lets the NCAA and conferences cap total athlete pay at the same limit set in the pending House v. NCAA settlement, and makes it legal under antitrust law to enforce that cap along with transfer limits, eligibility rules, recruiting and tampering restrictions, and mid season coaching move bans. A school can exceed the cap by up to $22.5 million a year, plus up to $5 million more for non revenue sports, to retain athletes who have played at least one season, but that allowance expires after nine years, and the cap itself is not permanent: it exists only as long as the underlying private court settlement stays in effect, and lapses if Congress does not vote to extend it within a fast tracked 30 day window after the settlement ends or is thrown out. Athletes get medical coverage for sports injuries during their playing years and for five years after, a national NCAA injury fund kept at $60 million to $100 million, one penalty free transfer between four year schools, and the right to sue in court, not arbitration, over most of these protections. The bill takes no position on whether athletes are legal employees. It also creates a 24 member commission to study athlete pay, the revenue cap, and enforcement over the next five years. On broadcasting, the bill lets schools and conferences representing at least 75 percent of Football Bowl Subdivision programs form a single entity to jointly sell media rights without violating antitrust law, so long as any Division I school or conference can join, each member gets a revenue floor at least as high as its best year from 2021 through 2025, at least 15 percent of remaining media rights revenue is split evenly among Football Bowl Subdivision schools that earned football media revenue in the 2024-2025 season, and at least one outlet in each member's home market carries its football and basketball games at no charge to viewers. March Madness and College Football Playoff rights before August 2032 are excluded from the pooling, and no school is required to join. The bill also makes it illegal for a conference that reported more than $700 million in revenue on its 2025 tax return to merge with or absorb another major conference in a way that would shrink its share of Football Bowl Subdivision membership below 75 percent, though this does not apply to conferences below that revenue level or block formation of the joint media entity itself. A third, separate piece authorizes $180 million from 2027 through 2032 for Commerce Department grants to historically Black colleges and other minority serving institutions to upgrade broadband, media, and sports broadcast infrastructure.
A single yes vote carried three distinct programs. Title I sets athlete pay and protection rules paired with a new antitrust shield for NCAA enforcement of them. Title II creates a separate antitrust exemption letting major conference schools pool and jointly sell media rights through one entity, with its own revenue sharing and local broadcast rules. Title III authorizes a $180 million Commerce Department grant program for HBCU sports broadcast and broadband infrastructure, a distinct funding program riding on the same bill. All three are about college athletics, but a senator voting yes on the athlete pay rules in Title I also voted yes on the broadcasting antitrust regime in Title II and the grant program in Title III, and the 77-22 vote does not show which of the three drove that choice. The revenue cap and retention fund at the center of Title I are also not a fixed final answer: they run only as long as a private court settlement stays in effect and lapse without an affirmative vote from a future Congress to extend them.
- HR 6500Aug 8, 2026Economics and Public FinanceBundledBecame LawPresent
Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027
Senate vote · 90-6
Democrats42-3Republicans47-2Independents1-1What this does
Division A funds the federal government for fiscal year 2027 at fiscal year 2026 rates and under the same conditions, mostly through December 11, 2026, or until full-year appropriations for a program are enacted, if sooner. It bars using that money to start projects that were not funded in 2026, keeps mandatory payments, including food assistance under the Food and Nutrition Act, at current program levels, and adds program-specific exceptions, among them up to about $2.6 billion for cost increases on Navy ships funded in earlier years. It blocks the automatic cost-of-living pay adjustment for members of Congress for the period, pays $174,000 each to the widow of Representative David Scott and the heir of Senator Lindsey Graham, and bars a revision of the federal grant rules known as the Uniform Guidance from being issued or taking effect through December 11, 2026. Division B extends 16 expiring authorities, 13 of them to December 11, 2026, extends the African Growth and Opportunity Act trade preferences and the Haiti trade program from 2026 to 2028, extends customs user fees from December 31, 2031 to March 31, 2032, adds $21.4 million in Medicaid funding for the Northern Mariana Islands and trims the Medicare Improvement Fund by $21 million. Division C extends federal highway, transit and highway safety programs and the Highway Trust Fund's spending authority through December 11, 2026, with authorizations and obligation limits prorated from 2026 levels. Division D extends veterans health care, benefits and homeless veterans programs, most of them to December 11, 2026. The budgetary effects of Divisions B through D are kept off the pay-as-you-go scorecards.
One yes carried four divisions: the stopgap that kept the government open past September 30, the authorizing extensions, including African trade preferences through 2028 and customs fees to 2032, a highway and transit extension, and veterans program extensions. The House first passed H.R. 6500 on January 12, 340-54, as the AGOA Extension Act, which extended the African trade preferences and customs user fees. The Senate made it the continuing resolution, so at the final vote a member could not keep the government open without also voting for the trade and fee extensions, or the reverse.
- HR 5334Aug 7, 2026International AffairsBundledBecame LawYea
Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026
Senate vote · 86-11
Democrats36-9Republicans49-1Independents1-1What this does
Division A requires the President to block the property of, and deny visas to, the President of the Russian Federation and other senior Russian officials, and any foreign person the President finds is supplying Russia's defense industry, running or insuring vessels that move Russian oil to evade sanctions, or acting to undermine Ukraine, with a fresh review every 180 days. It requires sanctions on the Bank of Russia and on Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank and every other Russian financial institution owned in whole or in part by the Russian government, and on foreign banks that do significant business with them unless the Treasury finds that against United States interests. It bars United States persons from dealing with those Russian banks. Thirty days after enactment it bars new United States investment in Russia and in its energy sector and bars exports of United States energy to Russia; purchases of Russian government debt are barred on enactment. United States persons acting under Treasury licenses issued before enactment are exempt, and companies winding down or selling operations in Russia have 270 days. It requires the President to raise duties on all goods from Russia to a rate of up to 500 percent, and on goods from a country among the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or natural gas that keeps buying it, or among the top five countries facilitating Russian oil sanctions evasion, to a rate of up to 100 percent, with an exception for a smaller gas buyer that has taken significant steps to cut its imports. Exemptions include transactions for food, farm goods, medicine, medical devices and humanitarian aid, NASA activities and official government business. The President may waive any sanction or duty by certifying to Congress that it is in the national interest. Permanently ending a sanction or duty on Russia or a Russian person requires certifying that Russia signed a peace agreement accepted by Ukraine and stopped its hostilities, and a joint resolution of disapproval enacted within 30 days, or 60 if the report arrives between July 10 and September 7, blocks it. Division A ends five years after enactment, except its extension of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 from 2026 to 2031. Division B lets early childhood educators, including those at childcare facilities, claim the educator expense deduction that had been limited to kindergarten through grade 12 educators, starting with 2026 tax years.
One yes enacted two unrelated measures. Division B is the educator deduction the House passed by voice vote in April as the SEED Act. The Senate put the Russia and Iran sanctions act in front of it as Division A, and the House's final vote was on both at once, so a member could not vote for the educator deduction at that stage without also voting for sanctions and duties of up to 500 percent on Russian goods, or the reverse. The official title names only the sanctions.