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👋🏾 HI, HEY, HELLO! Welcome back to Congress Nerd Daily. I hope today was everything for you. The midterms are in 50 days. Until then, I’ll include a countdown in each edition of the newsletter.
McConnell watch: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) returned to the Senate this evening and cast his first vote in three months following a serious fall at his Capitol Hill home in June.
“My recovery has been a long and often frustrating process,” McConnell said in a statement, adding that the lingering effects of childhood polio complicated his rehabilitation. The 84-year-old said he is “still not quite back to 100%” and remains in physical therapy, but has assured Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) he will “do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me.”
McConnell’s absence was consequential over the summer: Senate Republicans fell short in an August Agriculture Committee vote on the farm bill when McConnell and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) were absent.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
PCSA crunch time: Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) brought dozens of college athletes and some of the biggest names in college coaching to Capitol Hill this afternoon for a show of force behind the Protect College Sports Act as supporters race to turn a broad coalition into the 60 votes needed to advance the bill.
Cruz was joined by Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.), plus student athletes representing schools from Howard University to the University of Michigan and coaches including Arkansas men’s basketball coach John Calipari, Gonzaga’s Mark Few and Houston’s Kelvin Sampson. Supporters argued Congress needs to bring stability to a college sports system reshaped by NIL compensation, revenue sharing, the transfer portal and years of litigation while protecting scholarships and non-revenue and Olympic sports.
“To use a football analogy, I think we’re on the one-yard line,” Cruz said. “I think we have four downs in front of us to move into the end zone.”
The Senate vote will test whether supporters are actually that close…
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IN THE KNOW
New market milestone today: The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield briefly crossed 5% for the first time since 2023 before retreating, as Brent crude pushed above $107 and markets absorbed the continuing disruption to Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline. Higher oil and diesel prices are reviving inflation concerns just two days before the Fed’s Wednesday meeting. Diesel is already above $6 nationally, increasing costs across trucking, agriculture and other goods-moving sectors.
States and major cities sue to block Trump’s revived “public charge” rule: A coalition of 22 states and D.C., plus a separate group including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and King County, filed federal lawsuits challenging a DHS rule set to take effect on Friday. The rule gives immigration officers broader discretion to consider use of means-tested health, food and housing benefits when deciding green-card and visa applications. The challengers argue DHS unlawfully expanded the statutory meaning of “public charge” and could discourage mixed-status families— including U.S. citizen children—from using benefits for which they qualify. DHS says the policy is intended to enforce self-sufficiency requirements.
EPA moves to eliminate federal carbon limits: The Environmental Protection Agency rolled out its final repeal of Biden-era greenhouse-gas standards for existing coal plants and new gas-fired plants, completing a deregulatory move first proposed in June 2025. The power sector accounts for roughly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions. The administration argues the rules imposed unnecessary costs and constrained reliable electricity generation. The Biden standards were projected to cut roughly 1 billion metric tons of carbon emissions through 2047.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
“Donald Trump couldn’t do it alone” by Michael Calderone: “Jacob Weisberg chronicles the enables of his return to power and fateful second term.”
“A college girl was exploited on camera. A network of anonymous men got to work” by EJ Dickson: “Maddie Kowalski is one of countless young women who’ve had their lives destroyed by the burnerverse, a loosely connected online community of sports fans. Now she’s fighting back.”
“What’s happening to TV comedies is not funny” by Jay Martel: “The demands of streaming, which is now how most viewers watch TV, are not suited to just plain old comedy.”