Congress has struggled to pass major legislation this year, putting off debates on annual spending, defense, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.

But in its final weeks in session as the midterm elections approach, the Senate can agree on doing one thing — addressing college sports.

The Senate voted twice this week to move forward on legislation to overhaul the rules and financing around college sports.

It’s an effort to put guardrails around skyrocketing spending, prevent constant legal battles and restore order to what the bill’s supporters say is “chaos” in athletic programs.

Over 70 senators have already thrown their support behind the bill, which would nonetheless still need to clear the House.

Final votes could be held as early as next week.

Still, some Senate critics say it is far from the most urgent matter before Congress — and question why senators are not focused on what they say are more pressing issues ahead of the midterm elections.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican who opposes the sports bill, said Congress should mainly tackle affordability issues before lawmakers leave town to campaign.

The college sports bill, Scott said, goes “way too far inserting the federal government into collegiate athletics” and could create new problems.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut asserted that the Senate ought to focus its attention on other matters “when we are in the middle of a disastrous war and a growing cost crisis.”

The college sports legislation is addressing “a fake crisis,” Murphy said this week.

He contended that it fails to go far enough in overhauling the system and safeguarding athletes.

Those backing the bill say it will keep college costs down, give hundreds of thousands of student athletes new health and labor protections and create one set of rules for all colleges.

This website is safeguarded by reCAPTCHA, with Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service being applicable.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., committed this summer to the bill's top sponsors — Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the panel's top Democrat — that he would hold a vote on the bill in September.

He says there is a "pent-up demand" to fix college sports, "and it's clearly broken."

"I believe it has been demonstrated over time that no one else is going to rectify it," Thune said.

The legislation addresses what Cantwell calls “a spending spiral” that has taken hold of college sports, as name-image-likeness payments — money that student athletes can earn by monetizing their endorsements, social media, public appearances and more — have led to football rosters with $30 million payrolls.

A report that Cantwell issued earlier this year showed that institutional and government support of athletic programs increased by $519.9 million between 2015 and 2025 among the 53 schools in the Power Four whose data was publicly available.

The bill would cap the revenue colleges can share with their players, create a retention pool so schools can keep current players, and let conferences pool TV media rights, which could bring in more revenue.

It would also limit player transfers, an attempt to control the transfer portal that has caused players to switch teams constantly.

It would also codify the NCAA's new rule restricting players to no more than five years of eligibility, impose limits on agent fees, and provide the NCAA with limited antitrust protections.

Supporters say that the guardrails around big spending would help save money for smaller athletic programs, including women’s and Olympic sports, that are lower priority at many schools.

And it would put new requirements in place that would allow student athletes to keep scholarships and have longer-term healthcare.

"We can recognize these rights, enshrine them today, and ensure that these athletes remain protected forever," Cantwell said.

On Friday, senators were still making last-minute changes to the bill, adjusting a provision that would shorten the wait time for schools seeking to change conferences and adding language clarifying that the bill does not override other laws currently addressing transgender girls and women in sports.

The bill continues to face opposition.

Labor and civil rights organizations are aligned against it, and all four Black Democrats in the Senate — Cory Booker, Raphael Warnock, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks — cast their votes in opposition.

Booker said it still gives the NCAA too much power without holding the players sufficiently accountable.

"The NCAA has a long history of ignoring the appeals for justice from exploited college athletes," he said.

But many of his Democratic colleagues are on board, arguing that the current situation is untenable.

“College sports is a uniquely American phenomenon, an integral component of our culture,” said Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware.

He said passage of the legislation should afford Americans “some hope that we can at least stabilize college sports.

It’s long overdue to make progress on this issue.”