Late Friday night, in the last hours before the Senate left for August recess, there was still a chance, however slim, that the Protect College Sports Act would go to a vote. Hours earlier, President Donald Trump had posted about the bill on Truth Social, telling senators to stay in Washington until they passed it. Sure, a handful of Republicans had filed last-minute amendments, some of which called for significant changes to the 171-page legislation. But Republicans pushing the bill started riding the president’s endorsement as hard as they could, hoping it would get the PCSA to the floor.
And it was about that time, when there was a “new groundswell of interest in the bill,” as one Senate aide put it, that Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) went to work. Each called a number of their fellow Democrats to explain why they don’t like the bill. They called labor groups, civil rights groups, all kinds of groups that could strengthen the public and private pushback. Their staffers called one another. A lot.
Around 11:30 p.m., Senate leaders needed unanimous consent to proceed to a vote on the bill. Murphy and Booker objected. Then around 2 a.m., they objected a second time, as did a handful of other lawmakers from both parties, according to multiple aides.