Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted October 2, 2026

By GovTrack .us @ 9:39 PM :: 143 Views

Some New Laws This Week

by Amy West GovTrack.us, Oct. 2, 2026

The votes that got the most coverage in Congressional press this week were the two that failed and the one that didn’t, but still has to go back to the House.

Unanimous consent sped through about twenty bills that now need only go to the President for signing. They are now or soon will be new laws.

Here’s what the Senate did in their last week of work in Washington until after the election.

Failed on Procedural Votes

These bills are, for now, dead. They may come back between now and the end of this Congress. But if not, then the sponsors will have to start over when the 119th Congress ends in January and the 120th Congress begins.

H.R. 7008: Stop Insider Trading Act failed to pass cloture 53-47. The Washington Sun (free account required to read) has an article on the recent history of stock trading legislation in Congress and says that this time, this bill failed because a) Republicans attached some provisions of the SAVE America Act to it and b) Democrats felt it had too many loopholes even without the poison pill (for Democrats) of the voting restriction rules.
H.R. 9340: Ratepayer Protection Act failed cloture 53-47. We’ve mentioned this bill before. It contains no new mandates with respect to costs passed on to other utility customers from data center energy use and that was enough for Democrats to oppose it.

Actually Got a Vote on Passage and Passed

This bill also will need action by the end of the 119th or have to start over again.

S. 4668: Protect College Sports Act of 2026 passed 77-22. What’s in it? Broadly, it caps athlete pay, limits transfers between schools, makes some changes to athletic conferences and more. ESPN and the Wall Street Journal both have summaries that provide overlapping, but not identical information. It might get amended further in the House since this bill doesn’t ban student athlete unionization.

New Laws

These bills have passed both chambers in identical form. They go next to the President for signing, or, if he doesn’t sign within about 2 weeks of having them presented to him, they become law on their own. So they’re not new law right this minute, but they will be. They all passed the Senate by unanimous consent, so there is no record of individual votes cast.

H.R. 8205: Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Reauthorization Act of 2026
H.R. 10167: Common Cents Act. In addition to codifying the end of the penny (even though production stopped last year), this bill sets rules for rounding prices or up down to the nearest five cents since the nickel is now the smallest value coin in production.
H.R. 997: National Taxpayer Advocate Enhancement Act of 2025. This bill would allow the National Taxpayer Advocate to hire counsel as needed.
H.R. 7730: Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment Act. This bill will increase the amount of debt a small business or individual wage earner can have and file for bankruptcy.
H.R. 1190: Expanding Access to Capital for Rural Job Creators Act. This bill requires the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation within the Securities and Exchange Commission to report on issues encountered by rural-area small businesses.
H.R. 1945: America’s National Churchill Museum National Historic Landmark Act establishes the landmark in the title.
H.R. 1744: United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2026. This bill reauthorizes the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom through 2028. The commission is an independent federal commission tasked with monitoring international religious freedom conditions, reviewing U.S. government policy, and making policy recommendations.
H.R. 3620: Southcentral Foundation Land Transfer Act of 2025. This bill transfers some land in Anchorage, AK.
H.R. 5284: Claiming Age Clarity Act. This bill changes terminology used by the Social Security Administration to reflect how much of your benefit you get at a certain age. For example, the earliest age for taking a benefit is 62. But if you start getting Social Security then, your benefits will be lower than if you wait to 67 or 70. The proposed terminology would make that clearer.
H.R. 1550: Strengthening America’s Turning Point Act renames Saratoga National Historical Park as Saratoga National Battlefield Park.
H.R. 10159: authorizes the Secretary of the Army to convey to the State of North Carolina a certain parcel of real property located at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on which the State shall construct a veterans’ State home.
H.R. 1703: Choices for Increased Mobility Act of 2026. This bill requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish specific billing codes under Medicare for certain materials used in ultralightweight manual wheelchairs.
H.R. 227: Clergy Act. This bill establishes a two-year window for certain members of the clergy and Christian Science practitioners to revoke their exemption from Social Security and Medicare taxes on ministerial earnings.
H.R. 8352: Criminal History Access Act of 2026. This bill authorizes a new type of entity - an agency of a state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory that is authorized to set standards for the hiring, training, ethical conduct, and retention of its law enforcement officers through certification, licensing, or other similar qualification processes - to access criminal history record information maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
H.R. 4307: Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act. This bill will direct the Secretary of Labor to train certain employees of Department of Labor how to effectively detect and assist law enforcement in preventing human trafficking during the course of their official duties.
H.R. 5235: Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act of 2025. This bill will prohibit minimum educational requirements for proposed contractor personnel in certain contract solicitations.
H.R. 7022: Mystic Alerts Act. This bill provides for wireless emergency alerts to be transmitted to mobile devices via satellite. It’s named in honor of everyone who died at Camp Mystic in Texas in 2025 floods.
H.R. 9496: End Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. This bill will amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to postpone tax deadlines and reimburse paid late fees for United States nationals who are unlawfully or wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad.
H.R. 7831: License to Drill Act. This bill will extend through FY2037 the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) authority to collect oil and gas permit processing fees. For each new permit application, BLM collects a fee that is transferred to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund.
H.R. 837: To require the Secretary of Agriculture to convey the Pleasant Valley Ranger District Administrative Site to Gila County, Arizona
H.R. 6380: Chiricahua National Park Act. This bill redesignates the Chiricahua National Monument in the State of Arizona as Chiricahua National Park.

Weekly Updates

Sept. 23, 2026, 2:16 p.m. — Vote

On the Nomination PN999-1: Angela Veronica Colmenero, of Texas, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas

Nomination Confirmed 50/47