Legis1 Congress Update @CongressUpdate

Fresh Start SC PAC has reported $2,497,288 in independent expenditures in South Carolina’s U.S. Senate special election. About $1.63 million (roughly 65%) went to opposing Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC). About $871,000 went to supporting Democratic challenger @AnnieAndrewsMD. The spending went mostly to TV in the Greenville-Spartanburg and Charlotte markets, with health care at the center of the messaging. The open question is where the money came from. Through June 30, the PAC disclosed just $80,000 in receipts from two individual donors. That is far below what it has since spent, so its next financial reports will be important to watch ahead of the Nov. 3 election, which is rated Likely Republican. Full breakdown of the ad buys, donors, and other outside spenders in the race: bit.ly/4imQRzV

Sen. Jon @ossoff has raised $98 million for his 2026 re-election in Georgia. His Republican challenger, @RepMikeCollins , has raised $7.41 million. That’s a 13x difference in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. The gap is even wider on cash. As of June 30, Ossoff had $42.6M on hand with zero debt. Collins had $2.08M on hand and $461,916 in debt. The timing explains part of that: Collins beat Derek Dooley in the runoff by 10 percentage points on June 16, so his filing closed two weeks after a costly primary. Ossoff ran unopposed in the primary. Who’s writing the checks. The donor bases look very different: → Ossoff: Lawyers top his list at $1.38M, followed by physicians ($530K), professors ($401K) and CEOs ($312K). Lawyers alone gave him more than three times what Collins’s top eight occupations gave combined (~$386K). → Collins: His list is led by business owners ($110K), CEOs ($74.5K) and company presidents ($56K), then lawyers, real estate, founders, contractors and the self-employed. It’s a small-business and executive coalition. → Retirees matter on both sides. Donors listed as not employed or retired account for 67% of Ossoff’s itemized individual dollars ($21.8M) and 47% of Collins’s ($1.1M). → Collins relies more on committees. 41% of his receipts came from other committees, compared with 31% for Ossoff. What to watch: Money doesn’t decide races by itself, and outside groups will spend heavily in Georgia. Still, a challenger who starts the general election with less than 5% of the incumbent’s cash will depend heavily on super PACs and party committees to compete on the airwaves. Track the full campaign finance data at legis1.com.

Most of the 31,000+ reported incidents involved veterans or other patients engaging in harassment-related behavior toward VA staff, rather than staff engaging in the behavior. The incidents can affect care, too. Veterans may avoid needed care, while staff may rush care after experiencing harassment. Read the full story: legis1.com/news/va-harass…

The VA put a policy in place in 2022 to address harassment-related behavior. Still, the number of reported incidents has risen since then.  So why hasn't the VA   conducted a systemwide effort to find out how widespread these behaviors are?

More than 31,000 harassment-related incidents were reported at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers between 2020 and 2025. But the investigative arm of Congress says the numbers may actually be higher. Read more: legis1.com/news/va-harass…

The Senate Aging Committee held a Sept. 23 hearing on restoring U.S. strength in generic drug manufacturing. The debate now centers on a difficult balance: keeping generic medicines affordable while maintaining a reliable domestic supply. Read the full story: legis1.com/news/generic-d…

Drug shortages add another layer to the problem. As of June, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists reported 227 active drug shortages. Lawmakers are examining whether changes to FDA reviews, inspections, labeling and government purchasing could encourage more domestic production

The U.S. generic drug industry is shrinking as lawmakers look at how to rebuild domestic manufacturing. The U.S. generic pharmaceutical manufacturing market declined at a 7.8% compound annual rate from 2021 to 2026. Here’s what’s driving the debate: legis1.com/news/generic-d…

legis1.com/news/va-harass…

31K+ harassment incidents logged at VA medical centers since FY2020 — yet the agency still has no systemwide effort to measure how widespread the problem actually is, per GAO. #VeteransHealth #VA #GAO

Congress has responded with major housing legislation in July with the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. Still, questions around housing supply, costs and access remain. Read the full story: legis1.com/news/housing-a…

Lack of housing is a big reason why. Single-family housing starts were about 940,000 in 2025 — well below the 1.5M–1.7M annual pace seen before 2007. Soaring mortgage rates and the cost of homeowners insurance costs have squeezed affordability.

Housing affordability is no longer just a low-income issue. A new report from Congress (congress.gov/crs_external_p…) finds that rising housing costs are affecting middle-class households, too. Here’s what the data shows: legis1.com/news/housing-a…

The bill also includes a limited antitrust exemption for pooling sports telecasting rights. The Protect College Sports Act has passed the Senate, but enactment still requires House action and presidential approval. Read the full story: legis1.com/news/college-a…

@SenTedCruz introduced the bill on June 2 with seven bipartisan cosponsors. The legislation would also prevent payments designed to get around the House settlement’s limits on direct payments from schools to athletes. The 2025 settlement allows Division I schools to provide athletes with up to 22.5% of certain athletics revenue.

The bill also addresses transfers and revenue sharing. It would let athletes transfer to another school and not jeopardize their earning potential.