Beltway Buzz, June 5, 2026

Senate Passes Bill to Fund Immigration Enforcement Agencies. On June 5, 2026, by a vote of 52–47, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to provide $70 billion in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Republicans used the budget reconciliation process in order to pass the bill with a simple majority, rather than the 60-vote threshold required for most legislation). The two immigration enforcement agencies were left out of the broader funding deal that reopened the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after it was shut down for seventy-five days earlier this year due to a funding lapse. This week’s action, which still needs to be approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, will fund U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.

Bipartisan Senate Bill Would Set Rules for College Sports. A bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Protect College Sports Act of 2026, a bill that would set some parameters around the volatile world of college athletics. The bill would protect student-athletes’ ability to earn compensation from their name, image, and likeness; establish new requirements for sports agents, and set rules for student transfers and coaching transitions, among other provisions. Readers may recall that the Buzz has been tracking a similar bill—the SCORE Act—in the House, legislation being pushed by Republican leaders that has not come to the floor for a vote. However, unlike the SCORE Act, the Protect College Sports Act does not contain a provision that prohibits student athletes from being classified as “employees” under federal law. In fact, the Protect College Sports Act is specifically agnostic on the issue, as it contains a provision that states that the bill “is neutral on, and does nothing to alter, employee or non-employee status for student athletes.” Tim Walberg (R-MI), chairman of the House Committee on Education & Workforce, issued a statement critical of the Senate bill’s omission of this issue.

EEOC to Scrap Affirmative Action Rule. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has forwarded to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) a submission, titled, “Rescission of 1979 Interpretive Rule ‘Affirmative Action Appropriate Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.’” The affirmative action rule sets forth “the circumstances in which persons subject to title VII may take or agree upon action to improve employment opportunities of minorities and women, and describe the kinds of actions they may take which are consistent with title VII.” According to the rule, such actions may be taken after an employer’s reasonable self-analysis to determine whether its policies or practices “exclude, disadvantage, restrict, or result in adverse impact or disparate treatment of previously excluded or restricted groups or leave uncorrected the effects of prior discrimination.” The submission to OIRA, the text of which is not publicly available, is styled as a “final rule,” indicating that the Commission is unlikely to solicit public comments prior to rescinding the rule. The action by the Commission is consistent with its current priority of scrutinizing DEI-related race and sex discrimination.

DOL Final Rule Updates Union Financial Reporting. On June 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Labor-Management Standards finalized a rule that makes changes to labor unions’ financial reporting requirements under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). The final rule combines a proposal issued by the Trump administration in October 2020 with a proposal issued by the current Trump administration in July 2025. Significant elements of the new rule are as follows:

• New Form LM–2 Long Form. This new reporting form will apply to labor organizations with $40 million or more in annual receipts (based on 2024 data, this new requirement would impact 99 labor organizations). The new form includes more itemized reporting of receipts and disbursements that were previously required to be reported only as lump sums. The form also includes an entirely new schedule that captures unions’ financial transactions with foreign entities or individuals.
• Revised Form LM–2. The amended LM-2 form includes new, more detailed financial reporting, similar to the new Form LM-2 Long Form. Labor organizations with $350,000 or more in gross annual receipts, but less than $40,000,000, must file the LM-2. The rule increased this minimum threshold reporting figure from the previous $250,000.
• Form LM-3 and Form LM-4. The Form LM-3 filing threshold has been raised from $10,000 or more to $25,000 or more in annual receipts, and the Form LM–4 filing threshold has been raised from less than $10,000 to less than $25,000 in total annual receipts.

According to the preamble, the final rule “supports the LMRDA’s various reporting provisions which are designed to empower labor organization members by providing them with the means and information to maintain democratic control over their labor organizations and ensure proper accounting of labor organization funds.” The rule becomes effective on July 1, 2026, and will apply to labor organizations whose fiscal years begin on or after that date. Because the report is due ninety days after the conclusion of a labor union’s fiscal year, this means the covered unions will have at least one year from the effective date before they have to file a report.

Wage and Hour Division Issues Opinion Letters. The DOL continues to lean into educational outreach and compliance assistance, as the Wage and Hour Division has released four new opinion letters that provide practical guidance on Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)–related inquiries. The letters address the following fact-specific situations:

• An employee who is exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements who picks up additional work in a position that is eligible for overtime retains his or her exempt status “as long as the employee’s primary duty remains the performance of exempt work and the salary requirements continue to be met.”
• An employer’s quarterly nondiscretionary bonus program qualifies as a “percentage of total earnings” bonus, which includes simultaneous payment of any overtime compensation due on the bonus and satisfies the FLSA’s overtime requirement.
• An employee on an unpaid thirty-minute lunch break is not required to be compensated during that time, even if it is difficult to leave the employer’s premises in the allotted time.
• The final letter presents some guidance—but no specific answers due to lack of information—regarding compensability of an employee’s pre- or post-shift activities, time rounding, and the de minimis exception, in a workplace with thousands of nonexempt employees.

Charles E. McDonald, III, Steven F. Pockrass, and Leah J. Shepherd have additional details.

House Lawmakers Examine NLRB. On June 4, 2026, the House Committee on Education & Workforce’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing, titled, “Examining the Policies and Priorities of the NLRB.” National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairman James R. Murphy and General Counsel Crystal S. Carey provided testimony. According to Subcommittee Chairman Rick Allen (R-GA), Murphy and Carey “are the first sitting General Counsel and Member of the NLRB to appear before the Committee in nearly 20 years.” While lawmakers on both sides offered their opinions on various labor bills and Democrats tried to attack Carey for her employment with a private-sector law firm, both Murphy and Carey remained focused on their efforts to address the Board’s case backlog and need for additional resources. For example, Murphy wrote, “My goal is straightforward: to promote a Board that works—efficiently, expeditiously, and in a way that earns the confidence of employees, employers and unions. Doing so will best fulfill our commitment to protecting the statutory rights of each while ensuring that our administrative agency processes are cost-effective and accountable.”

Maine Event. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) made history this week when she cast her 10,000th consecutive roll-call vote on an amendment to the aforementioned immigration bill. Collins cast her first vote on January 22, 1997, to confirm Madeleine Albright as secretary of state and has not missed a vote since. In terms of the all-time consecutive vote record, this puts Collins in second place behind the late Senator William Proxmire (D-WI), who cast 10,252 consecutive votes. As far as most votes cast in the Senate’s history, Collins has a long way to go to catch the record holder, the late Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), who cast 18,689 votes while representing West Virginia in the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 2010.