Week of July 27, 2026
ON CAPITOL HILL
Endorsement Opportunity: Mandatory Overtime Prevention Legislation. Next week, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Reps. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) and Doris Matsui (D-CA), will reintroduce the Nurse Overtime and Patient Safety Act. This legislationwill help protect patients and nurses by prohibiting healthcare employers from requiring nurses to work beyond their scheduled shifts, except in genuine emergencies and other limited circumstances. The legislation recognizes that fatigue from excessive work hours can compromise patient safety, contribute to medical errors, and drive nurse burnout and workforce shortages. Importantly, the bill does not prohibit nurses from voluntarily working overtime if they choose to do so. By establishing national safeguards against mandatory overtime, the legislation supports safer staffing practices, healthier work environments, and high-quality patient care. The bill text is accompanied by a section-by-section summary.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) encourages you to share this with affiliated organizations. To endorse this legislation, designated representatives can sign this Google Form by COB Tuesday, August 4. You can direct any questions to ANA’s staff lead Sam Hewitt at samuel.hewitt@ana.org.
AT THE AGENCIES
HHS Joins the Genesis Mission. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) formally joined President Trump’s Genesis Mission. The Genesis Mission is a federal initiative to build a national AI-driven scientific platform, unifying federal datasets with AI systems. HHS’ main partnership in the Genesis Mission will target America’s chronic disease burden, and HHS will work with the White House Office on Science and Technology Policy to launch a series of scientific challenges to use AI to address chronic disease, pediatric cancer, and drug discovery.
ELECTION HUB
Having been in the role since 2025, when then-governor Kristi Noem joined President Trump’s Administration, incumbent Gov. Larry Rhoden (R-SD) won his primary runoff on Tuesday. He faces South Dakota Democratic Party executive director Dan Ahlers in November.
In Georgia’s special election to complete the term of late Rep. David Scott (D-GA), no candidate received the majority of the vote. A runoff is scheduled for August 25.
Upcoming Primaries. Several states will hold primaries in the coming weeks (with voter registration deadlines):
- August 4: Kansas (7/14), Michigan (8/4), Missouri (7/8), Virginia (7/24), Washington (8/4)
- August 6: Tennessee (7/7)
- August 8: Hawaii (7/29)
- August 11: Alabama special election (7/27), Connecticut (7/24), Minnesota (7/21), Vermont (8/11), Wisconsin (8/11)
- August 18: Alaska (7/19), Florida (7/20), Wyoming (8/3)
- August 25: Georgia special election runoff (7/24)