Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Sullivan): Business meeting to consider S.4668, to protect the name, image, and likeness rights of, and provide protections for, student athletes and to promote fair competition among intercollegiate athletics, and a promotion list in the Coast Guard.

Good morning. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will come to order. For years, athletes, fans, and universities have watched the foundation of college sports crumble. Court decisions, settlements, state laws, conference realignment, transfer disputes, NIL collectives, and uneven enforcement have all pushed college sports into a system where the rules are uncertain, the incentives are distorted, And the people with the least power are too often left exposed. The Protect College Sports Act is a landmark bipartisan bill that will preserve and strengthen our uniquely American system of college athletics.

I want to thank Ranking Member Cantwell, Senator Eric Schmidt, Senator Chris Coons, all of whom have spent months and years working to craft this legislation and to build the bipartisan coalition behind it. I also want to thank members of this committee on both sides of the aisle who have contributed constructively to the process, including Senator Fischer for her work on the Super League prohibition. Similar concerns and amendments were raised by Senators Baldwin—. Baker. Baker.

And we've listened and worked hard to address them. I also want to thank Senators Budd, Capito, Hickenlooper, and Rosen, whose work has helped improve the bill before us today. No one got everything they wanted, but we did create a framework that stabilizes college athletics in the NIL and revenue-sharing era. The substitute we are considering reflects that work. It strengthens the bill, responds to concerns raised by members and stakeholders, and it preserves the bipartisan agreement that brought us here.

The new version includes a more balanced approach to the Super League issue. Rather than targeting any one conference or treating the SEC and Big Ten differently from everyone else, it focuses on broader principles we're trying to protect: fair competition, broad opportunity, and a college sports system that remains open to more than a handful of the wealthiest programs. The new agreement also reflects the, the critical importance of Olympic sports. That is a major part of what this bill is about. College athletics is not only football and men's basketball.

It is also swimming and wrestling and rowing, gymnastics, track and field, softball, and many other sports that create educational opportunities and help develop America's future Olympians, and future leaders. That's because the greatest risk facing college athletics today is not any single controversy, court decision, or headline. The greatest threat to college sports is inaction. The laws enacted by past Congresses are the reason why the current system is growing more unstable. If Congress doesn't fix these laws and pass this bill, the cost of our failure will be measured not only in dollars or wins and losses.

The cost of our failure will be measured in lost opportunities. Opportunities to earn a scholarship, to compete, to earn a college degree. Doing nothing means hundreds of thousands of students that right now have the chance to go to college see that opportunity go away. I know that some say that because college athletics is so popular, Congress should not get involved. But high television ratings or rabid fan bases do not prove that the system is healthy.

It just proves that the product is worth saving. Millions of Americans care deeply about college sports. They care about the athletes and the schools. They care about the rivalries and the traditions that connect families and towns and campuses and states. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] That is precisely why Congress cannot simply hope that the system will correct itself.

Any serious solution must begin with reality. The NIL era is here. It is reality. The Protect College Sports Act embraces this new environment while establishing the rules necessary to bring order to the chaos. Student athletes should be able to earn money from their name, image, and likeness.

This bill protects that. But a system that protects athletes also needs rules. Real NIL is not the same thing as a disguised recruiting payment, as a booster in a back alley with a bag of cash. Revenue sharing is not the same thing as unlimited cap evasion. Athlete mobility is not the same thing as permanent roster free agency.

And legal certainty does not mean a blank, blank check. What? The Protect College Sports Act draws these lines. It protects legitimate NIL activity while distinguishing real endorsement deals from payments used to buy rosters. It protects scholarships.

It strengthens medical coverage for athletes. It restores structure to transfers and eligibility, and it protects athletes from inducements and tampering. Athletes get real NIL certainty, medical protections, academic and scholarship protections. Schools get enforceable rules and stability. Fans get stronger protections for rivalries, access to game, and fair competition.

Let me give an analogy about where we are today. On the football field, punting on the fourth down can often be the prudent choice. But there are moments in a game when the stakes, the field position, the time left on the clock demands that you go for it. Go for it. We have studied the challenges and seen the consequences of standing still.

The future of college athletics is now in Congress's hands. We can sit in the stands and watch the system continue to unravel, or we can step onto the field and lead. I believe this moment calls for leadership. No more punting. We're in fourth down territory.

It's time to go for it. I would note that there are a total of 24 conferences across the country that are enthusiastically supporting this bill. The NFL is supporting this bill. The NBA is supporting this bill. Major League Baseball is supporting this bill.

The NBA Players Association is supporting this bill. The NFL Players Association is supporting this bill. College coaches— we have over 100 coaches, many of the most prominent coaches in the country, enthusiastically supporting this bill. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] I strongly urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to, to support the Protect College Sports Act. And I will note we have received 38 additional letters of support since our hearing 2 weeks ago.

We now have vocal public support from 23 conferences representing 249 schools in 49 states. With that, I'll recognize Ranking Member Cantwell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for this bipartisan accomplishment. A lot of people in Washington— my Washington— and around the country think that bipartisanship is dead.

But on behalf of 500,000 athletes who are seeing their future opportunities dimmed, we decided to work together to try to address this problem. I want to thank our colleague Senator Coons, who's in the back of the audience here, for his participation in helping us get this over the goal line. And before I go on, I want to thank our staffs for both the majority and the minority committee, including Shannon Smith, who had to retire a week ago. But this staff has worked on this issue tirelessly for a long period of time, and we just could not be here today without them. As you said, this is landmark legislation.

It is landmark legislation because it is the first time we will be creating a federal right for student athletes in name, image, and likeness that does preempt state laws that are much weaker and basically negate many of the opportunities of athletes if you are in conflict with your university. This bill stands tall on behalf of athletes. It's landmark legislation because it codifies 10 years of scholarship opportunities for athletes so that you can complete your college education. We're not saying it takes you 10 years. 10 Years.— or simply saying that you have your 5 years of scholarship, and if somehow you do go make it to a pro league and want to come back, we also give you additional time to complete that college education.

10 Years of making sure that your health and your healthcare is covered. And I think that this is landmark because not only are you covering the time that you're playing as an athlete, but in case that you're injured, we are also helping you after you graduate from college to take care of any of those issues. I want to thank the chairman again for including a major piece of the legislation, historic, historic legislation in a medical trust fund to help institutions like HBCUs who can't afford to meet those obligations or the obligations of CTE. To include that as a first-time part of federal legislation. Historic.

I want to thank the McNair family, who first, first brought these issues to us when their son died playing football in Maryland in the heat of the day and basically did not receive enough proper training. He educated us on the standards that needed to be in our legislation on health and safety, and this is the most landmark piece of legislation protecting student athletes for the type of preparation they need to compete in college sports. I want to thank the chairman for including an improvement to that medical trust fund offered by Senator Kim to make sure that that money is enhanced in the future if somehow it's not, uh, meeting the needs of what is required. The legislation is also landmark in that it definitely makes sure that predatory contracting done by agents or universities or conferences or shill organizations don't get students stuck in binding arbitration. No way out because you signed a document that basically you didn't even understand and basically took away your legal rights.

This is landmark in the protections that it gives student athletes. It is also landmark in cutting down on agents' activities because we've seen the worst of activities taking advantage of high school students, asking them to sign. Somebody comes up to you in a high school gym after you've had a miraculous night and they promise you an NBA career if you'll just allow them to represent you. The next thing you know, you've signed a piece of paper that probably signed away property, signed away earnings, signed away things that even if you never make it into college or the pros, all of a sudden now, Mm-hmm. You are financially obligated to this person who took advantage of you.

So making agents register, making them liable for deceitful information, making them accountable to a federal law of fines is a first-time federal law that will help us in cracking down on these bad actors. I want to emphasize a couple of points. First, I want to thank Senator Hickenlooper for his unbelievable leadership in thinking about women in Olympic sports. I know he comes from a state where they care so much about women in Olympic sports. But the majority helped work with Senator Hickenlooper and the USOPC to not only protect our bill as it does for the Sports Broadcasting Act and future revenue going to women in Olympic sports, landmark provisions authored by Senator Hickenlooper and negotiated with the majority basically says that those women in Olympic sports should be protected for the next 9 years from the wealthiest divisions and from those who are more struggling for the next 4 years.

Why is that so important? It's important because we are already seeing cuts to thousands of women in Olympic sports. And we need, we need that, we need them to be protected throughout this. I will note that there was recent public polling that said that 87% of the public think the number one priority here is not football. Believe it or not, a lot of this discussion is about football.

Believe it or not, the number one thing the public cares about, 87% of the public, please protect women in Olympic sports. And that is exactly what this bill does. And so I want to thank Senator Hickenlooper for that. There's been much made in discussion about whether student athletes support this bill. Mr. Chairman, I want to enter into the record a letter from a student athlete advocacy group that basically represents 500,000 students in Division I Division II and Division III committees, who says the bill's protections for student athletes at all divisions, including transfer rights, changes in college sports, graduation, and sexual harassment and sexual assault and harassment, that this is great transparency on registration and fees and important antitrust protection.

So I want to enter that into the record. Without objection, it'll be admitted. And there has been much made of late that somehow maybe the Congressional Black Caucus doesn't support us moving forward on this bill. They have not said that. That somehow maybe some other organizations that want to slow this issue down.

I get that they definitely want to slow down the SCORE Act. I join them in that effort. But I'd also like to enter into the record a letter from Craig Robinson, who is the brother of Michelle Obama, brother-in-law to the President of the United States, who asks us to support this legislation because, as he says, he was a coach and a student athlete himself, and he supports this legislation. So I doubt the President's brother-in-law would be joining us in this effort if he thought anything in this act was untowards athletes or not a victory in moving forward the debate on how important it is to represent athletes' rights. Without objection, that will be admitted as well.

There are some people who think that doing nothing can lead to collective bargaining. And while I think I'm supportive of a concept, our witness before the committee thought that collective bargaining from the Pac-12 is something. But I get the Pac-12 is probably a state bottom-up approach that might work. But having a bottom-down approach here in the United States Senate where somehow somebody thinks we're going to pass a mandate by the federal government to say that state employees could somehow be mandated by the federal government to collectively bargain is not something that's going to happen anytime soon. Our legislation does, though, say, let's create a commission with students, with HBCUs, with the interested parties, and discuss what is the best foot forward for collective bargaining or other options that can continue to solve some of our problems.

Thank you. So, Mr. Chairman, there are some on our side who would have loved more time to deal with this bill. Clearly, it is complex. There are some that would hope that we would continue to make further changes. I commit to them that we are going to do that.

But we need order and stability now. The craziness that is happening in this marketplace with cutting of thousands of roster slots The taxing students' fees for education to pay for football, the arms race that is basically taking money away from research and development. Our task here is to win the race in innovation against the Chinese, a $1.4 billion— $1.4 billion population. We have 500,000— 500 million in our country. 500 Million.

How are we going to do that? Because we have a better education system, and it's all over the country. But not, but not if we continue to let the demise of college sports not only take away athletes' rights, not only take away revenue, but also diminish our R&D capabilities, particularly at land-grant institutions. So, Mr. Chairman, I know we made big concessions last night to the Big Ten to make sure that they felt that this was a—. Thank you.

Bill that helped protect their interests for the future. I'm sure we're going to have many more conversations with them down the road. But as my colleague Senator Wicker knows, we've been working on this issue for a long time, since his time as chairman of the committee. And I just ask my colleagues to support this legislation today because it does have a few other little tools in here. One, it literally says you cannot block content in your region from being on over-the-air broadcasting.

I am sick and tired of these people putting broadcast content of us seeing our favorite football team. All of a sudden you can't watch it because it's behind a paywall. That is not what the American consumer wants or deserves. And that protection in this legislation is landmark. I also think that the tool in this legislation to increase streaming media rights for non-revenue sports— women's volleyball, women's basketball, or, uh, rowing, that is historic at the University of Washington— allows those sports to go out and capitalize on revenue opportunities to grow their sport, their attention, and their future.

So, Mr. Chairman, this is landmark. I appreciate us working together. I appreciate our colleagues moving this bill out of committee. It's not the last that we're going to see the changes of this. I encourage more dialogue with all our colleagues, and I will certainly be communicating with the Congressional Black Caucus on these issues.

But I certainly will be communicating with the rest of our, our Senate colleagues as well. But, Mr. Chairman, I've said it many times. I think, you know, you and I disagree on about 25 things, and that's just in this committee. But we did not allow that disagreement to thwart progress on a critical subject. And I think that anybody who thinks that there's another opportunity forward is going to be mistaken, because I think we have seen from the NCAA and the conferences that they cannot, cannot figure out how to get this structure right.

They need our help. They've asked for it, and today we're giving it. Thank you.

Thank you, and I want to sincerely thank Ranking Member Cantwell. You have been a partner in this project. This has been a very difficult project. You and I sat in conference rooms for 6 to 8 hours a day, day after day after day, painstakingly negotiating each and every provision of this bill. And there were moments when I'm sure you wanted to throw me out a window, and you restrained.

And at times our staff were ready to throttle each other. And by the way, we had a secret that I would bring out Cuban coffee at that point, and Cuban coffee is a wonderful tool of bribery that calmed everyone down. Sugar and caffeine somehow got us back to work. And so I— Thank you. I have appreciated the hard work and time and energy that you've put into this bill.

We wouldn't be here without that. I know there are a number of members who want to make additional comments. I'm going to ask, because we have a quorum present right now, I'm going to ask if we can move to the votes first, and then I will stay as long as anyone wants to make comments after the votes. But with that, I will recognize Ranking Member Cantwell for an additional motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I move, Mr. Chairman, I move that S.4668, the Protect College Sports Act of 2026, as amended by the Cruz-Cantwell-Schmidt Substitute, as modified, Bud 1 as modified, Bud 5 as modified, Bud 7 as modified, Capito 1 as modified, Curtis 1 as modified, Duckworth 1 as modified, Duckworth 4 as modified, Duckworth 6 as modified, Kim 1, Lujan 1 as modified, Rosen 1 as modified, Rosen 2, Sheehy 1 as modified, Sullivan 1 as modified, Wicker 2 as modified, be favorably reported. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion?

Are there any amendments that people would like to introduce?

Mr. Chairman. Senator Baldwin. Mr. Chairman, I have one amendment that I'd like to offer for a vote. I have an additional one that I'd like to offer for discussion and then withdraw. Just so you know my plan of action here.

For a vote, I'd like to bring up Baldwin number 3. And I'm happy to make a brief statement while it's being distributed.

Great. Look, the primary goal of private equity firms is really to squeeze every penny out of an acquired asset. Private equity doesn't really care about an athlete's academic opportunities. Private equity doesn't care about team morale or the quality of coaching staff. Private equity doesn't care about preserving and growing women's and Olympic sports.

Private equity doesn't care about the student or fan experience. They only care about how much money they can make. Mm-hmm. This should not be the objective of universities or their athletic departments. This amendment would simply prohibit schools from working with private equity to sell or license their media rights or in the operation of their athletic programs.

And I encourage all my colleagues to support this amendment. Would ask for— roll call vote on it. Thank you, Senator Baldwin. I appreciate the sentiment behind this amendment. I'm gonna vote no on it.

I would encourage members to vote no on it. There's nothing in this bill that creates any— that speaks to private equity. But at the end of the day, colleges are all facing challenges, revenue challenges. They're trying to support their athletes. They're trying to support women's sports.

They're trying to support Olympic sports. And they are looking at a range of possibilities. I don't believe we should be foreclosing any of those possibilities. I think the issue certainly merits further discussion over time, but I don't think we should be enacting a blanket prohibition right now. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Any further discussion?

Okay, the clerk will call the roll. Mr. Thune. No by proxy. Mr. Wicker. No.

Mrs. Fisher. No. Mr. Moran. No. Mr. Sullivan.

Mrs. Blackburn. Mr. Young. Mr. Budd. Mr. Schmidt.

Mr. Curtis. Mr. Moreno. Mr. Sheehy. No proxy. Mrs. Caputo?

Miss Loomis? No proxy. Ms. Cantwell? No. Mr. Klobuchar?

Aye. Mr. Schatz? No proxy. Mr. Markey?

No proxy.

Mr. Peters? Aye. Ms. Baldwin. Aye. Ms. Duckworth.

No. Yes, by proxy. Mr. Rosen. Aye. Mr. Lujan.

Aye. Mr. Hickenlooper. No. Mr. Fetterman.

Aye by proxy.

Mr. Kim? No. Ms. Blount-Rochester?

Yes by proxy. Mr. Cruz? No. The nos are 20, the yeses are 8. The amendment is not agreed to.

Are there further amendments? Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman. Senator Schmidt. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'm going to offer but withdraw these two amendments, Schmidt 3 and Schmidt 4. But let me give a brief explanation of what they are. I'm confident in working with this, with Senator Cruz and Cantwell and others, as we have, that we're going to find resolution on this. So we've got the two buckets. We've got the governance piece, and then we have potentially opening up new revenue opportunities, which is the second bucket.

So both of these amendments address that issue. So the idea is that conferences could come together if they choose to pool their media rights. And so you go from a $4 billion proposition to a whatever the number is, certainly higher than $4 billion, to help support women's sports and Olympic sports. So what Schmidt III does, it would lower the threshold from 75% to 70% of those member institutions, effectively allowing for the conferences like the ACC, the Big 12, the Mountain West to be able to pool. If the threshold is 75%, there are a couple of conferences that could block the pooling altogether.

So while I do not support forcing any conference into a pooling scenario, I want to provide as many options as possible for conferences to pool if they choose. So that's what this would do. We're withdrawing that, but again, I think we're very comfortable moving forward with the conversations that we've had. The second piece deals with the board composition if you go do it. If you go do it.

So if we really want to incent, the reality of the situation is, if this is really going to work, you really want to have the Big Ten and the SEC as part of that. And in my view, we don't want to force them to do it. I don't think there should be any effort, legal or otherwise, to force them to do it. But we have to have an incentive structure in place that would provide the maximum opportunity for them to want to join. So the board composition of whatever this looks like really, really matters.

And so Schmidt Five would say that you renegotiating that so the SEC and Big Ten would actually feel comfortable. So if this is really going to work, you really want to have everybody do it together. And that may or may not happen. Those conferences may choose, we don't want to do it, we think we can get a better deal, and that's fine. But we want to provide the maximum runway for the conferences to be able to pool if they want to.

But having said that, I withdraw those two amendments and look forward to working with the chair and my two friends, Senator Cruz and Senator Cantwell. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator Schmidt. Senator Cantwell. I just want to thank my colleague from Missouri for his hard work on this, and I certainly do want to work with him in the future, clearly getting this right so that schools and institutions across the country feel fairly represented in what is a distribution of revenue and a process where we could move forward on maximizing more revenue.

Why do we want to do that? Because the analysis is there, that there is revenue that could be helpful to create stability. And personally, I like the marriage between college sports and local broadcasting. Mm-hmm. I want to see more local broadcast stations survive, and being able to get this right is critical.

So I look forward to working with my colleague. Thank you. And Senator Baldwin, I apologize. You had two amendments and I moved away after one that was inadvertent. So I recognize Senator Baldwin again.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I intend to offer and then withdraw Baldwin 2, which relates to, uh, how fans are able to watch their favorite teams play. I suspect everyone in this room has heard about frustrations from their constituents in trying to watch their favorite professional sports teams play.

They are met with blackouts and paywalls. We did a quick calculation in Wisconsin. If you want to be a super fan and watch every Packers game, every Brewers game, every Bucks game, you would literally have to pay $1,500 a year in the various streaming services, and you'd still potentially be faced with blackouts. Part of this has to do with the definition of, you know, what's a local fan and what DMA is— Mm-hmm. Is involved.

So for the Packers in Wisconsin, for example, that's just Green Bay and Milwaukee and not the rest of the state. You have to pay to access otherwise. Yes. I have a bill to handle that, but I'm not bringing that bill up today. But it's called the For the Fans Act.

So take a look. What I am bringing up is the definition of local, because we should not allow for these frustrations to be expanded to college sports. This amendment would ensure that all fans across the state are able to watch their favorite college teams play without having to deal with the frustration of blackouts and paywalls and a maze of different subscription services that are so pervasive in, uh, professional sports. Limiting free access to one or possibly two media markets works generally for states west of the Rockies. To those of us east of the Rockies, we know that our media markets are a jumbled mess that cover far fewer square miles, and they often cross state lines.

This amendment ensures equal access by expanding the definition of local to include the whole state. [SPEAKING SPANISH] and gives the FCC the ability to add to that definition of local. This would ensure all Wisconsinites can watch the Badgers play without being gouged by paywalls and subscriptions, and it would have similar benefits in other states. I'm going to submit for the record a map of the markets available currently. I will not ask for a vote on this amendment, but I think it's a very serious issue that we also are advocates for local broadcasting and advocates for the fans of these teams.

Thank you, Senator Baldwin. Senator Blackburn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know that many of us have worked for years trying to deal with the NCAA and address some of the issues that have arisen because they have not been able to address this issue. And I've got two amendments that we are not going to vote on today, and I'm not going to call them up for a vote.

But they are issues that need to be addressed because this is an issue that has languished. What are we going to do about college sports? And the ineptness of the NCAA has brought us to this point. But let's get some things right. Now, Blackburn 1 would expand the bill's broadcast provisions from the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournament to any postseason activity.

And we need to think in a more fulsome way about this and look at any activity for men and women's sports rather than getting to some point in the future and say, why did we carve out basketball and not cover baseball, not cover women's softball, not cover tennis? So—. So I don't know if anybody watched the women's college softball tournament this year. It was great. It was great.

But I think we need to think a little bit more fully about those rights. The second one that I was offering deals with the sovereign immunity clause of the colleges. Now, in this bill that is before us, Protecting College Sports, what we're asking the colleges to do is to take on new responsibility. Mm-hmm. The way the bill is written, what it does not do is protect both the state and federal sovereign immunity rights.

And Mr. Chairman, I think this is something that we should revisit before we take this bill to the floor. We need to make certain that we are protecting— we need to clarify that we are protecting both the state and federal sovereign immunity rights. Thank you. Senator Klobuchar. Yeah, I wanted to just briefly comment on, uh, Senator Baldwin's discussion about the markets and how they're different state by state.

And I think I so appreciate the work you two have done on this bill and the reforms that are significant steps in the right direction. Especially the heightened health and safety standards that work to protect athletes, a focus on women athletes. And so what Senator Baldwin was talking about may be unique in certain states, and that's why I'm hoping that the two of you, coming from states that are not in these markets, would consider working with us in the future. Because in Minnesota, we have, say, 5 markets And these fans in these markets might be very— as much a fan of our college sports teams as one in the immediate market, and they're not covered by this. And so what worries me for our local broadcasters here is they're already hanging on against these paid streamers' monopolies, and then the fans get hurt because all the content is behind a paywall.

Mm-hmm. And so what I hope you will do is work with us on this issue. Some other issues that are specific to the Big Ten, of course, about legal settlement and things like that that are separate from the broadcasting. But I hope you'll be willing to work with us on this, what Tammy called the east of the Rockies issue, about how we can make sure that the fans in our states are not actually hurt by this because they cannot—. Thank you.

Cannot access what is now free broadcast and instead are forced to go behind an expensive paywall. Thank you. Senator Cantwell had a brief comment and then we're going to move to vote. Okay. Mr. Chairman, quickly, I wanted to say a couple of housekeeping things.

One, Senator Markey wants to be a yes on Baldwin 2. I might have misstated that. He'll be recorded as a yes. Volume 3. Volume 3.

Baldwin 3. Baldwin 3. He'll be recorded as a yes on Baldwin. Thank you so much. And I wanted to say I want to continue to work on Baldwin 3.

I do think there are some current university contracts that would— might be unwound if we had passed that language, but clearly support her larger efforts and certainly want to work on the media issue with her. I— we've had success in this committee. Senator Klobuchar has also brought up this issue that we do want less content behind the paywall and more content with broadcasting. The language in the bill clearly gives us the ability to do that by saying if we are going to give an antitrust exemption, we're only giving that antitrust exemption if the public gets something in return. What are we getting from the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1960, which is gave this original exemption is the right to basically say that the content has to be on broadcast.

And so this is critically important to the bill. And so I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on all of that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. And if there's no further discussion, the question is on Senator Cantwell's motion.

The clerk will call the roll. Mr. Thune. Aye by proxy. Mr. Wicker? Pass.

Mrs. Fisher? Aye. Mr. Moran? Aye. Mr. Sullivan?

Aye. Mrs. Blackburn? With great hesitation—. Yes!

Working. Mr. Young? No.

Mr. Budd? Yes. Mr. Schmidt? Aye. Mr. Curtis?

Mr. Moreno? Aye. Mr. Sheehy? Aye by proxy. Mrs. Caputo?

Miss Lomas? Hi! Ms. Cantwell? Aye. Ms. Klobuchar?

No. Mr. Schatz? I—. By proxy. Mr. Markey?

No by proxy. Mr. Peters?

Miss Baldwin? No. Ms. Duckworth? No, by proxy. Mrs. Rosen?

Aye. Mr. Lujan? Aye. Mr. Hickenlooper? I— by proxy.

Mr. Fetterman? By proxy. Mr. Kim? Miss Blunt-Rochester? No, by proxy.

Mr. Cruz? Aye. Mr. Chairman, I vote no.

Mr. Wicker. No.

The yeses are 18. The nos are 9.

The motion is agreed to. And it will be reported to the floor. I now recognize Ranking Member Cantwell for an additional motion.

Mr. Chairman, I move that PN6224, PN658, PN791, PN845, PN PN-849, PN-876, PN-908, PN-909, PN-929, PN-1077 Coast Guard promotions be favorably reported. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Those opposed say no. The motion is agreed to and the nomination is ordered to be favorably reported. I ask for unanimous consent that staff are authorized to make technical and conforming changes without objections. So ordered. And then I was told a number of members wish to speak.

The first on the list is Senator Klobuchar. Oh, and then can I be added to the list, Mr. Chairman? Sure. I made my remarks, but I again want to thank both of you, and we're really hopeful we can work with you to get to a place of my vote, just because the work you're doing is so important. But the few weeks here without being able to get the Midwest input that we think we need, I think would be very helpful and I hope we get to yes.

Thanks.

Senator Moran.

Chairman, sorry. Chairman, just one moment.

I cleaned up after myself. Let me just clarify, right before Senator Moran, the final vote, the total was 19 to 9, so that number was— just want to clarify that for the record. Chairman Cruz and Ranking Member Cantwell, I'm not unfamiliar with this topic, and I use this moment to congratulate, commend you for reaching a conclusion that is broadly supported. A lot of issues arise with this topic. And you've dealt with many of them, including some of the most difficult.

As we heard from our colleagues, there's other interests that yet need to be considered. But I congratulate you on your success, because I know how difficult it was and can be. I want to just encourage you to continue to work with the members of this committee. But I'm pleased with the product that you've been able to achieve. Thank you.

In all these efforts and all the opportunities that I've had to be engaged in this issue, the goal has been to improve the lot in life for circumstances of students who are student athletes, to create opportunities for them and to create guidelines for the universities that they attend, universities and colleges, to take care of women and sports that are considered not the major sports at universities, to make sure that we're using our college athletes as an opportunity to increase the number of individuals who are capable and willing to compete in the United States Olympic team. The consequences that occur on college campuses when it involves student athletes, that experience and its importance resounds across the country in ways way beyond the stadium that we're in, the basketball court that we're sitting on, the tennis match that we're watching in our home communities and our home universities and colleges. And I've always had an interest in trying to make sure that historically Black colleges and community colleges have the opportunity to have student athletes achieve great success in those settings. So thank you for knowing the importance of this issue, working so hard and diligently to reach conclusions. And it is a great monumental achievement, particularly in today's environment, that you've now brought to us.

I do want to underscore what I said in the hearing. I made remarks expressing my concern about broadcast provisions in this bill. I heard a number of my colleagues speak to that. I know that Senator Cantwell, she said something that she and I have worked on before, is trying to make sure that our hometown broadcasters broadcasters have a future. This bill that— what I spoke about in this bill during our hearing was particularly considering the implications of streaming services.

I'm pleased to see this bill, in this bill, that we're relying upon the same definition. The definition I'm talking about is sponsored telecasting as the original, as it is in the original 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act. Sponsored telecasting was intended and interpreted as free over-the-air ad-supported broadcast television, notably not accounting for or including streaming services. I continue to believe that we should promote sports on broadcast, as that is the best way to make certain that all fans have access to watch their favorite teams. I want the record of this, this markup, this executive committee meeting to reflect this narrow and deliberate definition that you are utilizing.

I look forward to continuing the conversation on this topic. I'm glad to see the common sense rights and guardrails, as well as protections for Olympic sports. And I supported the substitute amendment, which made it easier for me to be supportive of the entire bill based upon the changes included in that substitute amendment. Thank you. And again, I commend you on your success.

Can I say something? Thank you, Senator Moran. Senator Capito. Well, I just want—. I'm sorry, Cantwell, sorry.

I just want to thank Senator Moran for his leadership. He has been consistent on this issue for many, many years, and I appreciate it. You know, 19 to 9 sounds like a Seahawk football score, but I think today we're proving that we are resilient in keeping this product moving. And I know that my colleagues have concerns both about the SEC and Big Ten, but what we did today is say we are not going to let the most powerful, richest conferences dictate to the rest of America what's going to happen to 500,000 athletes. We are going to make sure that the voices of people are heard everywhere.

So I want to thank my colleagues who are trying to help us move this forward in the debate, and I want to certainly thank Senator Senator Rosen for her contributions on this because she's been— I know she's dealing with boxing issues too, but she's been really helpful. So we really appreciate her. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, could I be recognized for just a few seconds longer? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I intended in my remarks to express my gratitude to the people, particularly in Kansas, but there's a lot of people across the country who've talked to us, visited with us, encouraged us on this issue. But I want to highlight the ongoing conversations over a long period of years and certainly intensified in the last few weeks of Gene Taylor, who is the athletic director at Kansas State University, Travis Goff, the athletic director at the University of Kansas, and Kevin Saul, the athletic director at Wichita State University, and Brett Yormack, the Big 12 commissioner, who have been so engaged in dealing with all of us, but certainly in my case, working with me to make sure we get a product that we can utilize and find more than satisfactory. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Moran. Senator Rosen.

Well, thank you, Chairman Cruz and Ranking Member Cantwell, for your collaboration, for listening, working with our teams, not our sports teams, but our actual physical teams here in Washington and in the state, of course. I really appreciate it. I supported this bill because we really have moved in the right direction and your tremendous efforts have just really made this such a stronger bill. I look forward to working on what we do in the future. The modified ANS includes two of my amendments to ensure that the non-Power Four schools like UNR and UNLV, well, that they have a seat at the table when the rules of the road are being decided at the NCAA and the future of college sports.

And so much of the debate on this topic over the past few weeks and months has been about the power for. But Congress, as you hear my colleagues say, must work to ensure that anything we pass works for all schools, including the G6 schools that represent a significant percentage of America's Division I student athletes, including many Olympians. And these opportunities for our— for our youth to go to school and get an education and give back to the community. And I'm— Thank you. Really pleased to see that this bill takes meaningful steps to stop the arms race we've seen in college athletics in the past few years.

Without this legislation, mid-sized schools like those in Nevada and throughout the Mountain West would remain at a competitive disadvantage with the richest schools in the country. And as they've already had to do, we would need to continue to make tough choices about cuts to non-revenue sports, including Olympic sports and many women's teams. I was glad to see provisions added to this bill to prevent public funds from being used for million-dollar coaching contracts, that there's protections for survivors of sexual assault, and critical fixes to the transfer portal. I will admit this bill is not perfect. There are several issues I'd like to see addressed in the final legislation—.

I'm sorry. Or see addressed, excuse me, in the future. In Reno, we've seen NIL deal after NIL deal be rejected by the Commission on College Sports simply because Reno's media market is smaller than others. It's unfair and it makes it impossible for schools in smaller media markets to compete with schools that happen just to be located in a bigger media market. That's something we must fix.

And here in the committee, we can't let the enemy, um, be perfect, be the enemy of the good. And so I supported this bill today. I look forward to seeing further progress on critical protections for college athletics at mid-sized schools. And I really praise the chairman and ranking member for their collaboration and cooperation and openness to listening to all of us. Thank you.

I yield.

Thank you. Are there any— Senator Capito? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I particularly want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member Senator Cantwell.

As she knows very well, she and I led the way several years ago for the equal pay for equal play for Team USA for women's sports. And we've seen that flourish and really the value of our women's sports at that level cannot be understated. Actually, back in the day, I was a Division I athlete myself and I'm the mother of a Division I athlete. So women's sports are extremely important to me and I appreciate both of you accepting my Capito One amendment, which I think will help us to preserve the current level and status of non-revenue-generating sports, particularly women and athletic sports. I also want to thank the universities and colleges in West Virginia, the ADs, the coaches, the conference leaders that have come in and out of all of our offices.

But it's important for us to realize what this does for a small state such as mine, where our major college our university teams are our only teams, and it really is the lifeblood. And I'll point out West Virginia was just in the College World Series and got all the way to the top 4, and I mean that the entire state was electric. So it has more than just an impact across our state and across the nation. You all realize this and have worked really hard to reach the compromise. Thank you so much, and let's keep pushing.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Capito, and thank you for your hard work and leadership on this issue as well. I appreciate working with you. If there are no further comments, that concludes our executive session for today.

The committee is adjourned. Staff, staff, staff. What, what? What did the jury say? I already did that.

I already got unanimous consent. You can change whatever you want, Brad.