“A bill to establish collective bargaining rights for college athletes, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section states 11 congressional findings supporting application of the National Labor Relations Act to college athletes—defined as employees under common law—at both private and public institutions of higher education. Among other matters, the findings describe college athletes' subjection to exploitative labor practices by the NCAA and member institutions (e.g., compensation caps and control over terms and conditions of employment), the need for collective bargaining across athletic conferences, and intercollegiate sports' engagement in interstate commerce generating over $15 billion annually.
This section amends the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to establish collective bargaining rights for certain college athletes. Specifically, it (1) expands the definition of "employer" to include public institutions of higher education (IHEs) with respect to college athlete employees; (2) expands the definition of "employee" to include students at an IHE who participate in intercollegiate sports and receive direct compensation—including grant-in-aid—from the IHE if such compensation requires sports participation; and (3) adds definitions for grant-in-aid (i.e., scholarships, grants, or other financial assistance for undergraduate or graduate study), IHE (as defined in 20 U.S.C. 1002), intercollegiate athletic conference (i.e., excluding the NCAA), and college athlete employee. The section further (1) authorizes the National Labor Relations Board to recognize multiple IHEs within an intercollegiate athletic conference as a multiemployer bargaining unit for college athlete employees, if consented to by relevant employee representatives; and (2) requires the Board to exercise jurisdiction over IHEs and their college athlete employees for all collective bargaining matters, including representation and labor disputes. Finally, this section prohibits any agreement—including a grant-in-aid agreement or legal settlement—from waiving compliance with the NLRA or these amendments.
This section provides that nothing in the Act or its amendments—(1) causes any type of direct compensation described in §2(3) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) (29 U.S.C. 152(3)) that was not previously treated as taxable income under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (IRC) to become taxable; (2) causes any individual to be treated as an employee, or any amounts received by an individual to be treated as wages, for IRC employment tax or employer withholding purposes if such treatment would not otherwise apply; (3) affects the treatment of qualified scholarships under IRC §117; or (4) otherwise affects the treatment of such direct compensation in determining income (including gross income or adjusted gross income) for IRC purposes, including reporting requirements, or eligibility for federal financial assistance, including Pell Grants under subpart 1 of part A of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a et seq.). (Thus, the provision preserves existing tax and financial aid treatments unaffected by any redefinition of NLRA "employee.")
This section provides a severability clause, stating that if any provision of the Act or its amendments, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act and its amendments, and their application to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected.