119-hr4693

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4693 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 4693

To establish collective bargaining rights for college athletes, and for 
 other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 July 23, 2025

 Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania (for herself, Ms. Ansari, Mr. Casar, Mr. 
Cleaver, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Omar, Mrs. Ramirez, 
Mr. Thanedar, Ms. Tlaib, Ms. Tokuda, and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez) introduced 
 the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education 
 and Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To establish collective bargaining rights for college athletes, and for 
 other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``College Athlete Right to Organize 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress finds the following:

    (1) The National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 151 et 
 seq.) seeks to remedy the inequality of bargaining power 
 between employees and employers primarily through establishing 
 and protecting the rights of employees to self-organize and 
 designate representatives of their own choosing for the purpose 
 of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or 
 other mutual aid or protection.

    (2) Labor organizations often originate to remedy unfair 
 and exploitative labor practices by employers through assisting 
 employees in securing more equitable terms and conditions of 
 their employment, including fair compensation and safe working 
 conditions, which individual employees would be unlikely to 
 negotiate successfully for on their own.

    (3) Labor organizations serve unique and essential purposes 
 for professional athletes competing in sports leagues, where it 
 is desirable to establish uniform rules and standards across 
 multiple employers. These rules and standards bear significant 
 consequences to the athletes in terms of compensation, health 
 and safety, and the ability or lack thereof for athletes to 
 choose their employer, among other issues related to the 
 athletes' well-being.

    (4) The formation of labor organizations representing 
 athletes in professional sports leagues in the United States 
 has helped end exploitative practices by team owners and 
 management, particularly through establishing collective-
 bargaining agreements that have secured athletes a fair share 
 of the revenues their talent and labor produces, as well as 
 more equitable terms of their employment and protections for 
 their short- and long-term health.

    (5) College athletes face exploitative and unfair labor 
 practices by the National Collegiate Athletic Association 
 (referred to in this section as the ``NCAA'') and its member 
 institutions, primarily through the denial of the basic 
 economic and labor rights of such athletes, which the NCAA and 
 its member institutions have justified by defining college 
 athletes as amateurs.

    (6) The NCAA and its member institutions have denied 
 college athletes a fair wage for their labor by colluding to 
 cap compensation; they maintain strict and exacting control 
 over the terms and conditions of college athletes' labor; and 
 they exercise the ability to terminate an athlete's eligibility 
 to compete if the athlete violates these terms and conditions.

    (7) College athletes exhibit the markers of employment as 
 established under the common law definition of the term 
 ``employee'': They perform a valuable service for their 
 respective colleges under a contract for hire in the form of 
 grant-in-aid agreements; these agreements assert significant 
 control over how athletes perform their work and the conditions 
 under which they work; and they receive compensation in the 
 form of grant-in-aid and stipends in exchange for their 
 athletic services.

    (8) To establish more equitable terms and conditions for 
 college athletes' labor, college athletes need representation 
 of their own choosing to negotiate collective-bargaining 
 agreements with their respective colleges and the athletic 
 conferences that help set rules and standards across an entire 
 league.

    (9) To organize effectively, college athletes must be able 
 to form collective bargaining units across institutions of 
 higher education that compete against each other, including 
 within athletic conferences; and, accordingly, to establish 
 effective collective bargaining rights for college athletes 
 under this Act, the National Labor Relations Act must be 
 amended to cover both private and public institutions of higher 
 education to the extent that college athletes attending such 
 institutions fall within the definition of ``employee'' under 
 that Act, as amended by this Act.

    (10) The Constitution of the United States vests Congress 
 with the power to regulate commerce between the States, and 
 intercollegiate sports, which are maintained by athletic 
 associations that host competitions between colleges across 
 States, involves interstate commerce that generates annual 
 revenue of more than $15,000,000,000.

    (11) Intercollegiate sports' significant engagement in 
 interstate commerce justifies application of the National Labor 
 Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) to regulate the labor 
 market within which public and private institutions of higher 
 education compete and set rules pertaining to the wages and 
 working conditions of college athletes.

SEC. 3. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS OF COLLEGE ATHLETES.

    (a) 

=== Definitions. ===
-

Section 2 of the National Labor Relations Act (29 
U.S.C. 152) is amended--

    (1) in paragraph

    (2) , by adding at the end the following: 
 ``Notwithstanding the previous sentence, the term `employer' 
 includes a public institution of higher education with respect 
 to the employment of college athlete employees of the 
 institution.'';

    (2) in paragraph

    (3) , by adding at the end the following: 
 ``Any individual who participates in an intercollegiate sport 
 for an institution of higher education, and is a student 
 enrolled in the institution of higher education, shall be 
 considered an employee of the institution of higher education 
 if--
 ``
        (A) the individual receives any form of direct 
 compensation, including grant-in-aid, from the institution of 
 higher education; and
 ``
        (B) any terms or conditions of such compensation require 
 participation in an intercollegiate sport.''; and

    (3) by adding at the end the following:
 ``

    (15) The term `grant-in-aid' means a scholarship, grant, or other 
form of financial assistance that is provided by an institution of 
higher education to an individual for the individual's undergraduate or 
graduate course of study.
 ``

    (16) The term `institution of higher education' has the meaning 
given the term in 

section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 1002).
 ``

    (17) The term `intercollegiate athletic conference'--
 ``
        (A) means any conference, or other group or organization, 
 of institutions of higher education that--
 ``
            (i) exercises authority over intercollegiate 
 sports at such institutions of higher education; and
 ``
            (ii) is engaged in commerce or an industry or 
 activity affecting commerce; and
 ``
        (B) notwithstanding subparagraph
        (A) , does not include 
 the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
 ``

    (18) The term `college athlete employee' means an individual 
described in the second sentence of paragraph

    (3) .''.

    (b) Multiemployer Bargaining Unit.--

Section 9

    (b) of the National 
Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 159

    (b) ) is amended by striking the 
period at the end and inserting the following: ``: Provided, That, for 
the purpose of establishing an appropriate bargaining unit for college 
athlete employees at institutions of higher education in an 
intercollegiate athletic conference, the Board shall recognize multiple 
institutions of higher education within an intercollegiate athletic 
conference as a multiemployer bargaining unit, but only if consented to 
by the employee representatives for the intercollegiate sports 
bargaining units at the institutions of higher education that will be 
included in the multiemployer bargaining unit.''.
            (c) Jurisdiction Related to Intercollegiate Sports.--

Section 14
            (c) (1) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 164
            (c) (1) ) is 
amended by striking ``Provided,'' and inserting the following: 
``Provided, That the Board shall exercise jurisdiction over 
institutions of higher education and college athlete employees of such 
institutions in relation to all collective bargaining matters under 
this Act pertaining to such employees, including any representation 
matter, such as recognizing or establishing a bargaining unit for such 
employees and any labor dispute involving such institutions and 
employees: Provided further,''.
            (d) Prohibition on Waiver.--An individual may not enter into any 
agreement (including an agreement for grant-in-aid, as defined in 

section 3

    (15) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 152

    (15) )) 
or legal settlement that waives or permits noncompliance with this Act 
or the amendments made by this Act.

SEC. 4. TREATMENT OF DIRECT COMPENSATION FOR TAX PURPOSES AND 
 ELIGIBILITY FOR FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.

 Nothing in this Act, or an amendment made by this Act, shall--

    (1) cause any type of direct compensation described in 
 

section 2

    (3) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 
 152

    (3) ) that was not previously treated as income for which a 
 tax may be imposed under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to 
 become a type of direct compensation for which such a tax may 
 be imposed;

    (2) cause any individual to be treated as an employee, or 
 cause any amounts received by an individual to be treated as 
 wages, for purposes of any provision in the Internal Revenue 
 Code of 1986 relating to employment taxes or the withholding of 
 taxes by an employer if such individual or amounts would not 
 otherwise be so treated;

    (3) affect the treatment of qualified scholarships under 
 

section 117 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; or

    (4) otherwise affect the treatment of any direct 
 compensation described in such 

section 2

    (3) in determining 
 income, including gross income or adjusted gross income, for 
 purposes of--
        (A) the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, including 
 any reporting requirements under such Code; or
        (B) determining eligibility for any form of Federal 
 financial assistance, including assistance under 
 subpart 1 of part A of title IV of the Higher Education 
 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a et seq.).

SEC. 5. SEVERABILITY.

 If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by this Act, or the 
application of such provision or amendment to any person or 
circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act 
and the amendments made by this Act, and the application of the 
provision or amendment to any other person or circumstance, shall not 
be affected.
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