Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas ), the chair-in-waiting for the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, vowed on a podcast episode released Friday morning that Republicans would prioritize solving the “future and viability of college athletics” next Congress.
” When the Democrats were in the majority, it just was n’t a priority for them”, the senator said in an episode of his weekly podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. ” It will be a concern. We’ll handle it now. As president, I may join hearings. Every hearing the Commerce Committee holds is my responsibility. I ask witnesses for the sessions. I can visit up margins. You have the ability to drive a program that is only qualitatively different because I can choose which bills get marked up and which do n’t.
Spokespeople for the current Commerce chair, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash. ), did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Cruz has proposed broad-based regulations that would establish a national NIL regular, grant the NCAA an competitive protection, and build that college sports are no university people.
The Texas senator has previously made a number of positive predictions about a departure of a bill governing college sports, but none of them have yet been implemented.
A college sports reform bill would have a 60 to 40 % chance of passing in the fall of 2023, according to Cruz. In March, he offered 50-50 chances of a expenses passing this time. The closest anything came was in June, when a House committee approved, on a party-line vote, an anti-athlete employee bill introduced by Rep. Bob Good (R-Va. ). However, the costs not made it to the surface.
At a press conference held at Texas A&, M in September, when suddenly asked to give a possibility of section, Cruz looked forward to 2025.
” There’s republican interest in saving college athletics, and there’s republican acknowledgment that Congress needs to act”, he said. ” I can tell you this time, I tried very hard to make that happen. That did n’t come together this year. I’m optimistic that it will happen next time.
Republicans voted Sen. John Thune from South Dakota to become the next lot head on Thursday, which is likely to support the NCAA’s desire to prevent school athletes from working as employees.
But, as Sportico’s Michael McCann wrote last year, there are a number of reasons—indeed, no fewer than 10—why the GOP invasion of Congress does not always foreclose the journey to sport employee status.