00:00The chairman recognizes himself for an opening statement.
00:04Again, good morning, everyone, and welcome to our markup of the SCORE Act.
00:09I'm proud to lead this bipartisan legislation alongside the full committee chairs, of course, Energy and Commerce, Chairman Guthrie, Education and Workforce, and Judiciary, and my other esteemed colleagues, especially representatives, Bynum, Figures, and Fry.
00:27This committee has a rich history of thoughtful and bipartisan engagement in college sports and name, image, likeness policy.
00:38We've worked across party lines, not just to legislate, but to understand what is truly at stake, the health, safety, and future of student-athletes, we can all agree.
00:51Going back to the 114th Congress, we saw leadership from then-Chair Upton on concussion safety.
01:02In the 116th Congress, then-Chair Pallone and Ranking Member Walden jointly sought input on the emerging NIL landscape from stakeholders across the country,
01:13grounded in the idea that good policy begins with good listening.
01:20In the 118th Congress, then-Chair McMorris Rogers and I continued taking feedback from stakeholders with the intent of creating a national framework to protect our student-athletes and create a sustainable future for college sports.
01:38Many of these inputs went into our first NIL legislative hearing last year on the draft bill, the Fair College Sports Act.
01:49Since then, we've continued that spirit of listening and engagement this Congress.
01:55We hosted two subcommittee hearings, convened multiple bipartisan roundtables, and received input from hundreds of voices across the college sports ecosystem.
02:07It's an ecosystem, including from student-athletes, coaches, athletic directors, compliance officials, and conference commissioners, and legal experts.
02:21We've also worked in close coordination with other committees and members on both sides of the aisle to craft a bill that reflects broad consensus.
02:31The result of all this work is the SCORE Act, a comprehensive bipartisan solution that upholds the integrity of college sports and strengthens protections for student-athletes who make it all possible.
02:45It provides common-sense guardrails around the transfer portal and agent disclosure, ensuring students are supported, not exploited, as they navigate life-changing decisions.
02:59I'm honored to lead an important, thoughtful, and carefully crafted bill along with Chairman Guthrie.
03:06I will be the first to say not everyone is going to get 100 percent of what they want in this bill, but time is of the essence, folks.
03:16I want to say it again. Time is of the essence.
03:19It is long past time that we take action to ensure that we have a sustainable future for college sports, especially for women's sports and the Olympic sports.
03:30That creates predictability and certainty for all student-athletes.
03:36We must act now to protect and preserve the uniquely American institution of college sports we have all come to know and love.
03:46Thank you to my colleagues for their collaboration and commitment to student-athletes.
03:53So I look forward to continuing our work as we move the SCORE Act forward.
