College Athlete Right To Organize Act
Bill: S.1929 | Sponsor: Sen. Murphy, Christopher (D-CT)
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
College Athlete Right To Organize Act
This bill establishes collective bargaining rights for college athletes.
Specifically, the bill amends the National Labor Relations Act to (1) define college athlete employee as an employee of an institution of higher education if the individual receives direct compensation from the institution and such compensation requires participation in intercollegiate sports, and (2)   include public institutions as employers within the context of intercollegiate sports.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) must consider the colleges within an athletic conference as part of a bargaining unit with which college athletes can negotiate.
The NLRB shall have jurisdiction over all institutions of higher education within the context of intercollegiate athletics regarding collective bargaining and representation matters and labor disputes.
The bill prohibits any agreements, such as scholarship agreements, that waive the right of athletes to collectively bargain.

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 a grant-in-aid agreement, 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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