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The first week of the lame-duck session in Congress delivered plenty of news, from a failed bid to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to a shakeup for House Republican leadership. Now, lawmakers face a long list of legislative priorities, with little time to get them all done.
Amid the busy agenda, advocates of the Protect College Sports Act haven’t given up on pushing their legislation through. They’re mounting one final push to get the House to pass the bill, according to sources and letters obtained by Front Office Sports.
Slim Prospects
The PCSA always faced a tight deadline. It must reach President Trump’s desk by the time the new Congress is sworn in in January; otherwise, it will have to completely restart the legislative process.
In September, the bill garnered strong bipartisan support in the Senate. But it faced obstacles in the House from both Republicans and Democrats even before the midterms. Now, after Democrats swept the midterms, it faces even bigger hurdles.
Democrats are less inclined to give Trump a legislative win. Republicans are expected to struggle to get all their members (particularly those who lost their seats) back to D.C. for votes. Meanwhile, many House Republicans—particularly outgoing Majority Leader Steve Scalise—have major qualms with the substance of the bill. Florida Republican and governor-elect Byron Donalds, who still holds his House seat until the end of this Congress, said Thursday: “I hate that bill.” Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), who will take over as minority leader in January, will become another important voice, as he’ll have a say in lame-duck priorities—his position on the PCSA is unclear.
“We have things like the college sports bills that are still pending,” outgoing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said Monday. “We’ll get our job done. We’ll have the personnel here to get the legislation passed, and we certainly hope we can have a very, very productive lame duck and send much more to the President’s desk before we have to turn the keys over in January.”
Johnson’s office was not immediately available for comment.
One Last Push
Lobbyists working on behalf of PCSA advocates have continued conversations with existing GOP leadership, as well as House Democrats and other Republicans, sources familiar with the discussions told FOS. In addition, school and conference officials have maintained outreach to lawmakers to keep the bill a priority.
“We continue to work with leadership and members on both sides of the aisle,” Texas Tech board chairman Cody Campbell, a leading member of Trump’s college sports roundtable, told FOS on Thursday. “Our focus is on making sure that everybody understands how and why the bill works. We acknowledge that it is not perfect, and it never will be, but it is an outstanding, bipartisan solution that will provide stability to the college sports system, and will protect vulnerable schools, and vulnerable sports, namely women’s and olympic programs.”
Meanwhile, the public push hasn’t slowed.
On Monday, New York Yankees president Randy Levine—vice-chair of President Trump’s roundtable on college sports—wrote a letter to all House members addressing the election results. The PCSA is in “the ninth inning, fourth quarter, third period. The nation is watching. Will it be petty politics, anger and division, or will it be a bipartisan consensus coming together for the public good?”
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee also sent a letter Monday, not addressing the midterms specifically but continuing to advocate for the legislation and how it might “preserve Olympic and Paralympic sports programs.”
Meanwhile, Saving College Sports, the 501(c)(4) organization spearheaded by Campbell, is continuing its multimillion-dollar advertising campaign during college football Saturdays. A fresh commercial ran this past weekend, informing fans that the Senate had already voted yes. “Now, it’s up to the house to punch it in,” the advertisement said. The ads were planned before the midterms, but the expectation was to continue running them regardless of the results, one source familiar with the matter told FOS.
Regardless of the lobbying campaign, the bill faces a steep uphill climb.
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