Vote NO on H.R. 4312

I am writing today to urge you to vote against H.R. 4312, the “SCORE Act”. This bill contains a number of provisions that harm college athletes, including a sweeping ban on employee status. Under this bill, no matter how a college or conference treats a college athlete, the athlete will never be considered an employee. The possibility of employee status is an important guardrail to protect athletes from exploitation, and the actual treatment of them as employees should result in their enjoyment of all the rights of employees. Other provisions of concern include an exemption of the NCAA from the nation’s antitrust laws; unfair name, image, and likeness provisions that give ultimate control to the colleges and that can bleed into the athlete’s post-college professional lives; and the preemption of any state-level attempts to treat athletes any better. There is also growing concern about how this bill would impact Title IX protections for women athletes and the rights of international students. For all the reasons above and more, I am urging you to oppose these bills. We need policies that empower workers, not giant corporations that want to pretend they aren’t employers subject to the law. Please stand with America’s workers and do whatever possible to ensure this bill does not pass.