Rep. Lee, Sen. Murphy Reintroduce College Athlete Right to Organize Act
WASHINGTON, D.C.– JULY 24, 2025 — Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12) and Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) reintroduced the College Athlete Right to Organize Act to ensure college athletes across the country are granted the right to collectively bargain and unionize. The bill comes as House committees advance the SCORE Act which includes a provision prohibiting college athletes from being considered employees and preempting state or local governments from ever considering college athletes as employees.
“Pittsburgh is and always will be a union town—and our college athletes deserve the same rights as any other worker who generates revenue through their labor,” said Rep. Lee. “From early morning workouts to grueling travel schedules, these athletes put their bodies and futures on the line for their schools while bringing in millions for athletic departments and universities. Yet the NCAA continues to deny them the fundamental right to organize and fight for fair treatment. That’s why I’m proud to partner with Senator Murphy on the College Athlete Right to Organize Act—to ensure that student athletes from Pitt to Duquesne to my own alma mater Penn State can stand together, form a union, and demand the dignity, protections, and compensation they’ve long been denied.”
“The multibillion-dollar college sports industry would not exist without the labor of college athletes. Between grueling two-a-day practices, cross country travel, and primetime game days, it’s absurd to claim these athletes are amateurs who doesn’t deserve a seat at the negotiating table,” said Murphy. “While the NCAA is cozying up to the Trump administration to try to protect its profits at the expense of these athletes, our bill would empower them to form unions and negotiate for better revenue-sharing agreements, working conditions, and health and safety protections.”
The College Athlete Right to Organize Act would ensure college athletes in Western Pennsylvania and across the country can organize and collectively bargain to demand the NCAA and its members treat them fairly by:
- Amending the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to define any college athlete as an employee of their college if they receive direct compensation from their college, whether via grant-in-aid or other forms of compensation, and that compensation requires participation in intercollegiate sports.
- Amending the NLRA to define public colleges, alongside private institutions, as employers within the context of intercollegiate sports, allowing athletes to collectively bargain at any college.
- Facilitating multiemployer bargaining units for college athletes by directing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to consider the colleges within an athletic conference as part of a bargaining unit with which college athletes can negotiate.
- Asserting the NLRB's jurisdiction over all institutions of higher education within the context of intercollegiate athletics and on all collective bargaining and representation matters as well as labor disputes.
- Prohibiting any agreements, such as scholarship agreements, which waive the right of athletes to collectively bargain.
- Ensuring the current tax status of college athletes' scholarships and other benefits does not change due to their employment status, nor does it affect their eligibility for financial aid
For generations, the NCAA and its members have withheld billions in revenue from their athletes, many of whom are Black and brown, whose labor drives the entire college sports industry while failing to protect their health, safety, and education. The NCAA has done this by unfairly asserting that college athletes are purely amateur athletes, not employees, who cannot be paid and do not have any rights to health care, safety, or education. Yet, college athletes have long been treated like employees: they provide a valuable service in exchange for compensation in the form of scholarships and stipends that they lose if they do not perform the job as strictly specified by their colleges.
However, federal courts and agencies are increasingly recognizing that the current system is illegal and that scholarship athletes should have the ability to collectively bargain, notably with the NCAA v. Alston SCOTUS decision, which found that the NCAA illegally colluded to keep from paying athletes for their labor, and an NLRB General Counsel's memo asserting that many athletes are already employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
The bill has again earned broad support across the labor movement and professional sports unions, including endorsements from the Major League Baseball Players Association, Major League Soccer Players Association, National Basketball Players Association, National Football League Players Association, National Hockey League Players Association, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and The United Steelworkers (USW).
USW International President David McCall said: “The USW applauds Rep. Summer Lee’s efforts to protect college athletes. The NCAA is a massive business kept afloat by more than half a million players in the United States. Our union has advocated on behalf athletes for more than 60 years, and we’re proud to once again back common-sense measures like the College Athletes Right to Organize Act that ensure college athletes receive the fair compensation, just treatment and safe workplaces all workers deserve.”
"Collective bargaining has immeasurably benefitted the athletes we represent and professional sports as a whole. Our members enjoy elevated health and safety standards, medical benefits, more equitable compensation, and other rights both on and off the field. Leagues and teams can negotiate roster construction, roster stability, and other competitive regulations. And fans receive the most compelling entertainment product in the world. The same result is achievable at the collegiate level, and we applaud Sen. Murphy for his continued efforts to ensure the option to organize and collectively bargain is safeguarded” said the Major League Baseball Players Association, Major League Soccer Players Association, National Basketball Players Association, National Football League Players Association, and National Hockey League Players Association.
The bill is co-sponsored in the House by Representatives Yassamin Ansari, Greg Casar, Emanuel Cleaver II, Henry “Hank” Johnson, Jams P. McGovern, Ilhan Omar, Delia Ramirez, Shri Thanedar, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Tokuda and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Text of the legislation is available HERE.
Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Education and Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.4 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs. Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 3,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.