Standardizing NIL for College Athletics and Protecting Student-Athletes

For many years, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) amateurism rules prevented student-athletes from being paid for the commercial use of their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). That changed in 2021, when the Supreme Court ruled in NCAA v. Alston that the NCAA is not exempt from antitrust law, prompting the NCAA to adopt for the first time an NIL policy allowing student-athletes to profit from commercialization of their NIL without penalty. 

However, this policy was adopted quickly, and without uniform NIL rules across states. In fact, since the change, over 30 different state NIL laws have gone into effect, resulting in competitive disadvantages and making it harder for student-athletes and institutions to comply.

After years of legal battles, the consequential House v. NCAA settlement was reached in 2025, allowing Division I schools to compensate athletes and provide retroactive payments and a new compensation system. However, this settlement does not provide the long-term stability needed to ensure collegiate athletics thrives.

With the constantly changing landscape and rules varying by state, as well as the lack of rules around athlete eligibility and the transfer portal, student-athlete transfers have soared and recruiting intensified while increasing donor-funded collectives and booster involvement has normalized “pay-for-play” deals, raising serious questions regarding academic integrity and the end of the amateur ideal in collegiate athletics. In this transformational period, a national framework is desperately needed to provide clarity, consistency, and, most importantly, to protect student athletes.

House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to put in place much needed guardrails by creating a national framework for NIL rights for college student-athletes. Our legislation protects student-athletes’ rights to enter into NIL agreements, including the right to representation, privacy, and transparent agreements, and prevents colleges, conferences, and Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Associations (IIAAs) from restricting those rights. 

Additionally, our legislation codifies benefits such as continued access to medical coverage, academic support services, and scholarship protections, and requires agents in NIL deals to disclose their registration status with IIAAs. It also allows IIAAs to create and oversee regulations for recruitment, transfers, eligibility, the collection and sharing of NIL data, and more. Finally, our legislation clarifies that student-athletes are not employees.

H.R. 4312, the Student Compensation & Opportunity through Rights & Endorsements (SCORE) Act, introduced by Rep. Gus Bilirakis, standardizes and establishes a national framework for NIL deals to provide consistency and stability for college athletics, supporting athletic opportunities, protecting student-athletes from exploitation, clarifying student-athlete are not employees, and ending the mass ongoing litigation threatening college sports.

Student-athletes deserve compensation for their contributions to college sports, but the current structure lacks clarity, sustainability, and guardrails to protect student-athletes. Establishing a national framework for NIL is long overdue and will serve to protect student-athletes from exploitation.
 
Cutting Burdensome Red Tape on Small Businesses

Under the Biden Administration, small businesses across America struggled under the explosion of regulations. 

These overly burdensome regulations make it harder for small businesses to grow, innovate, and succeed due to lack of regulatory clarity and high compliance costs. The American Action Forum estimated the cumulative cost of Biden Administration regulations to be over $1.8 trillion – a significant increase from any previous administrations.

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, making up 99.9 percent of American businesses and employing 45.9 percent of private sector American workers. We should be implementing policies to help them thrive and boost our economy, not weighing them down with unnecessary and complicated bureaucratic red-tape.

In line with President Trump’s deregulatory agenda, the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy created a “Red Tape Hotline” in March to allow small businesses to report how federal regulations and agency activity are impacting their business, so the Office of Advocacy can review and communicate their concerns to agencies. 

This week, House Republicans are bringing legislation to empower small businesses by making the “Red Tape Hotline” permanent and requiring the SBA Office of Advocacy to submit these reports annually to Congress, providing better oversight so we can cut federal red tape that stifles small business growth. 

H.R. 4305, the DUMP Red Tape Act, introduced by Rep. Tony Wied, codifies a dedicated hotline for small business owners to report overly burdensome or unnecessary federal regulations to the SBA Office of Advocacy and requires Advocacy to report these submissions annually to Congress.

House Republicans are fighting to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens and administrative red tape so our small businesses across the country can flourish. 
 
Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Small Businesses 

After four years of unprecedented overregulation by the Biden Administration, small businesses are in desperate need of regulatory relief. High compliance costs and confusing red tape place heavy burdens on small businesses and threaten their survival, as well as the jobs and innovation they support.

Just in 2022, compliance costs for American small businesses due to federal regulations amounted to an average of $15,133.57 (adjusted for 2024 dollars) per employee on the payroll. These costs can be overwhelming, as many small businesses don’t have the same time or resources to dedicate to regulatory compliance as larger companies do.

Small businesses are a significant source of American jobs – employing about 59 million workers – and provide meaningful contributions to local communities while driving economic growth. It’s past time for the government to stop stifling their growth and eroding their competitiveness with unnecessary bureaucracy and start building a regulatory environment that allows small businesses to prosper.

House Republicans are bringing legislation to reduce the regulatory burdens and promote small business growth by creating an annual government-wide report that outlines the impact of federal regulations on small businesses and preventing increased compliance costs.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne’s legislation, H.R. 2965, the Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act of 2025, requires the Small Business Administration to ensure any regulatory action taken by the agency will not raise compliance costs for small businesses and report the costs of other federal agencies’ regulations on small businesses.

We won’t stop working to enact President Trump’s deregulation agenda and unshackle small businesses in America.
 
Combating CCP Influence in American Classrooms

Over the past decade, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has worked to spread propaganda and conduct sophisticated espionage around the world by targeting the United States and seeking to infiltrate and exploit America’s K-12 classrooms and institutions of learning.

One way the Chinese government attempted to do this was through Confucius Classrooms in America. Disguised as programs promoting Chinese language and culture and advancing cultural exchanges, these classrooms are an important element of the CCP’s global influence campaign that work to build ties with American schools to push propaganda and sway policy.

Currently, there are around 500 to 1,000 Confucius Classrooms worldwide, and a Parents Defending Education report tracked Chinese affiliation in 143 schools across 34 states, with at least seven still active as of publication of the report. The CCP approves teachers, events, and speakers and demands that teachers pledge not to damage the national interests of China.

We cannot allow foreign adversaries like the CCP, whose mission is to undermine American interests, infect our political discourse, and shape young minds to their design. House Republicans are bringing legislation to combat malicious foreign influence from China in our kids’ classrooms.

Rep. Kevin Hern’s legislation, H.R. 1069, the PROTECT Our Kids Act, blocks federal funding from being given to elementary or secondary schools that directly or indirectly receive support from the Chinese government, including operation of Confucius Classrooms, funds provided by China, and personnel or teaching materials received from an individual or entity acting on behalf of the Chinese government. 

House Republicans are working to protect our children from the CCP’s malign influence in their schools – will Democrats vote with us, or put China before American kids?
Keeping Foreign Adversaries Out of America’s Schools

The future of our nation rests on the shoulders of our next generation of leaders, whose values, intellect, and judgement are often shaped by the education they receive. Due to their considerable impact on the future leaders of our country, American schools have been the target of foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party, which seek to exert their influence on students, faculty, and research across the country and subvert U.S. interests.

The Chinese government has worked to infiltrate American K-12 schools in many ways, including through funding and establishing Confucius Classrooms that claim to promote Chinese language and culture and advance cultural exchanges in our schools. 

The Senate found that increasing Confucius Classrooms in America has been a top priority for the CCP, and many K-12 schools have accepted funding, grants, teacher exchanges, and student exchange programs in China. Confucius Classrooms are very similar to smaller-scale Confucius Institutes (CIs) on college campuses.

We cannot allow foreign adversaries like the CCP to dictate the curriculums in our schools. Congress must take action to ensure communist propaganda is not being taught to our future leaders, and that any foreign influence on American youth is fully disclosed. House Republicans are bringing legislation to ensure that the CCP cannot infiltrate local school districts and that the Department of Education is aware of spending by foreign countries in K-12 classrooms.

H.R. 1005, the Combating the Lies of Authoritarians in School Systems (CLASS) Act, sponsored by Rep. Dave Joyce, bans K-12 schools from accepting funds from or entering into a contract with the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and requires schools to disclose funding from or contracts with a foreign source to the Department of Education.

It is vital to ensure that American students are not subject to malicious foreign influence in their schools. House Republicans are making sure American education institutions stop hiding their dealings with foreign regimes to allow for transparency and oversight.
 
Keeping Parents Informed of Foreign Influence in Classrooms

Foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continue their efforts to infiltrate American classrooms and influence the education of America’s youth through funding and “cultural exchange programs” like Confucius Classrooms. Many schools have accepted grants connected to the CCP, teacher exchanges, Chinese language programs, and study abroad opportunities.

These programs, such as Confucius Classrooms, are really trojan horses that provide the Chinese government with a vehicle to distribute their communist propaganda, advance their strategic objectives, and influence American youth. If parents are unaware of such influence in their child’s classroom, they are unable to ensure their child is being taught accurate content.

Our children are our future. It’s unacceptable for adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party to have a hand in the shaping of our future leaders by way of American classrooms. Parents have the right to a say in the way their children are taught and an awareness of the groups or governments that have a presence in the classroom.

This week, House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to ensure parents are made aware of foreign influence in their kid’s classroom and have the opportunity to review any curriculum or materials provided by a foreign government, increasing transparency and combatting foreign influence such as that of China over our children.

H.R. 1049, the Transparency in Reporting of Adversarial Contributions to Education (TRACE) Act, introduced by Rep. Aaron Bean, requires local educational agencies (LEAs) to make sure the K-12 schools they serve notify parents of any foreign contracts or financial transactions they partake in, allow parents to review curriculum provided by or purchased with funds from a foreign government, and inform parents of how many personnel at their child's school are compensated by foreign sources.

House Republicans will always fight to ensure parents can exercise their right to know what’s being taught to their child and safeguard classrooms from malicious influence.