This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. President, Claims · 77 wordsI note that the Protect College Sports Act is also critical to local broadcasters. Right now, too many college football games are trapped behind paywalls. The Protect College Sports Act aims to change that by supporting consumers’ access to TV. And I understand Senator Moran has entered a statement in the record on this topic; and I agree with him on this, in putting college football on free TV on local broadcasting stations instead of in paywalls. Procedure · 26 wordsI did not, before the vote, take time to thank all the people involved with this legislation, and I would like to take that opportunity now.Procedure Thanks · 35 wordsFirst of all, I want to thank Senator Cruz for his partnership on this legislation and working to create a bipartisan bill that I think the majority of our colleagues showed tonight that they support, ThanksPromise · 25 wordsand I hope that we will get our colleagues in the House of Representatives to also agree on that before the end of the year.Vague promise Procedure · 8 wordsObviously, this legislative process is a challenging one, ProcedureReasoning · 21 wordsand we would not have been here at this moment without a lot of help from a lot of different people. Thanks · 41 wordsI want to thank especially Senators Schmitt and Coons for their tremendous leadership in being partners with Senator Cruz and I on this legislation. The two of them provided key input, support--debatable, argumentative points of view at various points of time.Thanks Reasoning · 21 wordsBut there is no way we would have gotten this legislation over the goal line without Senator Schmitt and Senator Coons, Thanks · 110 wordsand I just want to thank them immensely for their long partnership in working with Senator Cruz and myself. And I also want to thank James Barton, who is with Senator Coons, because he played a key role in all of this, and I very much appreciate his support. I also want to thank key members of the Commerce Committee because they played very important roles in this: Senator Hickenlooper drafting the language and negotiation as it related to the U.S. Olympic provisions of the bill; Senator Lujan for drafting and getting amendments accepted related to the coaches; Senator Baldwin on a key amendment that we just adopted tonight by, ThanksClaims · 10 wordsas I said earlier, a record 96 to 1 vote, 1Logical leapReasoning · 42 wordswhich shows that this place, when you let the right people in the room, can come to a conclusion--not just that, but that our colleagues also trust that that process can work too and rewarded that with a big, big vote tonight. Thanks · 119 wordsSo very much appreciate that. I also appreciate the President’s sports council--Randy Levine, Cody Campbell, Jack Swarbrick--all played big roles in this, probably nobody more than Randy Levine in constantly pushing the White House point of view on this legislation and Cody Campbell making sure that everybody understood that opening up the Sports Broadcasting Act was a great idea. That also seconded, obviously, by Jack, who added an AD perspective to the debate. I also want to thank a couple of big Washingtonians who played a key role in this. Mark Few, the famous--now Hall of Fame--Gonzaga coach who was just constant--now I know what it would have been like to play for Gonzaga because he was constantly saying: 5ThanksAnecdote · 26 wordsMaria, it is just about getting the basics done, about eligibility, about transfer, and about basic rules. And he reminded me of that all the time.Anecdote Thanks · 32 wordsI also want to thank Washington AD Pat Chun, who took endless phone calls from us. I want to thank WSU President Cantwell, who was in a trying situation of her own.Thanks Claims · 50 wordsLiterally, the Pac-12 blew up, took $35 million of revenue out of her institution, 2and she had to figure out a path forward and engage on this legislation and try to help us all think about what is a fair way to move college sports forward, and she did that. Thanks · 53 wordsAnd I appreciate her time. And certainly Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould, who testified before the committee and added a lot of input about what not to do next, 3and I just can’t thank her enough because I see even tonight some of this debate veered into the realm of what not to do.Thanks Promise · 48 wordsAnd I hope that we can continue to make corrections on that as we dialogue with our House colleagues because the last thing that we need to do is have another Pac-12 incident.Vague promise But we need to grow regional sports, grow the regional system, and make it stronger. Thanks · 51 wordsI also want to thank the many people on the Commerce Committee staff who--oh, I have to thank Senator Welch. Senator Welch also signing on early to the legislation, Senator Peters helping us with the Big 10, Senator Klobuchar doing the same, all of them were so helpful in this legislation.Thanks Procedure · 5 wordsNow to the committee staff.Procedure Claims · 61 wordsSenator Cruz talked a lot about how this negotiation went on for months and months and months and hours and hours a day, and he talked about Cuban coffee. All that was true. It took a lot to keep us in a room discussing immense legal terms with a variety of conferences and individuals and athletes from all over the country. Thanks · 55 wordsBut I want to thank staff director Lila Helms, our general counsel Melissa Porter, Nicole Frazer, Phil Murphy, and Ramesh Nagarajan. Those individuals right there spent the majority of time working on this legislation. But Shannon Smith, who served on the committee for 5 years and recently retired, she deserves a jersey all by herself.4Thanks Anecdote · 39 wordsI kid with her about saying it is going to say ``Jaxon Smith-Njigba,’’ but instead, it is just going to say ``Shannon Smith’’ and then some name because she deserves a new title for the immense amount of effort.Anecdote Thanks · 61 wordsWe would just not even have a bill on the floor tonight if it weren’t for her efforts. But Nicole and Melissa and Lila, I can’t say enough about their leadership and patience in driving a process that was just fraught with different opinions. That is just all there is to it, fraught with different opinions and a lot of negotiations.Thanks Reasoning · 73 wordsSo I think it will go down in history as one of the most challenging issues because, unlike a lot of policy issues that we deal with here in the U.S. Senate, you have different issues and they follow a certain path. They follow a construct. It might be consumer versus business; it might be various things. In this case, we had a lot of different viewpoints across the entire ecosystem of sports. Claims · 44 wordsAnd if there was a characterization here, it was definitely that nobody wanted the two big divisions to run away and be a super league and continue to X out the revenue and that everybody wanted to drive some sanity back into the system. Procedure · 11 wordsBut that sounds simple compared to what these individuals went through.Procedure Thanks · 164 wordsSo I really can’t thank enough Lila Helms, Melissa Porter, and Nicole Frazer for their incredible work on this. Phil and Ramesh, great work, challenging policy, appreciate their efforts. I want to thank Elizabeth Cuttner; Erik Eykel; Kate Sprague; Connor Jennings; Tricia Enright; Rob Blumenthal; Ciara O’Donoghue; Josephine Laing; Zoe Garrett; and Amit Ronen from our staff, who is here on the floor tonight; Ansley Lacitis, who I think got to know the entire press corps for sports across the United States and took all their questions and probably has some to feed back to them; Lauren Bazel; Seth Kolloen. And I want to thank Senator Cruz’ staff because, obviously, they worked very hard on this legislation. Brad Grantz, his staff director; Nicole Christus; Joel Wellum--I want to thank Joel specifically because Joel obviously took a lot of direct questioning, a lot of pushing by us and me particularly, and I appreciate his hard work--Michael Spierto; Ryan Cannon; and Justin Adams and Casey Contres.Thanks Procedure · 16 wordsSo there is no way to really sum up all of the thanks in one statement.Procedure Thanks · 115 wordsI do want to thank my colleague Senator Moran, who is on the floor tonight, because he started this effort in the committee many years ago and had great thoughts on what we needed to do and got us all pointed in the right direction and kept the dialogue moving through myself and Senator Wicker, and then as Senators Booker and Blumenthal and I continued to dialogue, and then ultimately Senator Schmitt and I, and Senator Coons and Schmitt and I, and then ultimately this legislation with Senator Cruz and I. So this long, challenged situation of figuring out how to make more sense out of college sports, I want to thank him as well.Thanks Claims · 11 wordsSo we definitely made the will of the Senate work tonight, Promise · 22 wordsand I hope we can do more of that.Vague promise I hope we can find where there is the ability to solve problems.Vague promise Claims · 40 wordsWe obviously have a very big difference of opinion, but there probably isn’t a bigger gulf and difference of opinion. I say Senator Cruz and I probably disagree on 25 different issues, Logical leapand that is just in the Commerce Committee, Reasoning · 19 wordsbut if we can do that tonight and produce a product, I guarantee you the rest of us can. Positioning · 10 wordsAnd tonight, it is about making sports about sports again.PositioningNo reason given Thanks · 19 wordsSo I thank my colleagues for this legislation and now on to working with our colleagues in the House.Thanks Procedure · 4 wordsI yield the floor.Procedure
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