Discussion · Senate
Maria Cantwell Democrat
“I want the Senate to pass this bill. It sets clear rules for college sports so schools stop cutting women's and Olympic sports. If we do not protect these programs, our athletes will not have the training they need to compete and win for our country.”
“So the American Conference Student Athletes Advisory Committee, Rocky Mountain Athletic Association Student Athletes Advisory Committee, American Rivers Conference Student Athlete Advisory Committee, the New England Conference Student Athletic Advisory Committee--I could keep going and going and going. So there is support by athletes for this bill, but it is also endorsed by the United Negro College Fund because they believe that this bill will help stabilize one aspect of DI football that is really challenging, and that is the system. It is also endorsed by the U.S. Olympic Committee, and the reason it is endorsed by the U.S. Olympic Committee is because they know we are going to help preserve Olympic sports. Now, what are we going to do when we have the next Olympics or the one after that and you literally have not trained and skilled the athletes? Some of our biggest institutions are the ones who provide 70 percent of these athletes, and so if we don’t stabilize and say ``stop cutting women’s and Olympic sports,’’ then we are going to be standing at an Olympics where we are not winning and going to ask why. I didn’t want to deal with this issue, but when a kid from my State-- from a famous part of our State, White Pass, where the Mahre brothers won gold skiing in the Olympics because they grew up on that pass-- basically, this kid couldn’t snowboard for us and went and snowboarded for Russia and won medals. I was like, this is a problem. So I am not for us losing in the Olympics because we undermine college athletics in an arms race because we don’t want to put rules in place. So the Thurgood Marshall Fund also supports this. Team USA athletes all support this. And it is just time for us to get this issue over the top. That is really what we are talking about. It is not the final solution. It is putting a pin in the problems to stabilize the loss of women’s and Olympic sports and to create the opportunity to discuss the larger structure moving forward. That is why I think we have so much support. It doesn’t mean that we have solved every problem, but it means that we are on our way to solving the problems that exist and preserving the opportunities for the future. So let’s get it over the top. I am very proud of this athlete, and she is a perfect example. Okay. She is No. 1 in the world right now, and she is the pole vaulter at University of Washington. But what if we continue to undermine the efforts of women’s and Olympic sports? What if she doesn’t have that roster slot because we are too busy letting billionaires run the race and basically leave people behind? That is not what sports is about. It is about, any given day, the competition. So let’s get back to playing sports again, and let’s pass this legislation. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.”
So the American Conference Student Athletes Advisory Committee, Rocky Mountain Athletic Association Student Athletes Advisory Committee, American Rivers Conference Student Athlete Advisory Committee, the New England Conference Student Athletic Advisory Committee--I could keep going and going and going. So there is support by athletes for this bill, but it is also endorsed by the United Negro College Fund because they believe that this bill will help stabilize one aspect of DI football that is really challenging, and that is the system. It is also endorsed by the U.S. Olympic Committee, and the reason it is endorsed by the U.S. Olympic Committee is because they know we are going to help preserve Olympic sports. Now, what are we going to do when we have the next Olympics or the one after that and you literally have not trained and skilled the athletes? Some of our biggest institutions are the ones who provide 70 percent of these athletes, and so if we don’t stabilize and say ``stop cutting women’s and Olympic sports,’’ then we are going to be standing at an Olympics where we are not winning and going to ask why. I didn’t want to deal with this issue, but when a kid from my State-- from a famous part of our State, White Pass, where the Mahre brothers won gold skiing in the Olympics because they grew up on that pass-- basically, this kid couldn’t snowboard for us and went and snowboarded for Russia and won medals. I was like, this is a problem. So I am not for us losing in the Olympics because we undermine college athletics in an arms race because we don’t want to put rules in place. So the Thurgood Marshall Fund also supports this. Team USA athletes all support this. And it is just time for us to get this issue over the top. That is really what we are talking about. It is not the final solution. It is putting a pin in the problems to stabilize the loss of women’s and Olympic sports and to create the opportunity to discuss the larger structure moving forward. That is why I think we have so much support. It doesn’t mean that we have solved every problem, but it means that we are on our way to solving the problems that exist and preserving the opportunities for the future. So let’s get it over the top. I am very proud of this athlete, and she is a perfect example. Okay. She is No. 1 in the world right now, and she is the pole vaulter at University of Washington. But what if we continue to undermine the efforts of women’s and Olympic sports? What if she doesn’t have that roster slot because we are too busy letting billionaires run the race and basically leave people behind? That is not what sports is about. It is about, any given day, the competition. So let’s get back to playing sports again, and let’s pass this legislation. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.