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Us Congress Senate Bill SB955

Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB955 Compare Versions

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11 II
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION S. 955
55 To establish due process requirements for the investigation of intercollegiate
66 athletics, and for other purposes.
77 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
88 MARCH11 (legislative day, MARCH10), 2025
99 Mrs. B
1010 LACKBURN(for herself and Mr. BOOKER) introduced the following bill;
1111 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
1212 Science, and Transportation
1313 A BILL
1414 To establish due process requirements for the investigation
1515 of intercollegiate athletics, and for other purposes.
1616 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
1717 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
1818 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
1919 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘NCAA Accountability 4
2020 Act of 2025’’. 5
2121 SEC. 2. DUE PROCESS REQUIREMENTS. 6
2222 (a) I
2323 NGENERAL.—Each covered athletic association 7
2424 shall establish and administer due process requirements 8
2525 for the investigation of any member institution, student 9
2626 athlete enrolled in such member institution, or other indi-10
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3030 vidual for any alleged infraction of the covered athletic as-1
3131 sociation’s bylaws or failure to meet the conditions and 2
3232 obligations of membership if the matter cannot be resolved 3
3333 without a formal investigation, consistent with the fol-4
3434 lowing: 5
3535 (1) If the covered athletic association initiates 6
3636 an investigation into a member institution, the cov-7
3737 ered athletic association shall provide written notice 8
3838 to the member institution detailing the nature of the 9
3939 inquiry by not later than 60 days after the covered 10
4040 athletic association receives information indicating 11
4141 that a bylaw violation may have occurred, and that 12
4242 the covered athletic association has determined that 13
4343 an investigation is warranted. The notice shall in-14
4444 clude, to the extent such information is available, the 15
4545 following: 16
4646 (A) Each program under investigation. 17
4747 (B) All persons under investigation. 18
4848 (C) The specific alleged violations under 19
4949 investigation. 20
5050 (D) Each date or time period an alleged 21
5151 violation may have occurred. 22
5252 (E) The rights and resources available to 23
5353 the accused. 24
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5757 (2) The notice under paragraph (1)(C) shall be 1
5858 limited to possible violations occurring not earlier 2
5959 than 2 years before the date the notice is provided 3
6060 to the member institution. The covered athletic asso-4
6161 ciation shall thereafter promptly notify the member 5
6262 institution of any other relevant information discov-6
6363 ered in the course of the investigation. 7
6464 (3) Prior to commencing any enforcement pro-8
6565 ceeding, the covered athletic association shall provide 9
6666 the member institution with a notice of allegations 10
6767 not later than 8 months after the notice of inquiry 11
6868 is received under paragraph (1), which shall include 12
6969 the following: 13
7070 (A) Details about each allegation. 14
7171 (B) The potential penalties for each allega-15
7272 tion. 16
7373 (C) The information and factors the cov-17
7474 ered athletic association considered in its deter-18
7575 mination to file charges. 19
7676 (D) The rights and resources available to 20
7777 the member institution and involved individuals. 21
7878 (4) Not earlier than 60 days after the notice of 22
7979 allegations is received, there shall be a hearing be-23
8080 fore the covered athletic association’s infractions 24
8181 committee or body with authorization to hear cases 25
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8585 and prescribe punishments to member institutions 1
8686 which shall conform to the following requirements: 2
8787 (A) The hearing shall commence not later 3
8888 than 1 year after the notice is provided under 4
8989 paragraph (1). 5
9090 (B) No information from confidential 6
9191 sources may be offered into evidence or form 7
9292 the basis for any decision. 8
9393 (5) In the event that there is any dispute re-9
9494 garding the covered athletic association’s punish-10
9595 ment of a member institution, the member institu-11
9696 tion may compel entry into arbitration conducted in 12
9797 accordance with the standard commercial arbitration 13
9898 rules of an established major national provider of ar-14
9999 bitration and mediation services based in the United 15
100100 States, which will provide an independent review and 16
101101 binding decision. The arbitration shall be conducted 17
102102 by a three-person panel. The covered athletic asso-18
103103 ciation and member institution shall each appoint 19
104104 one arbitrator of their respective choosing. The third 20
105105 arbitrator shall be appointed in agreement by the 21
106106 two arbitrators appointed by each party. 22
107107 (6) The covered athletic association shall con-23
108108 duct its enforcement proceedings and investigations 24
109109 in a fair and consistent manner, and the penalties 25
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113113 issued against member institutions for bylaw infrac-1
114114 tions shall be equitable with respect to severity of 2
115115 the infraction and the member institution’s history 3
116116 of infractions. 4
117117 (7) The covered athletic association shall not 5
118118 disclose information relating to an ongoing investiga-6
119119 tion into a member institution until formal charges 7
120120 are filed in the notice of allegations submitted under 8
121121 paragraph (3). The member institution shall have 9
122122 discretionary authority to disclose any information 10
123123 relating to an ongoing investigation, and no informa-11
124124 tion relating to an ongoing investigation shall be 12
125125 subject to any disclosure requirement under State 13
126126 law. 14
127127 (b) R
128128 EPORT.—A covered athletic association shall 15
129129 submit an annual report to the Attorney General summa-16
130130 rizing its enforcement proceedings, investigations, and 17
131131 issuance of punishments to member organizations under 18
132132 this Act over the preceding year. A covered athletic asso-19
133133 ciation shall submit an annual report to each State Attor-20
134134 ney General (and the Attorney General for the District 21
135135 of Columbia) summarizing its enforcement proceedings, 22
136136 investigations, and issuance of punishments to member in-23
137137 stitutions headquartered in the State. 24
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141141 SEC. 3. LIMITATION. 1
142142 The privileges of membership of any member institu-2
143143 tion in the covered athletic association may not be im-3
144144 paired as a consequence of any rights granted under this 4
145145 Act. 5
146146 SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT. 6
147147 (a) P
148148 ROCEDURES.—The Attorney General shall es-7
149149 tablish procedures— 8
150150 (1) for individuals and entities to file written, 9
151151 signed complaints respecting potential violations of 10
152152 this Act by a covered athletic association or any per-11
153153 son acting as an agent thereof; 12
154154 (2) for the investigation of those complaints 13
155155 which have a substantial probability of validity; 14
156156 (3) for the investigation of such other violations 15
157157 of this Act as the Attorney General determines to be 16
158158 appropriate; and 17
159159 (4) for the evaluation of a covered athletic asso-18
160160 ciation’s annual report to determine compliance with 19
161161 this Act. 20
162162 (b) I
163163 NVESTIGATIONS AND HEARINGS.—In conducting 21
164164 investigations and hearings pursuant to this section, the 22
165165 following shall apply: 23
166166 (1) Any hearing so requested shall be conducted 24
167167 before an administrative law judge of the Depart-25
168168 ment of Justice determined by the Attorney General. 26
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172172 The hearing shall be conducted in accordance with 1
173173 the requirements of section 554 of title 5, United 2
174174 States Code. The hearing shall be held at the near-3
175175 est practicable place to the place where the person 4
176176 or covered athletic association resides or of the place 5
177177 where the alleged violation occurred. If no hearing is 6
178178 so requested, the Attorney General’s imposition of 7
179179 the order shall constitute a final and unappealable 8
180180 order. 9
181181 (2) Officers and employees of the Department 10
182182 of Justice (including the administrative law judges 11
183183 referred to in paragraph (1)) shall have reasonable 12
184184 access to examine evidence of any person or covered 13
185185 athletic association being investigated. 14
186186 (3) If the administrative law judge determines, 15
187187 upon the preponderance of the evidence received, 16
188188 that a person or covered athletic association named 17
189189 in the complaint has violated the statute, the admin-18
190190 istrative law judge shall state his findings of fact 19
191191 and issue and cause to be served on such person or 20
192192 covered athletic association an order as follows: 21
193193 (A) The administrative law judge shall 22
194194 order the person or covered athletic association 23
195195 to cease and desist from such violations and to 24
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199199 pay a civil penalty in an amount of not less 1
200200 than $10,000 and not more than $15,000,000. 2
201201 (B) In determining the amount of the pen-3
202202 alty, due consideration shall be given to the 4
203203 good faith of the covered athletic association or 5
204204 person, the seriousness of the violation, and the 6
205205 history of previous violations. 7
206206 (C) The administrative law judge may 8
207207 order the permanent removal of any member of 9
208208 the covered athletic association’s governing 10
209209 body in the case of a violation. 11
210210 (4) The Attorney General may, not earlier than 12
211211 30 days after providing notice thereof to the person 13
212212 or covered athletic association, commence a hearing 14
213213 before an administrative law judge of the Depart-15
214214 ment of Justice for any alleged violation of this Act 16
215215 by that person or covered athletic association. The 17
216216 administrative law judge may impose a civil penalty 18
217217 for any violation determined to have occurred. 19
218218 (5) Administrative law judges may, if necessary, 20
219219 compel by subpoena the attendance of witnesses and 21
220220 the production of evidence at any designated place 22
221221 or hearing case of contumacy or refusal to obey a 23
222222 subpoena lawfully issued under this paragraph and 24
223223 upon application of the Attorney General, an appro-25
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227227 priate district court of the United States may issue 1
228228 an order requiring compliance with such subpoena 2
229229 and any failure to obey such order may be punished 3
230230 by such court as a contempt thereof. 4
231231 (6) The decision and order of an administrative 5
232232 law judge shall become the final agency decision and 6
233233 order of the Attorney General unless, within 30 days 7
234234 after the administrative law judge issues such order, 8
235235 the Attorney General modifies or vacates the deci-9
236236 sion and order, in which case the decision and order 10
237237 of the Attorney General shall become a final order 11
238238 under this subsection. 12
239239 (7) A person or covered athletic association ad-13
240240 versely affected by a final order (including an order 14
241241 for assessment of a civil penalty) under this section 15
242242 may, within 45 days after the date the final order 16
243243 is issued, file a petition in the Court of Appeals for 17
244244 the appropriate circuit for review of the order. 18
245245 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 19
246246 In this Act: 20
247247 (1) C
248248 OVERED ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION .—The 21
249249 term ‘‘covered athletic association’’ means an inter-22
250250 state athletic association, conference, or other orga-23
251251 nization with authority over intercollegiate athletics 24
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255255 or that administers intercollegiate athletics, with at 1
256256 least 900 member institutions. 2
257257 (2) M
258258 EMBER INSTITUTION.—The term ‘‘mem-3
259259 ber institution’’ means an institution of higher edu-4
260260 cation that maintains at least one intercollegiate 5
261261 athletic program that is a member of a covered ath-6
262262 letic association. 7
263263 (3) I
264264 NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION .—The 8
265265 term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 9
266266 meaning given the term ‘‘college’’ or ‘‘university’’ in 10
267267 section 1404 of the National Agricultural Research, 11
268268 Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 12
269269 U.S.C. 3103). 13
270270 SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 14
271271 A covered athletic association shall carry out the re-15
272272 quirements of this Act by not later than 1 year after the 16
273273 date of enactment of this Act. 17
274274 Æ
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