II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 955
To establish due process requirements for the investigation of intercollegiate
athletics, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH11 (legislative day, MARCH10), 2025
Mrs. B
LACKBURN(for herself and Mr. BOOKER) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To establish due process requirements for the investigation
of intercollegiate athletics, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘NCAA Accountability 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. DUE PROCESS REQUIREMENTS. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Each covered athletic association 7
shall establish and administer due process requirements 8
for the investigation of any member institution, student 9
athlete enrolled in such member institution, or other indi-10
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vidual for any alleged infraction of the covered athletic as-1
sociation’s bylaws or failure to meet the conditions and 2
obligations of membership if the matter cannot be resolved 3
without a formal investigation, consistent with the fol-4
lowing: 5
(1) If the covered athletic association initiates 6
an investigation into a member institution, the cov-7
ered athletic association shall provide written notice 8
to the member institution detailing the nature of the 9
inquiry by not later than 60 days after the covered 10
athletic association receives information indicating 11
that a bylaw violation may have occurred, and that 12
the covered athletic association has determined that 13
an investigation is warranted. The notice shall in-14
clude, to the extent such information is available, the 15
following: 16
(A) Each program under investigation. 17
(B) All persons under investigation. 18
(C) The specific alleged violations under 19
investigation. 20
(D) Each date or time period an alleged 21
violation may have occurred. 22
(E) The rights and resources available to 23
the accused. 24
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(2) The notice under paragraph (1)(C) shall be 1
limited to possible violations occurring not earlier 2
than 2 years before the date the notice is provided 3
to the member institution. The covered athletic asso-4
ciation shall thereafter promptly notify the member 5
institution of any other relevant information discov-6
ered in the course of the investigation. 7
(3) Prior to commencing any enforcement pro-8
ceeding, the covered athletic association shall provide 9
the member institution with a notice of allegations 10
not later than 8 months after the notice of inquiry 11
is received under paragraph (1), which shall include 12
the following: 13
(A) Details about each allegation. 14
(B) The potential penalties for each allega-15
tion. 16
(C) The information and factors the cov-17
ered athletic association considered in its deter-18
mination to file charges. 19
(D) The rights and resources available to 20
the member institution and involved individuals. 21
(4) Not earlier than 60 days after the notice of 22
allegations is received, there shall be a hearing be-23
fore the covered athletic association’s infractions 24
committee or body with authorization to hear cases 25
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and prescribe punishments to member institutions 1
which shall conform to the following requirements: 2
(A) The hearing shall commence not later 3
than 1 year after the notice is provided under 4
paragraph (1). 5
(B) No information from confidential 6
sources may be offered into evidence or form 7
the basis for any decision. 8
(5) In the event that there is any dispute re-9
garding the covered athletic association’s punish-10
ment of a member institution, the member institu-11
tion may compel entry into arbitration conducted in 12
accordance with the standard commercial arbitration 13
rules of an established major national provider of ar-14
bitration and mediation services based in the United 15
States, which will provide an independent review and 16
binding decision. The arbitration shall be conducted 17
by a three-person panel. The covered athletic asso-18
ciation and member institution shall each appoint 19
one arbitrator of their respective choosing. The third 20
arbitrator shall be appointed in agreement by the 21
two arbitrators appointed by each party. 22
(6) The covered athletic association shall con-23
duct its enforcement proceedings and investigations 24
in a fair and consistent manner, and the penalties 25
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issued against member institutions for bylaw infrac-1
tions shall be equitable with respect to severity of 2
the infraction and the member institution’s history 3
of infractions. 4
(7) The covered athletic association shall not 5
disclose information relating to an ongoing investiga-6
tion into a member institution until formal charges 7
are filed in the notice of allegations submitted under 8
paragraph (3). The member institution shall have 9
discretionary authority to disclose any information 10
relating to an ongoing investigation, and no informa-11
tion relating to an ongoing investigation shall be 12
subject to any disclosure requirement under State 13
law. 14
(b) R
EPORT.—A covered athletic association shall 15
submit an annual report to the Attorney General summa-16
rizing its enforcement proceedings, investigations, and 17
issuance of punishments to member organizations under 18
this Act over the preceding year. A covered athletic asso-19
ciation shall submit an annual report to each State Attor-20
ney General (and the Attorney General for the District 21
of Columbia) summarizing its enforcement proceedings, 22
investigations, and issuance of punishments to member in-23
stitutions headquartered in the State. 24
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SEC. 3. LIMITATION. 1
The privileges of membership of any member institu-2
tion in the covered athletic association may not be im-3
paired as a consequence of any rights granted under this 4
Act. 5
SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT. 6
(a) P
ROCEDURES.—The Attorney General shall es-7
tablish procedures— 8
(1) for individuals and entities to file written, 9
signed complaints respecting potential violations of 10
this Act by a covered athletic association or any per-11
son acting as an agent thereof; 12
(2) for the investigation of those complaints 13
which have a substantial probability of validity; 14
(3) for the investigation of such other violations 15
of this Act as the Attorney General determines to be 16
appropriate; and 17
(4) for the evaluation of a covered athletic asso-18
ciation’s annual report to determine compliance with 19
this Act. 20
(b) I
NVESTIGATIONS AND HEARINGS.—In conducting 21
investigations and hearings pursuant to this section, the 22
following shall apply: 23
(1) Any hearing so requested shall be conducted 24
before an administrative law judge of the Depart-25
ment of Justice determined by the Attorney General. 26
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The hearing shall be conducted in accordance with 1
the requirements of section 554 of title 5, United 2
States Code. The hearing shall be held at the near-3
est practicable place to the place where the person 4
or covered athletic association resides or of the place 5
where the alleged violation occurred. If no hearing is 6
so requested, the Attorney General’s imposition of 7
the order shall constitute a final and unappealable 8
order. 9
(2) Officers and employees of the Department 10
of Justice (including the administrative law judges 11
referred to in paragraph (1)) shall have reasonable 12
access to examine evidence of any person or covered 13
athletic association being investigated. 14
(3) If the administrative law judge determines, 15
upon the preponderance of the evidence received, 16
that a person or covered athletic association named 17
in the complaint has violated the statute, the admin-18
istrative law judge shall state his findings of fact 19
and issue and cause to be served on such person or 20
covered athletic association an order as follows: 21
(A) The administrative law judge shall 22
order the person or covered athletic association 23
to cease and desist from such violations and to 24
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pay a civil penalty in an amount of not less 1
than $10,000 and not more than $15,000,000. 2
(B) In determining the amount of the pen-3
alty, due consideration shall be given to the 4
good faith of the covered athletic association or 5
person, the seriousness of the violation, and the 6
history of previous violations. 7
(C) The administrative law judge may 8
order the permanent removal of any member of 9
the covered athletic association’s governing 10
body in the case of a violation. 11
(4) The Attorney General may, not earlier than 12
30 days after providing notice thereof to the person 13
or covered athletic association, commence a hearing 14
before an administrative law judge of the Depart-15
ment of Justice for any alleged violation of this Act 16
by that person or covered athletic association. The 17
administrative law judge may impose a civil penalty 18
for any violation determined to have occurred. 19
(5) Administrative law judges may, if necessary, 20
compel by subpoena the attendance of witnesses and 21
the production of evidence at any designated place 22
or hearing case of contumacy or refusal to obey a 23
subpoena lawfully issued under this paragraph and 24
upon application of the Attorney General, an appro-25
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priate district court of the United States may issue 1
an order requiring compliance with such subpoena 2
and any failure to obey such order may be punished 3
by such court as a contempt thereof. 4
(6) The decision and order of an administrative 5
law judge shall become the final agency decision and 6
order of the Attorney General unless, within 30 days 7
after the administrative law judge issues such order, 8
the Attorney General modifies or vacates the deci-9
sion and order, in which case the decision and order 10
of the Attorney General shall become a final order 11
under this subsection. 12
(7) A person or covered athletic association ad-13
versely affected by a final order (including an order 14
for assessment of a civil penalty) under this section 15
may, within 45 days after the date the final order 16
is issued, file a petition in the Court of Appeals for 17
the appropriate circuit for review of the order. 18
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 19
In this Act: 20
(1) C
OVERED ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION .—The 21
term ‘‘covered athletic association’’ means an inter-22
state athletic association, conference, or other orga-23
nization with authority over intercollegiate athletics 24
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or that administers intercollegiate athletics, with at 1
least 900 member institutions. 2
(2) M
EMBER INSTITUTION.—The term ‘‘mem-3
ber institution’’ means an institution of higher edu-4
cation that maintains at least one intercollegiate 5
athletic program that is a member of a covered ath-6
letic association. 7
(3) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION .—The 8
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 9
meaning given the term ‘‘college’’ or ‘‘university’’ in 10
section 1404 of the National Agricultural Research, 11
Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 12
U.S.C. 3103). 13
SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 14
A covered athletic association shall carry out the re-15
quirements of this Act by not later than 1 year after the 16
date of enactment of this Act. 17
Æ
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