Pallone Blasts Republicans for Misplaced Priorities at College Athletics NIL Hearing
"If we want to focus on the real crises impacting our colleges and universities, we should be focusing on the financial disaster that they are facing at the hand of President Trump and this complicit Republican Congress."
Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following opening remarks at a Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee hearing on " Moving the Goalposts: How NIL is Reshaping College Athletics:”
Last Congress, at two hearings on college athletics, we heard widespread agreement from witnesses that finally allowing college athletes to profit from their Name, Image, and Likeness is a good thing and represents a long overdue change in college sports. So, today, if we want to focus on the real crises impacting our colleges and universities, we should be focusing on the financial disaster that they are facing at the hand of President Trump and this complicit Republican Congress.
Trump has cut funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to our colleges and universities and froze their ability to access current grant funding and apply for future funding.
Colleges and universities are now scrambling to figure out how they are going to proceed with their research programs. The cuts threaten their ability to conduct critical clinical trials for cancer, heart disease, children’s health, and more.
This is a major crisis, yet Republicans are ignoring it and would rather talk about college sports. Talk about misplaced priorities. I’d like to yield two minutes each to Representative Trahan and Representative Dingell.
###