House Passes Bill to Allow Lawmakers to Oust U.S. Olympic Movement Leaders -- Update
October 01 2020 - 5:21PM
Dow Jones News
By Louise Radnofsky
Federal lawmakers passed a sweeping bill on Thursday giving
themselves the ability to oust leaders of the U.S. Olympic
movement, in the wake of scandals over the movement's handling of
finances, abuse claims and athlete welfare.
The legislation was approved unanimously in the House of
Representatives, after passing in the Senate, also unanimously, in
August. It now heads to the desk of President Trump, whose aides
didn't immediately comment on his willingness to sign the bill.
If signed, the law would allow Congress to vote to remove board
members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, which
oversees domestic amateur sports. They would also be able to
decertify a specific sport's national governing body.
In addition, the law would significantly expand athlete
representation in sports governing bodies, potentially setting off
efforts among candidates to join a movement long dominated by
professional sports leaders, while athletes' rights activism is
growing rapidly.
Lawmakers who crafted the bill, chiefly Sen. Jerry Moran (R.,
Kan.) and Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), frequently said they were
motivated by what they had learned about national governing bodies
such as USA Gymnastics' handling of allegations of sexual assault
and the case of former women's team physician Larry Nassar, in
particular.
The USOPC initially fought the bill, arguing that it could
endanger Team USA's ability to compete in the Olympic Games because
of International Olympic Committee rules about national committees'
independence from their countries' governments. At one point in
late 2019, USOPC Chief Executive Sarah Hirshland shared with
senators an IOC letter that set out what the proposed law should
say and not say to comply with Olympic rules.
After senators, including Colorado Republican Cory Gardner who
counts the committee among his constituents, rejected the argument,
the USOPC dropped its opposition. This year, the USOPC took a
markedly different approach to Congress, including pleading for up
to $200 million in federal coronavirus relief for the national
governing bodies. The request went unaddressed in relief
legislation, though most national governing bodies did secure
forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program.
Ms. Hirshland on Thursday praised the passage of the bill,
saying, "Team USA athletes had a big win in the halls of
Congress."
Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat who co-sponsored the bill
in the House, said it aimed to shift the Olympic movement to focus
more closely on the health and well-being of athletes, and that,
"It's not as if we're installing a bunch of government officials
all over the place."
"That's not what this bill is. It's asking the national
governing bodies and the Olympic and Paralympic Committee to do a
better job themselves," he said, describing the dissolution
provisions as, "a pretty big hammer to have compliance with the
law."
"We hope to never wield the hammer. But the case of Larry Nassar
showed that it simply got out of control, the sexual abuse, and we
really need the national governing bodies to take steps to make
sure this never happens again."
Even as Congress seeks to tighten its grip over the Olympic
movement, that movement is still facing other pressures.
Multiple wide-ranging federal criminal investigations into
financial and business misconduct throughout the U.S. Olympic
system are ongoing, The Wall Street Journal has reported -- though
they appear to have stalled in recent months, in part because of
the coronavirus pandemic, one person familiar with the
investigations said.
The USOPC and USA Gymnastics, meanwhile, have been ordered to
engage in a fresh mediation effort, along with their insurers, over
a settlement to resolve the legal claims of hundreds of women and
girls abused by Nassar.
Rebecca Davis O'Brien contributed to this article.
Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 01, 2020 17:06 ET (21:06 GMT)
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