Press Releases

Today, Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Chairman Rick Allen (R-GA) sent a letter to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairman Marvin Kaplan and Acting General Counsel William Cowen requesting an assessment of taxpayer dollars used in the previous administration’s attempts to unionize student-athletes by classifying them as employees.

In the letter, Walberg and Allen write: “In September 2021, General Counsel Abruzzo issued a memorandum to NLRB field offices taking a ‘prosecutorial position’ that certain student-athletes were employees under the NLRA. The memo further stated she would pursue an independent violation of NLRA Section 8(a)(1) in ‘appropriate’ cases where an employer misclassified players as student-athletes rather than as employees.”

The letter continues: “General Counsel Abruzzo’s attempts to impose the Biden-Harris administration’s misguided priorities on the student-athlete population would have caused significant consequences. Student-athletes would have lost the ability to negotiate their own deals with universities, and classifying these student-athletes as employees could have hindered their ability to transfer between schools. Nonrevenue sports would have become increasingly expensive and difficult for schools to maintain. Additionally, under an employer-employee relationship, college athletes could have found that the Internal Revenue Service might have considered their scholarship as taxable income.”

The letter concludes: “The Committee is concerned that the Biden-Harris NLRB spent significant taxpayer resources pursuing a case meant to curry favor with union interests for nearly three years. The outcome could have upended intercollegiate athletics and stripped numerous scholarship opportunities from American students. To assess the gravity of the Biden-Harris NLRB’s decision to pursue this misguided priority, the Committee requests that the NLRB provide an accounting of all expenditures made by the NLRB related to the case of University of Southern California; the Pac-12 Conference; National Collegiate Athletics Association, 31-CA-290326, including expenditures related to the investigation associated with the case, by March 14, 2025.”

Read the full letter here.

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