{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.husted.senate.gov/media/press-releases/husted-speaks-on-protecting-college-sports-opportunities-for-american-student-athletes/", "Husted speaks on protecting college sports opportunities for American student-athletes", "2026-09-15", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "Senate", "OH", "Jon Husted", "H001104", "www.husted.senate.gov", "husted", "https://www.husted.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cIf you ask Congress to protect college sports, you should be protecting it for American student-athletes.\u201d\n\nView Husted\u2019s remarks here.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) delivered a speech on the Senate floor today highlighting the need for Congress to protect college sports opportunities for American student-athletes.\n\nHusted spoke in support of his bill with Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), the Training and Education for American Members in University Sports and Athletics (TEAM USA) Act.\n\nThe TEAM USA Act would protect opportunities for American student-athletes by limiting international student-athlete (ISA) participation to no more than 20% of each varsity sports team.\n\nEach year, NCAA Division I and II schools provide more than $4 billion in athletic scholarships to over 197,000 student-athletes. Since 2001, the number of ISAs receiving scholarships has nearly tripled, from approximately 8,945 to roughly 25,000 today.\n\nOnly about 2% of American high school athletes receive an athletic scholarship. In several Division I sports, ISAs account for more than a third of participants, with some exceeding 60%.\n\nKey excerpts include:\n\n\u201cI rise today to speak about the future of college athletics and American student-athletes.\n\n\u201cCongress is being asked to take action to save college sports.\n\n\u201cWell, as we consider what we need to do to save college sports, we better make sure that we\u2019re focused on saving it for American student-athletes.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cFor generations, college sports have become a part of our culture, particularly in a state like Ohio.\n\n\u201cA lot of states love their college sports.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s part of American culture.\n\n\u201cAnd it is an important part of campus life for many American students.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cI grew up very rural and went to high school in a small town, and no one in my family had attended college.\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cThe only thing I wanted to do as a kid was to play college football.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cFor me, I ended up playing football at the University of Dayton.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cThe good news is that if you develop that character that you get from sports like football, where you get knocked down and you\u2019ve got to get back up, you learn never to quit.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s why sports are such an important part of people\u2019s lives.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cI would never have developed that character without the opportunity to play sports.\n\n\u201cAnd I tell you today, there\u2019s no way I\u2019d be standing here as a U.S. Senator if it weren\u2019t for college athletics giving me the chance to develop myself from a kid who grew up where I didn\u2019t know anybody that went to college, to somebody who not only graduated, but got a chance to succeed in athletics.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cAnd I want that for everybody in this country.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cBut increasingly, American student-athletes are being denied this opportunity because more and more roster spots are going to student-athletes who are from other nations.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cWhile the Protect College Sports Act takes a material step towards making our nation\u2019s college sports competitive again, one critical omission exists in it.\n\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look out for American student-athletes in their academic and athletic journeys.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cAnd there\u2019s no incentive for colleges to prioritize American student athletes.\n\n\u201cAnd with the NIL funds that are coming in, it\u2019s going to create a bigger and bigger incentive for pro-athletes from other nations to come play college sports in America and take roster spots away from American citizens.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cIf you ask Congress to protect college sports, you should be protecting it for American student athletes.\n\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s why, Mr. President, I introduced the Training and Education for American Members in University Sports and Athletics Act, the TEAM USA Act, with House Education and Workforce Chair Walberg.\n\n\u201cThe TEAM USA Act would encourage universities to prioritize American students when recruiting the best talent.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cAnd the proposal places a 20% cap on international student roster spots per sport, with delayed implementation, so that current student-athletes are not disrupted.\n\n\u201cSo, understand I\u2019m not calling for a ban.\n\n\u201cWe welcome international student athletes to America for 20% of the roster spots.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s fine.\n\n\u201cBut we have some rosters in which there is not a single United States citizen on that roster.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cAs Congress considers the future of NIL and college sports, protecting opportunities for American student-athletes must come first.\n\n\u201cAmerican colleges and universities are increasingly giving scholarships and these limited roster spots to foreign athletes.\n\n\u201cThe growth of NIL money only creates more incentives for foreign athletes to cash in on the American system at the expense of student-athletes in this country.\u201d\n\n. . .\n\n\u201cWe can balance both. We can find a way to welcome the best from other nations and protect roster spots for American student-athletes.\u201d", 1, "2026-09-16T09:43:13Z", "2026-09-16T09:44:22Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.husted.senate.gov/media/press-releases/husted-speaks-on-protecting-college-sports-opportunities-for-american-student-athletes/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9980099275708199, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}