{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.schmitt.senate.gov/media/press-releases/senator-schmitt-calls-on-congress-to-meet-the-moment-pass-protect-college-sports-act/", "Senator Schmitt Calls on Congress to \u201cMeet the Moment,\u201d Pass Protect College Sports Act", "2026-09-15", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Eric Schmitt", "S001227", "www.schmitt.senate.gov", "schmitt", "https://www.schmitt.senate.gov/media/press-releases/", "scraper", "The Bill Passed Its First Procedural Vote this Evening\n\nU.S. SENATE \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) took to the Senate floor to urge his colleagues to pass the \u201cProtect College Sports Act\u201d and address the challenges facing college athletics. Schmitt highlighted the instability created by the current system and emphasized the need for Congress to act to provide clarity while protecting student-athletes and the future of college sports. Schmitt is a lead cosponsor of the bill with Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantell (D-WA).\n\nWatch the Senator\u2019s full speech HERE:\n\nExcerpts from Schmitt\u2019s remarks:\n\n\u201c\u2026College sports are at a tipping point in a place that they\u2019ve never been before, because over the last decade or so, over the course of litigation, no rules can be enforced.\n\nThe reality is we\u2019ve entered into this new phase with something missing-a governing body that can establish and enforce rules-and that\u2019s where this-that\u2019s at the heart of what the Protect College Sports Act is all about is to grant limited antitrust exemption status for a governing body, the NCAA, to enforce rules\u2026\u201d\n\n\u2026\n\n\u201cThe time has come for the United States Senate to do something that it actually rarely does, which is to meet the moment.\n\nWe are at a moment. This has the endorsement of every conference, all the schools, the NFL Players Association, student athletes that have come here, legendary coaches who\u2019ve seen the changes, HBCUs, the SWAC conference, the SEC, the Big 10-all of them-they all recognize that there is a choice now, which is to do something to correct the major issues and provide stability, so that we can continue to enjoy college athletics.\n\nIt is a uniquely American institution.\n\nWe can do that, or we can find some reason to not support it. We can grandstand and try to pretend that you\u2019re advocating for somebody that\u2019s being left out of this.\n\nBut the truth is, this bill will solve a ton of problems that are so obvious you\u2019d have to be not paying attention or not want to notice\u2026\u201d\n\nRead more about Schmitt\u2019s work on the \u201cProtect College Sports Act\u201d HERE.\n\n###", 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.schmitt.senate.gov/media/press-releases/senator-schmitt-calls-on-congress-to-meet-the-moment-pass-protect-college-sports-act/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7068079430609941, "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"}