{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/sen-chris-murphy-calls-for-ncaa-to-improve-athletes-health-care-meeting-with-emmert-set", "Sen. Chris Murphy calls for NCAA to improve athletes health care; meeting with Emmert set", "2019-12-16", "2019", "2019-12", "Democrat", "House", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Sen. Chris Murphy calls for NCAA to improve athletes' health care; meeting with Emmert set\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            \r\n\r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n            Monday, December 16, 2019\r\n            \n\t\n\r\n            \r\n            Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) issued a report Monday morning that calls for the NCAA to makedramatic changes in how it handles athletes' health care, including demands that schools pay for complete coverage of costs related to current athletes' participation in sports and unspecified restitution to former athletes suffering from the effects of head trauma.\r\nOn Monday afternoon, the office of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah)announced that Romney and Murphy will be meeting with NCAA President Mark Emmert on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.\r\nThe meeting likely will be related to the issues surrounding college athletes' ability to make money off their names, images and likenesses. Murphy and Romney recently announced the formation of a bi-partisan Senate working group related to college sports and Emmert has begun openly discussing the association'sinterest in Congressional actionas legislators in nearly 20 states look at joining California in enacting measures that wouldallow athletes to make money from their names, images and likenesses.\r\nEmmert spoke about this during a public appearance in New York last week, and he is likely to cover it again during a non-Capitol Hillappearance hepreviously had been scheduled to make inWashington on Tuesday.\r\nBut it's reasonable to believe that Murphy and federal lawmakers will use their meeting with Emmert as an opportunity to press their concerns in areas beyond name, image and likeness.\r\nConcerning health care, at present, athletes' medical costs can end up being covered at least in part by their parents' insurance.\r\nHealth care coverage shouldn't depend on the athletes or their families but should be considered part of the cost of having an athletic program, states Murphy's newreport, which also said long-term care should be covered.\r\nThe report saysbooming revenue increasesshould give schools the money they need to provide this and they should put that money to better use than lavish facilities ormore bonusesfor overpaid coaches.\r\nAs for the notion of assistance to former athletes, the report says, a century of negligence has resulted in many athletes facing the consequences of repeated head trauma that could have been prevented. We must account for that harm.\r\nThis is the third in a series of reports on issues in college sports that Murphy has issued. The first addressed athlete compensation, and the second the quality of education that athletes receive.\r\nThe new report cites numerous previous media reports in documenting specific episodes of injuries and fatalities suffered by athletes and athletes' travails in dealing with or attempting to get away from abusive behavior from coaches.\r\nThe report also calls for athletes to receive scholarships that are guaranteed regardless of injury; for complete protection for whistleblowing about abusive and dangerous decision-making by coaches and trainers; and for athletes to have less difficulty transferring to leave programs with abusive cultures or when coaches demonstrably do not put their well-being first.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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": ["http://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/sen-chris-murphy-calls-for-ncaa-to-improve-athletes-health-care-meeting-with-emmert-set"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.705699997022748, "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"}