January 13, 2025
Mrs. Blackburn (for herself, Mr. Risch, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Crapo, Ms. Ernst, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Barrasso, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Sheehy, Mr. Tuberville, and Mr. Daines) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Concerning the National Collegiate Athletic Association policy for eligibility in women’s sports.
Whereas athletic participation has an important positive impact on young girls, improving their physical, emotional, and psychological health, self-confidence, and discipline;
Whereas women have been responsible for some of the greatest athletic feats in the history of sports in the United States, from the Olympic games to professional competition, through opportunities to compete in collegiate sports;
Whereas the enactment of title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) (referred to in this preamble as title IX
) marked a pivotal moment in the Federal support of women in sports and applied to virtually all postsecondary institutions as recipients of Federal financial assistance;
Whereas there are fundamental and enduring biological differences between males and females that put females at a competitive disadvantage in sports and jeopardize their safety during competition against males;
Whereas, in 2010, the National Collegiate Athletic Association unilaterally adopted a policy that enables biological males to participate on women’s rosters and compete in the women’s sports category, a policy that continues today;
Whereas the policy described in the previous proviso disproportionately negatively impacts female athletes;
Whereas the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (referred to in this preamble as the NAIA
) has instituted new policies to protect biological women in sports and ensure that only student athletes whose biological sex is female will be allowed to compete on NAIA-sponsored women's sports teams;
Whereas it is imperative that opportunities for collegiate women to compete athletically are protected on the basis of sex; and
Whereas member institutions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association have an obligation under title IX to ensure equality of benefits and opportunities in athletic programs on the basis of sex: Now, therefore be it
That the Senate—
(1)
calls on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (referred to in this resolution as NCAA
) to revoke its transgender student-athlete eligibility policy that directly discriminates against female student athletes;
(2)
implores the NCAA immediately to protect the integrity of collegiate women’s sports by forbidding transgender-identifying males to compete on any women’s sports roster or in any collegiate competition;
(3)
urges the NCAA to require its member conferences to conform to a biological sex-based policy across all sports and all divisions; and
(4)
calls on all sports-governing bodies in the United States to protect the category of women’s sport for biological women and girls.