Fox News: GOP lawmakers demand info on Biden-era spending used to declare student-athletes as employees

Republicans are demanding records showing the extent to which the Biden administration used taxpayer money to defend its position that student-athletes are employees of the universities for which they play.

Representatives Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and Rick Allen, R-Ga., made the request in a letter to Marvin Kaplan, the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) newly appointed chairman, and acting General Counsel William Cowen. They demanded a full accounting of the expenditures incurred during the Biden administration's years-long case against the University of Southern California, the Pac-12 Conference and the NCAA.

President Joe Biden's NLRB argued the entities intentionally obscured the rights of college athletes by labeling them "student-athletes" and not "employees."    

The request for expenditure reports from Walberg, who chairs the House Committee on Education and Workforce, and Allen, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, comes as there is a growing appetite on Capitol Hill to enact reforms for the NCAA's new name, image and likeness (NIL) rules. 

The rule change allowed student-athletes to profit from their NIL, which was previously prohibited by the NCAA. Walberg and Allen's letter said the expenditure records will "provide important assistance to Congress in determining whether legislative changes are warranted."

"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 letter states. "The outcome could have upended intercollegiate athletics and stripped numerous scholarship opportunities from American students."

The NLRB's general counsel during the Biden administration, Jennifer Abruzzo, issued a September 2021 memo explaining that the National Labor Relations Act, the nation's primary federal law protecting union organizing, "fully support[s] the conclusion that certain Players at Academic Institutions are statutory employees." The announcement came just a few months after the NCAA began letting students profit from NIL after public pressure and state court cases. 

While the change in how college athletes are treated has been welcomed by many, others have been concerned about the move's potential implications. Earlier this month, the Trump administration rescinded the Biden administration NLRB's September 2021 memo insisting college athletes be recognized as employees under federal labor laws. 

The Trump administration this month also revoked guidance issued by President Joe Biden on his way out of the White House that required schools to distribute direct NIL payments equally to female and male athletes. 

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