On Wednesday, July 26 Senator Murphy (D-CT) and Representative Trahan (D-MA) introduced the College Athlete Economic Freedom Act, the first piece of federal NIL legislation which would address international college athletes’ current inability to engage in most NIL activities while in the United States. Headed by a team of sports-immigration experts including Ksenia Maiorova, Amy Maldonado, Don Mooers, Dan H. Berger, Jonathan Grode and Helena Tetzeli, each helped in crafting the immigration-related components of this bill.
If passed, this bill would allow international college athletes the ability to engage in NIL activity in the United States with the rest of their teammates. It would also provide these international college athletes protection in the event that college athletes are deemed employees as it would allow international college athletes to remain in status with their student visas rather than requiring a separate employment-specific visa.
This bill joins five other bills that have either been introduced or circulated for discussion in the NIL space this summer. With the lack of uniformity of laws among the states, it is not surprising to see how much momentum NIL-related legislation is now gaining at the federal level – but as of now, this is the only proposal to address the plight of the international college athlete.
Learn more here: https://www.murphy.
