Equal Pay for Team USA — I Street Advocates

Among America’s Olympic athletes, women historically have been treated as second-class citizens–given lower pay, worse training conditions, less medical attention, and subpar travel and lodging arrangements. I Street Advocates, representing a non-profit we founded, Sports Fans Coalition (“SFC”), and SFC’s board member, Women’s World Cup Champion Hope Solo, set out to change that.

With our support, Solo and West Virginia University Women’s Soccer coaches Nikki Izzo-Brown and Lisa Stoia wrote a letter in May of 2021 to Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) calling for legislation:

“To the rest of the world, the United States represents a promise of equality for all, yet we too often fail to deliver on that promise. As we head to Tokyo, it is imperative that our leaders make clear that all athletes have equal pay, training, access to medical care, and other forms of compensation. That starts with your leadership and your Equal Pay for Team USA Act.”

I Street, SFC, and Hope Solo worked to get the bill introduced and built support, negotiating with other stakeholders on the text and leading the lobbying effort in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. We met with key women Senators on the Committee and lobbied committee staff to secure a markup. In July, 2022, the bill unanimously passed the Senate Commerce Committee.

When Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) failed to place the bill on the floor calendar, Brian Hess, our leading advocate on the bill, and SFC board member Habiba Alcindor published an op/ed in the Albany Times-Union calling for Senate consideration of the bill. When Schumer finally brought up the bill for a vote, it passed by unanimous consent on December 12, 2022.

With the end of Congress only weeks away, David Goodfriend and Brian Hess contacted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) senior staff to ask that the bill be added to the suspension calendar. The Goodfriend Group drafted a letter from SFC to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who controlled the floor calendar. Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) then led eleven other Members of Congress with their own letter of support. Just four days before Christmas, the Equal Pay for Team USA Act passed the House on a recorded vote of 350-59.

A few weeks later, President Biden signed the bill into law.