Thomas Daschle: “Today is opening day for the seventh season of the Women's National Basketball Association. The league's incredible…”

“Today is opening day for the seventh season of the Women's National Basketball Association. The league's incredible success demonstrates the enormous influence that Title IX has had on women in sports, and in society. Since the WNBA's inception, the number of players and teams in the league have doubled, and its popularity has skyrocketed throughout the Nation, and all over the world. It is fitting, therefore, that the WNBA has helped lead the way in support of maintaining Title IX and its enforcement. The league has circulated a petition and collected over 25,000 signatures, including those of current and former NBA and WNBA players, as well as of an impressive array of other prominent Americans, to voice concern over the proposed changes. It is in the spirit of this overwhelming support for the effort to provide equal opportunities for all of America's students that I join my Senate colleagues in offering a bipartisan resolution on Title IX. Specifically, our resolution would express the sense of the Senate that the changes to Title IX policies recommended by the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics would run contrary to the spirit and purpose of the original law, and that the current mechanisms for enforcement are both fair and reasonable. Our resolution would also state that Congress will respond to any changes in Title IX policy with legislation to restore these protections, and to preserve the right to equal opportunities in athletics.”