By Larry Goldberg
The Senate Commerce Committee will take up the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act next week. The committee posted notice this morning of an executive session on Wednesday, September 16, at 10:00 AM in Room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building, with Chairman Ted Cruz presiding. S. 5188 is the eighth of ten bills on the agenda, alongside items on pool safety, air traffic, the Great Lakes, and a slate of Coast Guard nominations.
An executive session is where a committee marks up legislation: members offer amendments, vote on them, and then vote on whether to report the bill to the full Senate. It is the first time the Senate version of the bill, introduced by Cruz and Senator Jacky Rosen in July, will face a vote of any kind. The House passed its version by voice vote in March.
The timing tracks a week of movement. On September 8, the stagehands union IATSE wrote Senate leadership asking the committee to report the bill and the Senate to pass it without delay. Two days later, it is on the agenda. Whatever amendments members bring on Wednesday, they are being drafted now, this weekend, by the same staff who received stakeholder input after the April hearing.
Wednesday is also four days after Zuffa Boxing’s biggest card of the fall, Ryan Garcia against Conor Benn in Las Vegas on Saturday, which means the company whose business model the bill is built around will headline Mexican Independence weekend and then watch the Senate vote on its structure the following Wednesday.
The session will stream live on the committee’s site. BoxingInsider.com will cover the markup and any amendments as they are filed.
