General Talking Points on the US Congress / USOC Restructuring Effort

Due to the failure of the USOC governance structure, both the USOC and the

US House and Senate initiated reviews of the USOC. Congress is now in the

process of developing and finalizing legislation to reform the USOC.

The review boards recently reported their findings to Congress. Of principle

concern are their suggestions to remove Pan American Only Sports and

Athletes from the mission of the USOC.

If Congress, in its final legislation, recommends to the new USOC board that

it implement either or both of the review boards' recommendations without

specifically mentioning in the legislation that the USOC continue to hold

Pan American Only Sports and Athletes as a part of their mission and

foundation, then it could have a devastating affect on Pan American Only

Sports and Athletes by discrediting and ultimately disenfranchising the 7

Pan American Only Sports and Athletes National Governing Bodies.

To date the Senate bill S. 1404 has been passed by the Senate Commerce

Committee and has been sent to the floor for action this coming September.

The House Commerce Committee has yet to finalize their version of the bill

and anticipates completion in mid September, sending it to the House floor,

and being ready to Conference with the Senate in late September.

BACKGROUND: Pan American Only Sports & Athletes and the USOC

Since its inception, in the 1978 Amateur Sports Act and the updated 1999 Ted

Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, Pan American Only Sports and

Athletes have always been included in the mission of the USOC.

Pan American NGB's consist of 16.3% of all the 43 NGB's currently recognized

by the USOC.

The NGB's have a paid membership of over 7.5 million members and over 100

million US citizens participate on one level or another in these sports.

The recommendation of the Independent Commission and the Internal Task Force

to the Congress, if passed into law, would remove Pan American Only Sports

and Athletes from the mission of the USOC.

REQUEST: That Pan Ams be Mentioned ...

We ask that Congress, through its legislation, recommend that the new USOC

board include Pan American Only Sports and Athletes in its mission on the

level required to fulfill the original intent of the 1978 Amateur Sports

Act. Specifically, we ask that Congress insert the following language into

the United States Olympic Committee Reform Act of 2003:

"The Congress believes that the Pan-American sports and the Pan-American

athletes have greatly contributed to the U.S. Olympic movement. Further, the

National Governing Bodies (NGB's) representing the Pan-American sports have

made significant contributions to the U.S. Olympic Committee. Therefore, the

Congress, by reforming the USOC governance structure does not intend to

alter the relationship between the USOC and the Pan-American only sports or

their athletes."

Pan American Sports and Athletes are in jeopardy of being cut out of the

USOC Mission

We need you to write your Congressman and Senators

Our Sports need to be mentioned as part of the USOC in legislation being

debated on Capitol Hill, currently we are not mentioned

We also need you to support ongoing efforts to retain the USOC Headquarters

in Colorado

Due to the well-recognized failures of the USOC Governance Body, the United

States House and Senate initiated a review, elicited recommendation from two

review panels, and are currently at different stages of developing and

finalizing legislation aimed at reforming the governing structure of the

USOC.

The goal of this legislation is to reform the governance structure to, in

the words of Sen. John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and

Transportation Committee and chief sponsor of S. 1404, the United States

Olympic Committee Reform Act of 2003, "fulfill the original intent of the

1978 Amateur Sports Act." As you are well aware, this 1978 Act established

the USOC and recognized as a part of the USOC mission both Olympic and Pan

American Only Sports and Athletes. Unfortunately, the current Senate version

of the legislation S. 1404 does not go far enough to fulfill the original

intent of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act. Specifically, it falls short by

recommending the new USOC follow the recommendations of the Independent

Commission which suggests the new USOC remove Pan American Sports from it

mission.

NEGATIVE IMPACT ON PAN AMERICAN ONLY SPORTS & ATHLETES

The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science,

and Transportation Committee conducted several separate hearings about the

USOC and its management.

The Senate Committee mandated the USOC to create an Independent Commission

to review the current USOC structure and recommend solutions for

streamlining this mismanaged and ill-structured Committee. In addition, the

USOC also developed an Internal Task Force to work separately from the

Independent Commission and to report its findings in similar fashion to the

Congress.

Both review boards recently completed their reports and submitted them to

Congress. Both the House and the Senate are basing their reform plan in part

on these recommendations. Of major concern is that both the Independent

Commission and the Internal Task Force suggest that the USOC remove Pan

American Only Sports and Athletes from the USOC mission. If legislation is

passed that: a) Recommends that the new USOC board implement the

recommendation of the review panels and/ or b) Fails to specify that the

USOC include Pan American Only Sports and Athletes in its mission, then it

is the opinion of the Pan American Sports Council that the credibility of

the 7 NGBs that comprise Pan American Only Sports and Athletes will be

jeopardized, which will ultimately disenfranchise these sports, athletes,

and the bodies set up to govern them.

Current Congressional Status

To date, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has

completed work on its version of the bill S. 1404. The Committee generated a

report and recommended the bill to the Senate floor for debate, which is

scheduled for early September. Once passed, it will be ready for Conference

with the House version of the bill.

The House Commerce Committee has yet to complete its work on its version of

the bill. They expect to be completed and ready for Conference with the

Senate by late September.

Currently, there is no specific mention of Pan American Only Sports and

Athletes within the Senate Bill S. 1404. Further, it recommends that the

USOC implement the recommendations proposed by the Independent Commission:

this would, if passed, have the effect of removing Pan American Only Sports

and Athletes from the USOC mission. The contents of the House proposal are

yet to be known.

O'Brien and Associates, a lobbying firm in Washington helping us attempt to

solve this issue was able to convince Sen. Ben Campbell of Colorado to put a

hold on the Senate bill just days before the August Congressional recess and

are currently working with his staff to solve the issue surrounding Pan

American Only Sports and Athletes.

Additionally, Senator Campbell has asked us to assist him in his efforts to

get legislative language requiring the USOC Headquarters remain in Colorado.

As athletes in the Olympic movement you know first hand how valuable the

facilities in Colorado are to the success of the Olympic and Pan American

athletes. As part of your request to Congress we ask that you, as a Pan

American Only athlete, voice your support for retaining the USOC

Headquarters in Colorado.

NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP IN A LETTER-WRITING CAMPAIGN

We need you to help us. We need to act quickly and with great force. With

your assistance we will begin implementing an aggressive grassroots campaign

targeting both the House and Senate versions of the bill.

Linked to this Alert are three documents for you to use in your efforts to

help us facilitate this grassroots campaign. We want you to contact Congress

and convey your thoughts on this issue. To help you do that we have

generated:

a.) Bullet points, discussing the core issues of the case, to better educate

you on the specifics and to use as talking points if you find yourself on

the phone with a Congressional staffer.

b.) Congressional letters, one for you to send to your House Representative

and one for you to send to both of your Senators.

c.) And finally two links: the first will help you identify and contact your

Congressman and the other will help you identify and contact your senators.

We need to move quickly to solve this problem. Please work diligently to get

your message to the Congress. If it is your intention to mail letters via

the US Postal Service, we ask that you -- due to delayed mail delivery to

the Capitol Complex stemming from security issues -- send your letters

directly to our Washington Representatives for them to hand deliver to each

Member. Please address the envelope to the proper Member and paperclip it to

your letter and send it -- in a separate envelope -- addressed to:

James Gentry

O'Brien and Associates, LLC

203 C Street SE

Washington, D.C. 20003

Without your help we cannot succeed. The more weight our message carries the

more influence we have. So get going! ... and on behalf of the Pan American

Sports Council we thank you in advance for helping us win the day.