SafeSport Center changes targeted in new bill aimed at sex abuse in sports

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Four members of Congress unveiled a bipartisan bill Friday that would spark changes at the U.S. Center for SafeSport, placing a time limit on resolving cases that can sometimes take years and improving communication between the center and abuse survivors.

The Safer Sports for Athletes Act looks to address some of the bigger concerns that have opened the center to criticism since it was established in 2017 to handle sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports and their grassroots cousins.

The bill has potential for a fivefold increase of an existing grant to the center, bringing it to $10 million a year. But even if the full amount were approved, it wouldn't solve all of the problems.

As before, that grant can only be used for training and education, not investigations and enforcement, which are the focus of complaints about the center, and also of the reforms the lawmakers are seeking.

“We’re hoping the combination of appropriations for other activities will free up money for investigations, as well as the streamlining,” said one of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Deborah Ross, D-North Carolina.

The center estimates the reforms in the bill could cost more than $4.5 million. It currently operates on a budget of around $21 million a year, most of which comes from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its sports affiliates, known as national governing bodies, or NGBs.

“It's really unclear, and I don't think that some parts of the bill jibe with other parts of the bill," SafeSport CEO Ju'Riese Colon said. "We're going to need some more conversation to suss out some of this stuff. Right now, it just doesn't really add up for us.”

The center's critics, meanwhile, have long been skeptical about giving more resources to an agency they feel is missing the mark.

The bill would also mandate that investigations be concluded within 180 days after a report is made, with possibilities to extend them. Some of the most egregious complaints about the center have come from people who say it has taken years for their cases to be resolved.

The center currently receives about 155 reports a week, which comes to more than 8,000 a year. When fully staffed, it has 77 people on its response and resolution team.

“Too many other survivors have also been left waiting for years for SafeSport to investigate or have their cases closed without action,” said soccer player Mana Shim, who helped lawmakers draft the bill.

Shim's own case, involving sexual harassment and coercion by her coach, took more than two years for the center to resolve and led to investigations and reforms across American soccer.

Other reforms include a requirement for the center to provide victim advocates at no cost for those needing them — a move already underway as part of a menu of changes the center announced earlier this year — and to assign case managers who can give timely updates to victims and the accused.

“I have questions around, if the center were to hire and staff the advocates, there might be some conflict of interest with us doing this internally," Colon said.

The center was also concerned with one provision that would redefine how arbitration works and another that would change the dynamics of information sharing between the center and the USOPC and NGBs.

The other bill sponsors were Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio; Don Bacon, R-Nebraska; and Kathy Castor, D-Florida. The lawmakers positioned the bill as one that will help the Denver-based center, while making clear they are not satisfied with the results so far.

“We're going to make sure the center has the resources it needs to effectively respond to thousands of reports it handles annually,” Castor said. “It has unfortunately fallen short."

Ross conceded this bill will probably get pushed to the next Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, “but we needed to set the stage as soon as possible.”

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