(PhatzRadio / USA Today) — Jack Kingston, R-Ga., and Betty McCollum, D-Minn., plan to present a second amendment banning military sports sponsorships Wednesday in the House of Representatives to ensure a vote.
The second amendment would be presented when H.R. 5856, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2013, is heard in the House. It is scheduled for Wednesday, according to a legislative schedule kept by the Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.
If either amendment survives and the bill eventually becomes law, it would bar the National Guard from sponsoring Dale Earnhardt Jr. in NASCAR and J.R. Hildebrand in IndyCar, the Army from sponsoring Tony Schumacher in NHRA and the Marine Corps from sponsoring the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
MORE: House defense bill would cut NASCAR sponsorships
A similar amendment by McCollum twice failed in the House last year.
The main difference with the new amendment and the one in H.R. 5856 is that the new one specifically targets the $72.3 million the military branches have budgeted for sports sponsorships in fiscal year 2013 and that the savings would go toward deficit reduction.
The new amendment set to be presented Wednesday seeks to strip the National Guard of $53.9 million budgeted toward sports sponsorships. The amendment also would strip the Navy of $4.2 million, Army of $4.1 million and Marine Corps of $2.3 million.
“Seventy-two million bucks is a lot of money,” said Bill Harper, chief of staff for Rep. McCollum. “We’re fine with the military advertising, we’re fine with the military recruiting at these professional sports events, absolutely. That’s not the intention of this amendment at all. The sponsorships are something completely different.
“With regards to sponsorship, the numbers don’t demonstrate that it’s effective. The Army’s decision only validates that.”
The Army announced last week that it would not sponsor a car and not return to NASCAR after this season.
The Army spent $8.4 million on its NASCAR program this year and will discontinue the decade-long program because “the bottom line is the return has to make enough sense … and the decision was made in the case of NASCAR that we could invest those resources into other things that would have a higher marketing payoff for us,” said John Myers of the Army Marketing and Research Group.
NASCAR chief marketing officer Steve Phelps defended the military’s involvement in NASCAR after the Army’s announcement, saying: “NASCAR continues to be a powerful and critical part of the marketing mix for other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces and more Fortune 500 companies than any other sport.”
According to a NASCAR release Tuesday, one in five Fortune 500 companies currently invest in the sport.
Another issue with presenting a second amendment, other than eliminating specific amounts, is to ensure a House vote.
Harper notes there’s a question about if the amendment already in the bill could be stricken on procedural rules.
“One of our concerns is that we would never even get to actually debate this or have a vote on it on the floor,” he said.
By offering a second amendment in an earlier section of the bill, it presents the opportunity for debate and a vote, Harper said.
This comes a day after a letter on behalf of NASCAR, IndyCar, NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball was sent to Speaker John Boehner and other politicians asking that the measure be defeated.
“Given the success of the military’s use of professional sports to reach out to the American people,” the letter states, “we encourage you to support the U.S. Armed Forces and enable them to continue to have the same access to media and venues as world leading businesses and nonprofits. Please work to remove the Kingston-McCollum Amendment from the House DOD Appropriations bill.”
NASCAR military sponsorships facing fight is a post from: PhatzRadio.com
