President Trump Issues EO on College Sports. On July 24, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14322, titled, “Saving College Sports.” Much like the SCORE Act that the Buzz recently discussed, the EO attempts to set some guardrails around the “out-of-control, rudderless system” of college athletics. The EO maintains, “A national solution is urgently needed to prevent this situation from deteriorating beyond repair and to protect non-revenue sports, including many women’s sports, that comprise the backbone of intercollegiate athletics, drive American superiority at the Olympics and other international competitions, and catalyze hundreds of thousands of student-athletes to fuel American success in myriad ways.”

Of course, the president’s authority to unilaterally set such guardrails is limited, so the EO encourages universities, depending on the amount of athletic revenue, to ensure certain amounts of scholarship opportunities and roster spots in nonrevenue sports. The EO also states that “pay for play” agreements “should not be permitted” (emphasis added). To advance these policy positions, the EO directs certain federal agencies (including the U.S. Department of Education) to “develop a plan” using “all available and appropriate regulatory, enforcement, and litigation mechanisms.” The EO also orders the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to “determine and implement the appropriate measures with respect to clarifying the status of collegiate athletes,” which is presumably that they are students and not employees. Of course, without a quorum, the Board’s ability to address this issue is currently limited.

DOL’s PAID Program Returns. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division is reviving its Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program, which is intended to “help employers resolve potential minimum wage and overtime violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), as well as certain potential violations under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).” The idea is to allow employers to voluntarily correct payroll errors and make employees whole in a timely manner, all while avoiding litigation. Eligible employers must meet certain criteria—such as a lack of previous violations or current litigation—before being accepted into the program and beginning their self-audits. The PAID program was first implemented during President Trump’s first administration, but was abandoned during the Biden administration.

NLRB Acting GC Issues Guidance on Union Salts. William B. Cowen, the acting general counsel of the NLRB, has issued a memorandum to regional offices, providing guidance on how they should investigate cases involving union salts (professional union organizers who seek to obtain employment with the sole intention of organizing a workplace). While job applicants are protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), they may lose that protection if they are not genuinely interested in seeking to establish an employment relationship with the employer. The memo provides guidance as to how regions can determine whether a genuine interest in employment is present. Indications that an applicant is not genuinely seeking employment include, but are not limited to, mass or batch applications (or stale or incomplete applications); applications with fictitious employer names, suspicious email addresses, or offensive remarks; and the applicant’s “engage[ment] in disruptive, insulting, or antagonistic behavior during the application process.” (Emphasis in the original.)

Republican Immigration Bills Seek Jail Time for Executives; Elimination of H-1B Cap Exemption. Hoping to capitalize on the Trump administration’s immigration policy agenda, Republicans in Congress have recently introduced the following bills:

• “Strengthening Accountability for Employers Hiring Individuals and Reforming Enforcement Act (SAFE HIRE) Act’’
  • Introduced by Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH), this bill would require executives of publicly traded companies to certify in their annual SEC filings the accuracy of their employment practices, including the number and legal work status of persons employed. Executives would also be required to report to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) known “significant deficiencies” that could adversely affect the company’s ability to ensure compliance with federal employment eligibility requirements.
  • Misrepresentations could lead to fines of up to $1 million, imprisonment for up to ten years, or both.
  • Executives who knowingly hire unlawful immigrants could be fined up to $5 million and imprisoned for twenty years, or both.
• “Colleges for the American People Act” (or “CAP Act”).
  • Introduced by Representatives Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Andrew Clyde (R-GA), the bill would eliminate the H-1B visa cap exemption for institutions of higher learning.

The Buzz will be monitoring the progress of these bills, though congressional action on any bill relating to immigration will be challenging in this Congress.

State Department to Require In-Person Interviews for Visa Holders. The U.S. Department of State will no longer waive in-person interviews at U.S. consulates for workers on H-1B or L-1 visas, as well as students on F-1 visas. According to a July 25, 2025, update on the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs website, “All nonimmigrant visa applicants, including applicants under the age of 14 and over the age of 79, will generally require an in-person interview.” The change pulls back a Biden-era policy that had encouraged waivers of the in-person interview requirement. The new policy will become effective on September 2, 2025.

Political Exercise. Do you remember the Presidential Fitness Test when you were in gym class back in school? Well, on July 31, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled, “President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, and the Reestablishment of the Presidential Fitness Test,” which reinstitutes the Presidential Fitness Test. The test traces its roots to Cold War competitiveness concerns that American children were weak and unhealthy (President-elect John F. Kennedy even published a 1960 article, “The Soft American,” in which he wrote, “[O]ur growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security”), and it existed in some form or another from the 1950s until around 2012. At that point, the Obama administration took a more holistic approach to health and well-being and abandoned the test. (Some readers might remember former First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” public health campaign.) Pro Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann, as well as former bodybuilder and movie star (and future governor of California), Arnold Schwarzenegger, were previous chairs of the Council. (Swann served on the Council from 2002 to 2005, and Schwarzenegger served from 1990 to 1993.) This time around, professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau will chair the Council. So limber up, kids—it’s time to do the sit-and-reach flexibility test.