Mark Kelly Celebrates Senate Passage of Service Academy Athletic Funding Bill

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is celebrating the passage of the bipartisan USMMA Athletics Act in the Senate.

What the Bill Does

The USMMA Athletics Act allows the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Nassau, New York, to establish a non-profit organization that handles fundraising, licensing, ticketing, and other matters related to athletics, as the other four service academies do.

The USMMA has 19 athletic teams and conducts 55% of its recruiting through those teams. Recruits are trained as midshipmen in the Merchant Marine or as commissioned officers in the Armed Forces.

The bill also has a personal investment from Sen. Kelly: he graduated from the USMMA in 1986 and has served on the Board of Visitors since 2023.

What Lawmakers are Saying

"Nothing prepared me better for my career—in the Navy, at NASA, and even in the Senate—than the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy," said Sen. Kelly in a press release. "This bill will strengthen and elevate USMMA's ability to invest in midshipmen both in and beyond the classroom."

Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), the bill's cosponsor, said, "By supporting service academy athletics, we boost recruitment and retention at America's service academies. It is time to give the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy the same tools that other academies have to make the most of athletics programs."

Previous Education-Focused Bills

The USMMA Athletics Act comes on the heels of the Arizona Senator's Educators for America Act and the Building Community in America Act, which would expand pathways for Americans to serve as teachers, mentors, and volunteers, with a particular focus on increasing male participation.

"A lot of young men are struggling. They're often isolated. They don't have role models," Kelly commented. "That's challenging for a lot of the young men across our country. When a mentor or a father figure leaves a young man's life, they are more likely to become incarcerated than to graduate from college. It's a drastic change in their lives, and you can improve a young man's life by having somebody that they can talk to who's also a man."