119th (2025–2027)
H.R. 8788
The Let Kids Play Act prohibits private equity firms classified as "vulture investors" from investing in youth sports entities and bans all private equity-backed companies from engaging in exploitative practices such as consolidating control over multiple youth sports providers, imposing hidden fees, requiring exclusive multi-year commitments, restricting athlete competition, or claiming ownership of athlete data and performance metrics. Existing vulture investors must divest their ownership stakes within two years, return all acquired assets and intellectual property, and remove their personnel, with monthly revenue escrow payments and financial penalties if they fail to meet divestiture deadlines. The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have authority to impose additional remedies including forcing companies to disgorge profits, forgive debts, refund excessive fees, and restore scholarship programs, and can block or oversee sales to protect competition and financial stability. The bill includes anti-evasion provisions that prevent companies from circumventing its requirements through creative restructuring or transaction arrangements by allowing regulators to look past the legal form of a deal to its actual substance.