With a potential name change for the Washington Redskins gaining popularity among the general public, yet another voice has been added to the debate — and this time, it’s a slightly more powerful one. Both houses of Congress have introduced legislation to strip the National Football League of its tax-exempt status if it does not address a team name that many find to be a racial slur.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) have both introduced bills in their respective houses of Congress that would strip the National Football League of its long-held tax-exempt status, which it is granted nonprofit status under current tax laws. Technically, only the NFL League Office is tax-exempt, because it is classified as a trade organization that is financed by its 32 teams. Individual member teams pay taxes on their own revenue in terms of the NFL as a whole.

By targeting the NFL’s tax-exempt status, Norton and Cantwell are sending a strong message to the NFL that allowing a name like “Redskins” is both offensive and a problem that pertains to the league as a whole, since its 32 owners share the revenues from all 32 teams, Redskins included. While this bill does not target the Redskins organization directly, it does target the person that perhaps has the greatest power to compel the team to change the name — Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Some critics of the name change paint this case as yet another example of political correctness gone awry and point to the team’s long-standing traditional support in the D.C. area as proof that its fans do not want the name changed. However, these critics fail to acknowledge that the name is offensive to people far beyond D.C., who still have every right to participate as NFL fans without being forced to encounter what many would consider a racial slur. Inconclusive polling and anecdotal evidence from ardent fans of the franchise is not enough to override the standards of decency to which a league as powerful and influential as the NFL must hold itself.

A bill such as this could potentially force the hand of Goodell to take those opposed to the name seriously. Since Redskins owner Dan Snyder has held firm on his right to keep the moniker, this bill’s passage would put the onus on the NFL community as a whole. This is a message that needs to be sent, and given the NFL’s penchant for controversy in recent months, Goodell should heed this message and not take this issue lightly.