WASHINGTON — Prominent members of the Republican Party on Wednesday issued pointed criticism The Biden administration’s final Title IX regulationsincluding U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
As the fate of a key Biden administration effort to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in schools hangs in the balance, Republicans at the state and federal levels are stepping up efforts to prevent the measure from becoming law.
“As you know, the Department of Education … has taken steps to rewrite Title IX, which has had a very devastating impact. That’s something that’s a huge wake-up call for all of us,” Johnson said during a panel discussion at the U.S. Capitol on “Protecting Title IX and Women’s Sports” to mark the 52nd anniversary of its adoption.
“There is still much work to be done, and Congress is not sitting idly by,” Johnson added, noting that the House of Representatives will soon vote on legislation to undo the final version of the rules.
The chairman comes from Louisiana, one of 10 states that have so far temporarily blocked the administration’s final Title IX regulations from entering into force before August 1.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty Louisiana issued a ephemeral injunction prohibiting the final regulations from going into effect in that state, as well as in Idaho, Mississippi, and Montana.
Separately, Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Kentucky also temporarily blocked the final order in the case Bluegrass Stateas well as in Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education confirmed it will appeal both rulings, saying the agency “has asked the trial courts to allow most of the final regulations to go into effect in these states as scheduled on August 1 while the appeals are pending.”
Republican attorneys general from 26 states quickly rushed to challenge the Biden administration’s final order, and states united against the fresh regulations. The attorneys general of some states, such as Texas and Oklahoma, have sued the administration individually.
The regulation was issued in April
In April, the USA Department of Education published a final rule on Title IX that “protects against discrimination based on gender stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”
Part of the final rule also “promotes accountability by requiring schools to take prompt and effective action to end any sex discrimination in educational programs or activities, prevent its recurrence, and remedy its effects,” the department said.
Updated regulations would make this possible withdraw controversial changes to Title IX that DeVos oversaw when she was education secretary in the Trump administration and were an essential part of her legacy. Advocacy groups have fought for years against the Trump administration’s policies.
“It is time to return Title IX to its original intent and allow common sense to prevail once again,” said DeVos, who is also a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Michigan Republican Partyduring the panel discussion.
Wednesday’s panel also featured: Riley Gainesformer NCAA swimmer and Heather Higgins, president of the conservative Independent Women’s Forum.
Gaines, who represented the University of Kentucky, has been a leading voice opposing the participation of transgender athletes in sports consistent with their gender identity.
A vote was expected in the House of Representatives
A measure blocking the rule from taking effect is scheduled for a vote of the full House after a hearing of the House Education and Workforce Committee. approved legislation in early June, it would reverse the rule under the Congressional Review Act. This is procedural tool Congress can utilize it to invalidate certain actions of federal agencies.
Congresswoman Mary Miller, Republican of Illinois and vice chairwoman of the committee, introduced the bill, which has already been passed 70 Republican Party co-sponsors.
Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said Miller’s resolution on the Congressional Review Act “would undo new regulations put in place by the Biden administration that undo much of the work that Secretary (Education) DeVos did, which was incredibly thoughtful and well done.”
Republican action also intensified in the Senate, where U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican from Mississippi, introduced legislation in early June in an attempt to block the final rule using the same procedural tool. More than 30 of Hyde-Smith’s GOP colleagues are co-sponsors.
Regardless of whether efforts to block the bill in the House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate are successful, President Joe Biden is likely to veto the bill.
LGBTQ+ advocacy group speaks out
“Unfortunately, it is no surprise that Chairman Johnson and MAGA Republicans are once again attacking transgender children,” David Stacy, vice president of government affairs at the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ rights group, said in an emailed statement to States Newsroom.
Stacy said that although DeVos was education secretary under Trump, she “rolled back protections for LGBTQ+ students and did nothing to keep them safe from bullying, harassment and discrimination at school.”
“Every student deserves to be safe and respected at school, and Johnson and DeVos clearly don’t care about that at all. All they have to offer the American people are vicious and cynical political attacks in a desperate attempt to save their dysfunctional House majority,” Stacy added.
The Department of Education defends the regulations
A Department of Education spokesperson said the agency “developed the final Title IX regulations after following a rigorous process to fully implement Title IX’s statutory guarantee that no individual will experience discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education,” echoing an earlier statement.
The spokesperson reiterated that all schools receiving federal funding are required to comply with the final regulations as a condition of receiving the funds.
The department has not yet developed a separate rule establishing fresh criteria for transgender athletes.
