WASHINGTON – Prominent members of the GOP sharply criticized the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IXincluding Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson, Chair of the House Committee on Education and Workforce Virginia Foxx, and former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
As the fate of a key Biden administration plan to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in schools hangs in the balance, Republicans at the state and federal levels are stepping up their efforts to block the measure from being implemented.
“As you know, the Department of Education … has tried to rewrite Title IX, and it’s having devastating consequences. That’s a concern 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 passage.
“There is still a lot of work to be done, and Congress is not just sitting around,” Johnson added, noting that the House of Representatives will soon vote on legislation to repeal the final rule.
The speaker is from Louisiana, one of ten states that have so far blocked the government’s final rule on Title IX from coming into effect on August 1.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction preventing the final rule from taking effect in the state, as well as in Idaho, Mississippi, and Montana.
Separately, Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the U.S. District Court in Eastern Kentucky also temporarily blocked the final ruling in the Bluegrass Stateas well as Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Virginia.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education confirmed that both rulings have been appealed. The agency has “asked the courts to allow the majority of the final rule to go into effect in those states on August 1 as planned while the appeals are pending.”
Republican attorneys general from 26 states have rushed to challenge the Biden administration’s final rule, with states joining forces to oppose the recent rule. Attorneys general from some states, such as Texas and Oklahoma, have sued the administration individually.
Regulation issued in April
In April Ministry of Education has released its final rule for Title IX, which “protects against discrimination based on sex 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, prevent recurrence, and remedy the effects of any sex discrimination in their educational programs or activities,” the department said.
The updated rules would reverse controversial changes to Title IX that DeVos oversaw during her tenure as Secretary of Education under the Trump administration and which were an significant part of her legacy. Interest groups fought against the Trump administration’s rule for years.
“It is time to return to the original intent of Title IX and let common sense prevail again,” said DeVos, who is also the former chair of the Republican Party of Michiganduring the panel discussion.
Also on the podium on Wednesday were Riley Gainesa former NCAA swimmer, and Heather Higgins, chair of the conservative Independent Women’s Forum.
Gaines, who competed for the University of Kentucky, is a leading voice in the fight against transgender athletes’ participation in sports that correspond with their gender identity.
Vote expected in the House of Representatives
A measure to block the implementation of this rule is to be put to a vote in the House of Representatives after the Committee on Education and the Workforce adopted legislation in early June, which would repeal the rule under the Congressional Review Act. This is a Procedural instrument Congress can overturn certain actions by federal agencies.
Representative Mary Miller, a Republican from Illinois and vice chair of the committee, introduced the measure, which has already passed 70 GOP co-sponsors.
Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said Miller’s resolution on the Congressional Review Act would “roll back these new Biden administration rules that undo most of the work that was done under [Education] Secretary DeVos, that was extraordinarily well thought out and well done.”
Republicans have also stepped up their efforts in the Senate. There, Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith from Mississippi introduced a legislation In early June, an attempt was made to block the final rule using the same procedural tool. Over 30 of Hyde-Smith’s GOP colleagues are co-signatories.
Regardless of whether attempts to block the measure in the House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate are successful, President Joe Biden is likely to veto it.
LGBTQ+ advocacy group speaks out
“Sadly, it is no surprise that Speaker Johnson and MAGA Republicans are once again attacking transgender children,” said David Stacy, vice president of government affairs for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, in an emailed statement to States Newsroom.
Stacy said that during her tenure as Secretary of Education under Trump, DeVos “rolled back protections for LGBTQ+ students and did nothing to ensure they were safe from bullying, harassment and discrimination in school.”
“Every student has a right to be safe and respected in school, but Johnson and DeVos clearly don’t care. All they have to offer the American people are cruel and cynical political attacks that are a desperate attempt to save their dysfunctional majority in the House of Representatives,” Stacy added.
Ministry of Education defends rule
A Department of Education spokesman said the agency had “developed the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to give full effect to Title IX’s legal guarantee that no one will experience sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions,” reiterating an earlier statement.
The spokesperson reiterated that all schools receiving federal funds must comply with the final rule to receive those funds.
The department has not yet adopted a separate rule establishing recent criteria for transgender athletes.
