WASHINGTON – Republicans in Congress have taken a step forward in their efforts to reverse the Biden administration’s final rule on Title IX after the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee passed a measure on Thursday that would repeal the updated regulations.
The U.S. Department of Education’s final rule to protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in schools, which is set to take effect on August 1, was Wave of GOP backlashBut even if efforts to overturn the bill succeed in the House and Senate, President Joe Biden is likely to veto it.
Nearly 70 Republican members of the House of Representatives are supporting a bill introduced by Representative Mary Miller, a Republican from Illinois and vice chair of the committee, introduced last weekThe measure aims to ensure that the final regulation is Congressional Review Act – a procedural tool that allows Congress to overturn certain actions by federal agencies.
The bill is now set to go to a vote in the full House of Representatives after the Republican-led committee passed the measure in a 24-16 vote.
“Title IX has paved the way for new opportunities in education, scholarships and sports for our girls. Unfortunately [President] “Joe Biden is destroying all that progress,” Miller said during Thursday’s briefing.
Supporters of Miller’s bill expressed opposition to the up-to-date rules during the vote, including committee chair Virginia Foxx and Representatives Lisa McClain of Michigan, Bob Good of Virginia and Nathaniel Moran of Texas.
“To be clear, this rule is not designed to protect LGBTQ students from sexual harassment. Title IX already does that. I repeat: Title IX already protects LGBTQ students,” said Foxx, a North Carolina Republican.
Good said, “With the stroke of a pen, the Biden administration has destroyed the promises of equal opportunity for women contained in Title IX and eliminated sexually protected spaces such as restrooms, locker rooms and campus housing for students from kindergarten through graduate school.”
A slew of Republican attorneys general quickly challenged the final rule, released by the federal agency in April, and it has sparked a series of lawsuits in various federal courts as Republican-led states seek to block the rule’s implementation.
Democratic opposition
Meanwhile, Democratic committee members spoke out against the Republican-led measure.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon said, “The use of the Congressional Review Act is not only unnecessary, it is deeply harmful.”
Bonamici said the up-to-date Title IX rule “strengthens protections for vulnerable student groups, including the LGBTQ+ community, and for the first time explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Virginia state Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the committee, said he was baffled that the committee spent six months and more than five years “investigating the existence of hostile learning environments in educational institutions and then, for publicly stated reasons, decided to bring the CRA bill before the committee.”
Efforts of the Republican Party in the Senate
In the Senate this week, more than 30 Republicans, led by Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, introduced a bill that also seeks to reverse the final rule by invoking the Congressional Review Act. All that is needed in the Senate is a majority vote.
At a press conference on Wednesday Announcement of legislationHyde-Smith called the rule “backward” and said it “only harms women and girls by depriving them of opportunities and rights they have enjoyed for decades.” She added that the rule would have “dramatic effects outside the classroom as well.”
“Title IX was about ensuring that women are treated fairly compared to men. The new Biden rule radically overhauls Title IX, introducing a progressive gender ideology that rolls back long-standing protections for women and girls,” Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and the bill’s lead sponsor, said in a statement this week.
“This is the end of Title IX as we know it,” he added.
Response from the Ministry of Education
In response to these congressional efforts, a Department of Education spokesman reiterated an earlier statement and said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
The spokesman added: “A condition for receiving federal funds is that all state-funded schools comply with these final regulations.”
The spokesperson also said the department looks forward to “working with school communities across the country to ensure that the nondiscrimination in school guaranteed by Title IX benefits every student.”
The department has not yet agreed on a separate rule to establish up-to-date criteria for transgender athletes.
