More than two dozen Senate Republicans on Wednesday supported efforts to repeal a Biden administration rule that strengthens federal anti-discrimination protections for transgender students.
The Department of Education in April finalized sweeping changes to Title IX, a federal civil rights law that bans sex discrimination in schools and education programs that receive federal funding. The new rules, which for the first time cover discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, have been praised by LGBTQ rights advocates and panned by conservatives.
The administration’s Title IX revisions will also strengthen anti-discrimination protections for pregnant students and change how schools handle allegations of sexual misconduct.
A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday blocked the Biden administration’s reforms from taking effect later this summer. In her ruling, Judge Reed O’Connor accused President Biden and the Department of Education of pursuing “policies that are starkly alien to the language, structure, and current status of Title IX.”
Lawsuits challenging the new regulations have been filed across the country, many in conservative jurisdictions.
On Wednesday, 35 Senate Republicans co-sponsored a resolution of disapproval seeking to overturn the new rules, following a similar resolution introduced by more than 60 House Republicans last week.
“President Biden’s Title IX regulations unreasonably stretch the law, ignore basic biological facts, and violate the rights of parents and teachers,” Sen. Cindy Hyde Smith (R-Miss.), who led the joint resolution in the Senate, said Wednesday. In a statement.
The Education Department said it does not comment on pending bills and declined to comment on the resolution.
Senators said Wednesday that their opposition to the latest Title IX changes centers on concerns that the new regulations would allow transgender women and girls to compete on girls’ school sports teams, invalidating laws passed in 24 states that ban transgender student-athletes from competing based on their gender identity.
At least four similar laws in Arizona, Idaho, West Virginia and Utah have been blocked by federal court orders. According to the Movement Advancement Project:A nonprofit that tracks LGBTQ laws.
But the Biden administration has yet to finalize another rule governing athletes’ eligibility: a proposal released by the Education Department last year that would prohibit schools from enacting blanket policies banning transgender student-athletes from participating on sports teams that match their gender identity, with some exceptions.
Senate Republicans added Wednesday that the disapproval resolution was a response to concerns that the administration’s Title IX changes threaten free speech and undermine due process protections for students accused of sexual harassment. Title IX regulations enacted in 2020 under former President Trump strengthened the rights of individuals accused of misconduct.
Title IX is federal law, but each administration has taken different approaches to enforcing the regulation, which schools must comply with as a condition of receiving federal funding. President Trump vowed last month to overturn the Biden administration’s rule on his first day in office if he is re-elected in November.
