House Republicans voted Thursday to overturn a Biden administration rule that would have strengthened federal anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, marking the GOP’s latest victory in amending Title IX, the civil rights law that bans sex discrimination in schools and education programs that receive federal funding.
In April, the Education Department released the final version of a series of sweeping changes to the decades-old law, including expanding the definition of sex discrimination to include discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation — a provision that has infuriated Republican lawmakers in Congress and states across the country.
House Republicans on Thursday passed the Congressional Review Act by a party-line 210-205 vote to overturn the administration’s Title IX rules and revert to regulations put in place under former President Trump. Ten Republicans and eight Democrats did not vote.
But a similar resolution is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the White House said this week that President Biden would veto the resolution if it reached his desk. The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s vote.
Republicans primarily argued the new rules would allow transgender women and girls to participate on girls’ school sports teams, but the Biden administration has yet to finalize separate rules governing sports eligibility.
A proposal unveiled by the Education Department last year would bar schools from enacting policies that would blanketly bar transgender student-athletes from sports teams that match their gender identity, but would still allow schools to limit participation based on certain criteria. The department delayed the rule last week, moving the proposal to a “long-term measure” without setting a broad deadline.
“Biden’s Title IX rules will be the end of girls’ sports,” said Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), the lead sponsor of the disapproval resolution. “We should pray for a return to the Trump Administration policies that protected girls from these vile left-wing people and their agendas.”
House Democrats slammed the vote to overturn new Title IX rules that would have strengthened protections for pregnant and parenting students and changed how schools handle sexual harassment and assault claims.
“Republicans claim this resolution is in support of women’s rights, but their proposed solution would make things worse for female students,” said Rep. Mark Takano (R-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. “Overturning this rule would exacerbate existing inequalities, prevent future administrations from enacting similar rules, and place the onus solely on the LGBTQI+ community. This is shortsighted, narrow-minded, and cruel.”
More than 20 Republican-led states have filed lawsuits alleging that the new rules undermine Title IX. Last month, a federal judge sided with the states in three of the cases, blocking the administration’s rules from going into effect in 14 Republican-led states while the courts continue to try them. The remaining states are scheduled to implement the changes by August 1.
The administration’s rules also won’t be enforced in schools attended by children of members of the conservative political group Moms for Liberty or members of the Young America’s Foundation, an organization of young conservatives.
While Title IX is federal law, each administration has taken different approaches to enforcing the regulation, which schools must comply with to receive federal funds. In May, former President Trump vowed to overturn the Biden administration’s rule on his first day in office if he was re-elected in November.
