The House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly advanced a measure to block the Biden administration’s new regulations overhauling Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which in part provide greater protections for LGBTQ+ students.
Thursday’s vote along party lines is the latest step in Republicans’ fight with the Biden administration over the Title IX rule, which replaced Trump-era regulations. On the House floor, GOP lawmakers lambasted the changes, which are set to take effect Aug. 1, as “unlawful” and “radical.” At the state level, 26 Republican attorneys general are fighting the rule and have already secured temporary injunctions to block the regulations in 14 states.
The House effort invokes the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn a federal rule within 60 days. Under the act, a simple majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate can vote to stop the administration from carrying out a rule, though a CRA resolution is subject to a presidential veto. The resolution of disapproval is unlikely to move forward in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The White House “strongly opposes” the measure and said President Biden would veto it.
In addition to rolling back the latest rule, the resolution would prevent the department from issuing substantially similar regulations in the future.
The Title IX rule creates new protections for pregnant and parenting students, makes it easier for students to report sexual harassment, and requires colleges to take prompt and effective action in responding to those reports, among other changes. Additionally, the regulations clarify that the sex-based discrimination prohibited under Title IX includes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. It’s that change that’s prompted most of the pushback against the rule, with Republicans arguing it undermines the original intent of the gender-equity law.
“Unlike Democrats, Republicans know what a woman is, and we know Title IX was written to protect the rights of women,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. “Today, House Republicans stood with American women and girls to override the Biden administration’s radical revision of Title IX that hurts women, undermines women’s rights, allows men to compete in women’s sports, and threatens the safety of women’s-only spaces.”
Republicans and others have argued the discrimination ban would require schools to allow men into women’s locker rooms and bathrooms, while Democrats counter that the provision allows transgender individuals to use facilities consistent with their gender identity.
“By adding ‘gender identity’ to Title IX’s protected classes, the radical left and the Biden administration will tear down women’s sports and eliminate safe and private spaces for girls,” said Representative Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the House education committee, in remarks on the House floor. “The rule puts a man’s perceived feelings of femininity on par with actual womanhood rooted in biological sex.”
Foxx and others also argued that the regulations would “strip women and girls of athletic opportunities” that Title IX has historically provided.
“The Biden Title IX rule will be the end of girls’ sports,” said Representative Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican and co-sponsor of the resolution. “The prospect of this is sickening, and parents across this country are horrified. We must pray for a return to the Trump administration policies that protected our girls.”
Representative Suzanne Bonamici, an Oregon Democrat on the House education committee, repeatedly noted during the floor debate Wednesday that the new Title IX rule doesn’t concern athletics. Instead, the Biden administration is working on a separate set of regulations on transgender students’ participation in sports. That rule, initially set to be released in April, is still in the works. It was recently moved to the agency’s “long-term actions” agenda, signaling a further delay in the process.
“Colleagues across the aisle keep talking about athletics because they don’t want to admit the truth behind this resolution,” Bonamici said. “This resolution is an attempt to undermine nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students. LGBTQ+ students, including transgender students, deserve to go to school free from discrimination, and that’s what this rule is about. It’s not about bathrooms.”
Bonamici later more forcefully rejected Republicans’ arguments about how the rule would allow men to enter women’s bathrooms.
“The claim that allowing transgender people to use facilities that match the gender they live every day allows men into women’s bathrooms or women into men’s is based on a flawed understanding of what it means to be a transgender person and a misrepresentation of the law,” she said.
She and other Democrats said the resolution was cruel and would have drastic consequences for LGBTQ+ students, pregnant and parenting students, and survivors of sexual harassment and violence. Representative Mark Takano, a California Democrat, said the resolution would “tear down all protections” in the new rule, making the situation on campuses and in schools worse for female students.
Emma Grasso Levine, senior manager of Title IX policy and programs at Know Your IX, a survivor- and youth-led project of the nonprofit Advocates for Youth, said in a statement that the vote was “incredibly disappointing.”
“By voting to strip students of critical Title IX protections against sex-based discrimination, House lawmakers have ceded to transphobic extremists at the expense of countless young people’s right to a safe, inclusive education,” she said. “Despite today’s infuriating vote, the Biden Administration’s Title IX rule still stands. Students are calling on the Senate to champion their civil rights by voting against any attempt to undermine President Biden’s Title IX rule—and stand in solidarity with the young people who worked tirelessly to make new Title IX protections a reality.”
The Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative advocacy group opposed to the Title IX changes, applauded the CRA.
“Today, we saw clearly who stands with women, and who doesn’t,” said Carrie Lukas, president of the Independent Women’s Forum, in a statement. “Title IX is a law that has been essential for women’s flourishing. Now, the Biden administration is pushing women aside to make way for any man willing to say he is a woman. It is shameful and it is wrong. Anyone who cares about women’s rights—and plain old common sense—should take notice.”
