GOP, Dems clash over spirit of trans sports ban
Republicans claim the bill is necessary to safeguard the integrity of Title IX, while Democrats argue that it’s dangerous that actually puts children and girls at risk.
First Things First
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome back to Once Upon a Hill. The presidential inauguration is in six days. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced this morning that flags will fly at full-staff on Inauguration Day. President Joe Biden last month ordered that US flags at all federal government buildings, military sites, and vessels at home and abroad be flown at half-staff for 30 days to honor the late former President Jimmy Carter. Johnson said the flags will be lowered back the following day.
In this evening’s edition, let’s start with Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) who marched out of the House Democrats’ weekly caucus meeting towards me and unloaded before I could even make sense of the moment.
“I’m fired up!” she said. “Why am I fired up? These people, and by that I mean the Republican Conference, have lost their way. They have lost their moral compass. So there’s this whole thing with this piece-of-shit bill that they’re trying to pursue, right?”
The POS bill in question? It’s called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, and it passed the House this afternoon thanks to unanimous support from all voting Republicans and two Texas Democrats, Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vincente Gonzalez. (Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.) voted present.)
Fundamentally, the bill bans transgender students from girls’ sports, a step House Republicans claim is necessary to safeguard the integrity of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding. (The Biden administration expanded Title IX to include gender identity in 2024.)
“This is a great day for women in America,” Speaker Johnson said after the vote. “Republicans yet again stood up for women.”
But Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said the complete opposite, characterizing the bill as dangerous that actually puts children and girls at risk.
“It’s called the Child Predator Empowerment Act,” Frost told me this morning while referring to the bill by the name House Democrats rebranded it. “This is a bill that the foundation of it is based on checking or asking young girls about their genitalia. So this Act works to empower pedophiles and predators—the assistant coach, the chaperone, the person who’s helping out that day, adults that are strangers to these kids will be empowered by the United States Congress and government to check genitalia or ask about it without the parents present.”
Rep. Greg Steube, the Florida Republican lead sponsor of the bill, said in a statement to me that the bill clearly states that sex will be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth and that any other assertions are false.
“Men are erasing women’s sports, yet the left would rather distract and fearmonger than offend their radical leftist base, who can’t even define what a woman is,” Steube added. “Moms, dads, and athletes all over the country are watching this vote. Democrats should have the courage to stand with real women.”
Balint said that while the bill seems targeted to trans girls athletes, it has a material impact on all trans women, including Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), whom Balint told me was the target of 300,000 X posts yesterday referring to her in transphobic terms. A spokesperson for X could not be immediately reached for comment.
“What is Speaker Johnson doing? What’s he doing to protect one of our own? He is the speaker for the entire House,” she said. “He's not just a speaker for the conference. He knows this is happening. He knows Nancy Mace is fanning the flames. He’s doing nothing to protect our own. And I won’t have it. I won’t have it.”
I was unable to independently confirm Balint’s claim and a spokesperson for McBride did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Johnson referred me to comments the speaker made during his weekly press conference this morning.
“I’ve got two sons and two daughters. And we see the difference. Of course, everyone does and it’s kind of silly to deny it,” he said. “The American people sent a clear message in November: They want us to return to common sense and we’re gonna see if Democrats have heard that message. We certainly have and we're happy to lead on it.”
Critics of the bill call it the latest front of the GOP’s culture wars against vulnerable and diverse communities, but Democrats also warn that the measure is proof that Republicans are devoid of solutions to grow the economy and lower everyday costs, the two issues most top of mind for voters in the 2024 election.
“They don’t give a shit about working Americans. All they’ve got are messaging bills, one after the other after another,” Balint said. “I just want to remind everybody [Republicans oversaw the] least productive Congress in modern history. They did nothing to lower costs. They did nothing to build more housing. They did nothing to make sure that workers could organize and get a fair wage. They have no plan. They still have no plan.”
Frost, in agreement with his congressional classmate, told me Republicans are only interested in issues that motivate their base.
“That’s what people hate about politics. That’s why I ran for Congress so young because I hate that,” he added. “And it’s part of the reason we want to work really hard to take back the House. We have to hold this president accountable to his own promise of getting prices down.”
House Republicans passed a previous version of the bill last Congress, but Chuck Schumer, then the Senate Majority Leader, did not bring companion legislation introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to the floor.
But now Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. And if the Laken Riley Act, which would require the federal government to deport undocumented immigrants accused of a crime from the US, is any indication, Democrats seem open to sliding to center on some hot-button social issues.
I asked Balint if she was concerned that seven of the Democrats the bill would need to press the Senate could be influenced by the 2024 election to vote for these bills and send them to Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
“Sure, and what I will encourage my Senate colleagues to do is to read the details of the bills,” she said. “Because as we know, the titles do not reflect what’s really happening in the bill.”
Today in Congress
The House met today to debate and vote on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. The House Ways and Means Committee and House Oversight Committee held separate organizational meetings. Ways and Means also held a hearing on permanently extending the Trump tax cuts.
The Senate met to resume consideration of the Laken Riley Act. The Senate Armed Services Committee held a confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense.
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