The U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) announced Wednesday that it’s suspending federal funding for choose education schemes in Maine, citing the state’s refusal to adjust to President Donald Trump’s anti-trans directive to exclude transgender college students from ladies’ and ladies’s sports activities.
In a letter to Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D), Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the funding freeze would have an effect on “sure administrative and technological features in faculties,” and warned that “[t]his is simply the start.”
Rollins also noted that the USDA is reviewing Maine’s analysis and education-related funding to evaluate compliance with the U.S. Structure, federal regulation, and the Trump administration’s anti-trans policy agenda. She particularly invoked Title IX — which the White Home has weaponized against trans people — and Title VI, which the administration has distorted to go after range, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, who represents southern Maine, condemned the transfer. “Let’s name this what it’s: straight-up political blackmail,” she said. “The Trump administration is threatening the livelihoods of Maine college students, educators, and researchers in a determined try and punish our state for refusing to discriminate in opposition to transgender college students.”
In January, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in ladies’s sports activities. The next month, throughout a Nationwide Governors Affiliation assembly on the White Home, he publicly criticized Maine for permitting college students to take part in sports activities according to their gender identification — a coverage rooted within the Maine Human Rights Act, which prohibits gender identification discrimination in schooling, together with athletics.
“Fortuitously,” Maine Legal professional Common Aaron Frey wrote in a statement in February, “the rule of regulation nonetheless applies on this nation, and I’ll do all the things in my energy to defend Maine’s legal guidelines and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us.”
Regardless of that, the Trump administration quickly escalated its stress marketing campaign on states that refused to conform together with his anti-trans agenda. In February, the Division of Justice issued letters to Maine, California, and Minnesota threatening authorized motion if they didn’t bar transgender college students from ladies’s sports activities.
The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services (HHS) launched speedy investigations into Maine’s alleged violations of the administration’s anti-trans interpretation of Title IX. These probes moved unusually quick, whilst each companies skilled staffing and resource cuts by the “Division of Authorities Effectivity” (DOGE). According to The Maine Monitor, HHS issued its findings simply 4 days after launching its investigation — with out contacting or interviewing state officers. Mills called the investigations “politically directed.”
In March, the Division of Training issued a final warning to Maine, saying that the state would face penalties for refusing to adjust to the Trump administration’s assault on transgender athletes. In March, the USDA suspended federal funding to the College of Maine on account of its insurance policies supporting transgender inclusion, however later reinstated it after the college adjusted its insurance policies to align with federal calls for.
On April 2, the USDA introduced a freeze on sure academic program funds, citing Maine’s “Title IX violations.” Rollins warned that extra funding freezes might comply with if the state doesn’t capitulate to Trump’s anti-trans agenda.
Rollins also stated that the USDA has “launched a full evaluation of grants awarded by the Biden Administration to the Maine Division of Training.” She wrote that “[m]any of those grants look like wasteful, redundant, or in any other case in opposition to the priorities of the Trump Administration,” including that the USDA wouldn’t assist “a leftist social agenda.”
Whereas there’s no evidence that Maine intends to adjust to Trump’s anti-trans government order, which is at the moment embattled in the courts, in March Trump demanded on Fact Social that Mills situation a “full-throated apology” and publicly promise to by no means once more “problem the Federal Authorities.”
Mills rejected that demand, warning that the “rule of regulation in our nation” is at stake.
“Maine might [be] one of many first states to bear an investigation by his administration, however we received’t be the final,” Mills said. “Immediately, the President of the USA has focused one specific group on one specific situation which Maine regulation has addressed. However you could ask your self: who and what’s going to he goal subsequent, and what’s going to he do? Will or not it’s you? Will or not it’s due to your race or your faith? Will or not it’s since you look totally different or assume in a different way? The place does it finish? In America, the president is neither a king nor a dictator, as a lot as this one tries to behave prefer it — and it’s the rule of regulation that forestalls him from being so.”
“However don’t be misled,” Mills continued. “This isn’t nearly who can compete on the athletic area, that is about whether or not a president can power compliance together with his will, with out regard for the rule of regulation that governs our nation. I consider he can not.”
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