PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SPORTS ACT (Executive Session)
Congressional Record Vol. 171, No. 42
(Senate - March 5, 2025) PDF
Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today to once again join my
Republican colleagues in reaffirming our commitment to safeguarding the
protections provided by title IX and the hard-won opportunities it
offers women and girls.
Since its enactment in 1972, title IX has been instrumental in
preventing sex discrimination in education, ensuring equality for girls
and women. Remember that before title IX, women and girls were denied
the same academic and athletic opportunities as their male peers.
Title IX was originally designed by Congress to ensure that women and
girls receive equal and fair opportunities based on biological reality
while also ensuring their safety in educational settings. For more than
50 years, it successfully upheld these principles.
Unfortunately, over the past 4 years, we have seen a concerted and
completely misguided effort to redefine gender in ways that ignore
biological facts and threaten the significant strides women and girls
have made since the passage of title IX. These misguided actions eroded
the protections that title IX was created to offer.
After watching the Biden administration claw away at the integrity of
title IX for 4 years, I am proud to stand with my colleagues and
President Trump in fighting to restore the protections that title IX
was always meant to provide to girls and women in sports.
Despite the attempts of our colleagues across the aisle to defend
their war on title IX, the American people overwhelmingly agree on a
fundamental point: Biologically male athletes should not be allowed to
compete in women's sports or use women's locker rooms.
I find it ironic that the party that wore pink to protest President
Trump's address last night claiming his policies harm women is the same
party where not one Member voted to protect women in sports this week.
If it were not so serious, it would almost be laughable.
This is not a matter of partisanship but of common sense and
fairness. It is a matter of equal opportunity for all.
This is the message we must continue to amplify in Congress as we
work to ensure the future protections of title IX remain intact.
We must pass legislation that protects female athletes and preserves
the integrity of women's sports. To suggest that biological females and
transgender women are the same in all respects, particularly in the
context of athletic competition, is to set women and girls back, not
forward.
The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act would safeguard title
IX by defining gender based on an individual's biological and genetic
sex at birth. It would also ensure that no Federal funding goes to
schools or educational organizations that allow males to participate in
women's sporting events, ensuring that title IX's original intent is
upheld across the board.
Importantly, its passage would make it harder for some future
President to again assault title IX.
It is disheartening to see that, once again, my Democratic colleagues
are failing to advocate for the importance of title IX and what it
means to women and girls everywhere. Instead, they choose to cater to
an out-of-touch woke mob on this issue.
I am proud to join Senator Tuberville in supporting this commonsense
legislation that will continue to protect our daughters, nieces, and
granddaughters for years to come.
I yield the floor.