The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday notified Maine it is pausing federal funding to certain educational programs over the state’s policies for transgender athletes.
In a letter to Gov. Janet Mills, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins accused Mills of continuing to violate Title IX, the 1972 federal law that bars sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding, by allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports. The USDA began investigating Maine for the alleged violations in February.
“You cannot openly violate federal law against discrimination in education and expect federal funding to continue unabated,” Rollins opened her letter to Mills before announcing the freeze.
Rollins said the USDA is additionally “reviewing all research and education-related funding in Maine for compliance with the Constitution, federal laws including Titles VI and IX, and the priorities of the Trump Administration.”
The agency is also “launching a full review” of grants awarded by the Biden administration to the Maine Department of Education, many of which “appear to be wasteful, redundant, or otherwise against the priorities of the Trump Administration,” Rollins said.
To continue to receive federal funding from the USDA, Rollins said, Maine “must demonstrate compliance with Title IX’s protection of female student athletes from having to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males.”
Maine had two transgender girls competing in school sports last year, according to the Maine Principals’ Association, the governing body for school sports in Maine, which typically logs 45,000 student athletes per year, counting students who play more than one sport. The association has said the Trump administration has no authority to investigate it.
“This is only the beginning,” Rollins said in her letter, “though you are free to end it at any time by protecting women and girls in compliance with federal law.”
The action by the USDA is just one prong in the effort by the Trump administration to align Maine’s rules for transgender athletes with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in February barring transgender females from girls’ and women’s sports.
Earlier this year, six federal agencies had either targeted or were actively investigating Maine over its rules for transgender athletes.
After giving Maine 10 days to comply with federal demands last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services referred its finding of violation by Maine to the U.S. Department of Justice for enforcement. The U.S. Department of Education also found Maine in violation of Title IX.
Maine officials have so far refused to agree to the terms set by the Trump administration, saying that barring transgender females from girls’ and women’s sports would violate Maine Civil Rights Act.
