Trump Admin Cuts Maine Off from Federal Funds After Refusal to Follow Executive Order

The Department of Agriculture has stopped sending certain federal funds to Maine schools because the state allows transgender athletes to play in women’s sports.

In a 180-degree change from the Biden administration, the Trump administration has ruled that Title IX requires that only biological females can play in women’s sports.

Maine has insisted it will abide by its Maine Human Rights Act, which supports transgender athletes in women’s sports, even though it has been told federal law supersedes state law, as noted by The Hill.

“You cannot openly violate federal law against discrimination in education and expect federal funding to continue unabated,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote in a letter to Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills.

“Your defiance of federal law has cost your state, which is bound by Title IX in educational programming. Today, I am freezing Maine’s federal funds for certain administrative and technological functions in schools,” she wrote.

“This is only the beginning, though you are free to end it at any time by protecting women and girls in compliance with federal law.”

Rollins wrote that her department “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.”

“In order to continue to receive taxpayer dollars from USDA, the state of 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,” Rollins continued.

The letter said funding reviews and terminations will take place unless Title IX is properly enforced in Maine.

Rollins cautioned against fear-mongering over the freeze, noting, “This pause does not impact federal feeding programs or direct assistance to Mainers; if a child was fed today, they will be fed tomorrow.”

The USDA is also examining grants made to Maine’s Department of Education by the Biden administration, Rollins explained.

“Many of these grants appear to be wasteful, redundant, or otherwise against the priorities of the Trump Administration. USDA will not extend the Biden Administration’s bloated bureaucracy and will instead focus on a Department that is farmer-first and without a leftist social agenda,” the letter said.

As noted by Fox News, the USDA had earlier issued a temporary funding halt to Maine’s public universities while it reviewed Title IX compliance.

Other federal agencies also have Maine’s refusal to abide by Title IX under a microscope, which could lead to the loss of more funding.

Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby, who had blown the whistle on Maine’s refusal to change its transgender policy, said Mills and fellow Democrats are putting females last.

“Gov. Janet Mills and Maine Democrats have chosen to dig their heels in and embrace radical left-wing ideology over the safety and rights of Maine women and girls. Despite repeated warnings from President Trump, Maine Democrats continued to defy federal law, forcing Maine girls to unfairly compete against biological males,” Libby said.

“As a result, Maine’s Democrat majority has poised Maine students to lose hundreds of millions in federal funding, starting with our USDA funding, instead of championing Maine girls by adhering to federal law. I continue to stand firmly with Maine girls and President Trump in the pursuit of sanity and fairness. I implore Maine Democrats to abandon this incredibly harmful and radical gender ideology for the sake of our students.”

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