The Senate failed to advance a measure to restrict transgender students from playing on women’s sports teams on a 51-45 procedural vote Monday evening.
No Democrats joined Republicans in supporting S. 9, which required 60 votes to advance.
The legislation introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is a cornerstone of the GOP’s education agenda and would have helped cement President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to end transgender student participation in women’s and girls’ sports. The measure would have determined that Title IX, the federal education law that bars sex-based discrimination, defines sex as based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.
The Trump administration voiced its support for the measure ahead of the vote, saying it would complement the president’s order.
“This bill would expressly recognize what is already federal law — that it is an illegal act of discrimination for a man to participate in a federally funded athletic program or activity designated for women or girls,” the administration said in a statement.
Trump has homed in on transgender rights as a key campaign issue and used it to attack Democratic candidates in ads and speeches. A similar bill cleared the House in January and garnered some support from Democrats in vulnerable seats.
“Instead of standing up for women and girls, Democrats voted to cosign Joe Biden’s attempted assault on Title IX,” Senate HELP Chair Bill Cassidy said in a statement. He vowed to continue working with Trump and Republicans on their Title IX efforts.
Before Trump’s executive order was signed in February, the NCAA said fewer than 10 transgender students were competing in NCAA sports. But the college sports governing body, in response to the order, changed its participation policy to restrict transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
