USDA Holds Low-Income Children Hostage on Controversial Transgender Policy

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Hain: 513-479-3335

USDA Holds Low-Income Children Hostage on Controversial Transgender Policy

WASHINGTON / August 14, 2023 – The US Department of Agriculture is under fire from Republican lawmakers who say the USDA has politicized its school lunch program to force children to accept transgender ideology.

On July 27, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced a Joint Resolution providing for Congressional disapproval (S. J. Res. 42) of the USDA policy that removes funding from schools that do not comply with the Biden Administration’s LGBTQIA+ policy. [1]

In his press release, Sen. Marshall stated, “This administration is weaponizing funding for school lunch programs in an effort to force public schools to embrace Joe Biden’s transgender agenda.” Marshall warned, “The USDA has no authority to force our children to adhere to woke mandates such as requiring biological boys to be given access to girls bathrooms and locker rooms, or allow biological boys to compete against biological girls in girls’ sports,” [2]

The Joint Resolution is in response to the Biden Administration’s USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service announcement on May 5, 2022 concerning a new policy on school lunch programs and gender ideology to interpret “the prohibition on discrimination based on sex found in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972” to include “discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” [3]

In a subsequent June 5, 2023 letter, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) [4] concluded the Biden administration’s USDA policy on school lunch programs is subject to the Congressional Review Act’s (CRA) [5] requirement, and that the USDA first needs to submit its proposed policy as a draft regulation.

But, the USDA has apparently ignored the GAO decision.

The Biden administration’s proposed Title IX regulations, which are scheduled to be released in October, would change the definition of “sex” to include “gender Identity.” The regulations also would harm women’s sports, promote gender transitioning among young children without parental consent, infringe on free speech, and remove due process protections for men who have been falsely accused.

Lawmakers are urged to contact Secretary Miguel Cardona at the Department of Education and urge that the Biden administration abandon its plan to release the proposed Title IX regulations in October. Contact: Alejandro Reyes at alejandro.reyes@ed.gov.

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