WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, famously clashed with President Donald Trump over her state’s intention to continue to allow trans athletes to compete in school sports, and now the Pine Tree state is about to feel an impact due to their ideological stand.
Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins fulfilled the promise of Title IX in pausing federal funds for certain Maine educational programs. Secretary Rollins sent a letter to Maine Governor Janet Mills announcing the pause and an ongoing review of federal funding that the state of Maine receives from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This comes after Maine’s continual refusal to provide equal opportunity to women and girls in educational programs, in direct violation of Title IX.
“In order to continue to receive taxpayer dollars from USDA, the state of Maine must demonstrate compliance with Title IX which protects female student athletes from having to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males,” Secretary Rollins wrote in the letter.
“In addition, USDA has launched a full review of grants awarded by the Biden Administration to the Maine Department of Education. Many of these grants appear to be wasteful, redundant, or otherwise against the priorities of the Trump Administration. USDA will not stand for the Biden Administration’s bloated bureaucracy and will instead focus on a Department that is farmer-first and without a leftist social agenda,” Secretary Rollins continued.
The effort by USDA supports President Donald J. Trump’s leadership in ensuring that taxpayer dollars are not spent on programs that violate federal law. USDA supports the recent actions of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in enforcing Title IX. USDA will pause and, where appropriate, terminate certain nonessential funding in Maine if these Title IX violations are not resolved to the satisfaction of the Federal Government. This pause does not impact federal feeding programs or direct assistance to citizens; if a child was fed today, they will be fed tomorrow.
A Maine Congresswoman, Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, told a newspaper the freeze is “political blackmail … this goes beyond Title IX — it’s a calculated assault on the values of equality and dignity that Mainers hold dear. Rather than adjudicate the Title IX issue in court, this administration would rather pick on rural communities. On our teachers and students.”