USDA says it’s freezing some Maine funding over transgender athlete battle

Maine is facing further consequences for allowing male transgender-identifying athletes to compete in women’s sports.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week it has frozen some funding for Maine educational programs due to the state’s failure to comply with 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,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins wrote in a letter to Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat. “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,” Rollins continued. “USDA will not stand for the Biden Administration’s bloated bureaucracy and instead will focus on a Department that is farmer-first and without a leftist social agenda.”

The USDA said it will pause some nonessential funding until the state complies. None of the funding losses will impact federal feeding programs or direct assistance to American citizens. 

“If a child was fed today, they will be fed tomorrow,” a USDA release explained. The agency has not yet publicly announced the specific cuts. 

The notice comes after state entities announced they would refuse to comply with the Trump administration regarding Title IX. The president signed an executive order after taking office directing federal agencies to withhold funding from states that allow males to compete in women’s sports. 

A couple of weeks later, a transgender-identifying athlete won two girls’ track state titles in Maine: one in pole vaulting and the other a team state championship. It was the second time a Maine transgender athlete had won a girls’ track state title in the past year. 

A February Facebook post about the runner from state Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Cartunk, went viral, attracting attention because it showed how the boy had placed fifth in a boys’ tournament previously but was now a girls’ state champion. Democrats responded by using their House majority to censure her. Libby has since sued to regain her speaking and voting rights. 

Around that same time, Mills and Trump had a heated exchange where the governor implied she would not change her state’s transgender athlete policy to comply with the president’s decree. She even challenged his ability to do it, saying, “See you in court.” 

Ultimately, the state’s residents agree more with Trump than Mills on this issue. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Mainers want to keep trans athletes out of girls’ sports, according to a University of New Hampshire poll released last week.