Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. 734.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.

The Democrats have gone to great lengths to call this bill extreme. The Democrats have gone to great lengths, being almost hysterical, to call this bill discriminatory. It is neither of those things.

It is a one-page bill, which is rare in Congress, that strengthens existing protections for women, ensures a level playing field for female athletes, and protects women and girls from the Biden administration's radical regulatory scheme.

It is quite telling when the other party attempts to tear things down without offering an alternative vision. Democrats refuse to posit a reason for allowing biological men to compete in women's sports that comports with principles of athletic competition like fairness and integrity.

Democrats also refuse to address the implications of their position. If men can compete in women's sports, should they be able to take roster spots from women, to rob women of hard-earned achievements?

Instead, they appeal to emotion and call the other side bigots. It is such a tiring act, Mr. Chair.

How about providing evidence that self-identification is rooted in biological truth? Explain that a post-adolescent male athlete has zero physical advantages over women.

Democrats like to pretend they are the party of science. Where is the data?

The Democrat vote against this bill, including Biden's threat to veto it, is a vote against continuing to give women and girls equal opportunity to participate and compete in athletics.

We on the Republican side are grounded. We live in reality. So does the rest of America. Ask working-class Americans if Muhammad Ali should have been allowed to box women in his heyday or if Usain Bolt should have run the women's 100 meters.

It is not about callousness or lack of emotion. This is about grounding a leftist ideology that has lost its collective mind back in reality. In fact, Republicans are teeming with admiration and support for the women and girls who have come so far to get much-deserved recognition for their athletic achievements.

The left wants to talk about erasure. Let's talk about how American female athletes are being erased. We are not sensationalizing this problem. It exists. Females are being hurt by it, and action must be taken to stop that.

Mr. Chair, I hope this debate and the eventual passage of H.R. 734 help bring sanity to women's sports, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Steube), the sponsor of the bill.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Owens), chairman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bean), chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller), vice chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Moran), a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Rose).

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 90 seconds to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Williams), a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

Mr. WILLIAMS of New York. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairwoman for yielding.

Mr. Chair, within just a few years, our Nation will task the first women with the awesome responsibility of commanding our nuclear submarines. These submarines will serve on the front lines of any future global conflict, and they are among the most feared and powerful weapons in the world. Women who will command these boats will lead many of the finest sailors our Nation has ever seen.

In nearly every case, these women's paths to this extraordinary responsibility and this extraordinary call to leadership begin with and traveled through their competitiveness in sports.

Leadership, excellence, teamwork, inspiration, and sacrifice are all learned and earned on the sports field. They are champions. They are scholars. They are warriors.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 734 in celebration of the dramatic impact that women's competitive sports has brought to our Nation and are now adding to the defense of our Nation.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. McClain), a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce and secretary of the Republican Conference.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good), chairman of the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Virginia.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast), a true hero here in the House of Representatives.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Ms. Hageman).

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Stauber).

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentlewoman from New York.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, I want to briefly discuss the proposed regulation the Department of Education recently issued on this topic.

Frankly, either you believe women's access to athletic opportunity should be protected or you don't. Either you believe fairness and safety in women's athletics should be protected or you don't.

The Department of Education clearly doesn't believe in those things. If it did, it wouldn't have proposed a rule that will upend the laws 20 States have on the books protecting women's sports.

More shockingly, the Department's rule provides no meaningful guidelines as to what will be an acceptable level of protection for female athletes. That decision will apparently be made on a case-by- case basis by Secretary of Education Cardona.

Democrats apparently believe one man should get to decide whether or not women athletes are guaranteed equal access, fairness, and safety. Once upon a time, Democrats would have recognized the cruel irony of that. Unfortunately, that day is long gone.

Fortunately, Republicans haven't lost sight of our obligation, and that is why we will pass this bill.

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Ms. FOXX.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, I have spoken to the absurdity of this debate, but let me conclude by clarifying what this bill does and does not do by reading two paragraphs of this bill--it is one page long.

``Section 901 of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``(d)(1) It shall be a violation of subsection (a) for a recipient of Federal funds who operates, sponsors, or facilitates athletic programs or activities to permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.

``(2) For the purposes of this subsection, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth.''

All of these ridiculous things that we have been accused of are not in this bill. This bill does not discriminate against anyone. It does not exhibit any hate toward anyone.

What it does is prohibit Federal funding to institutions that ``permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.''

The reason for this is simple. Men have certain physiological advantages over women, such as more size and speed. Because of that, allowing biological males to compete against women and girls robs females of equal athletic opportunities and fair playing fields.

H.R. 734 restores the integrity and fairness of women's sports.

Mr. Chairman, Republicans, contrary to what our colleagues have said and accused us of, Republicans love all God's children, male and female, born and unborn. Do not question our commitment to fairness to life or to treating people equally. We hate no one.

As my colleagues have pointed out, it is ridiculous that we have had to stand here today to defend the rights of women and girls to participate in sports against other women and girls and they not being taken advantage of by biological males.

Mr. Chair, I encourage my colleagues across the aisle to do what is best for America's women and girls and support this important bill.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

The motion was agreed to.

Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. DesJarlais) having assumed the chair, Mr. LaMalfa, Acting Chair of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 734) to amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth, had come to no resolution thereon.

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