U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, cheered the House passing a bill Tuesday aimed at preventing males from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
The proposed federal law called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, introduced by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Florida, and cosponsored by Hageman, passed on a 218-206 count with one formal abstention and nine members not voting.
There is companion legislation in the Senate offered by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, and cosponsored by Wyoming’s two members of that chamber, Republican Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis.
Hageman said the Biden administration has sought to pervert the intent of Title IX, part of a federal law enacted more than 50 years ago that prohibits sex-based discrimination in sports by schools and other institutions that receive federal money.
Rather than interpreting Title IX as a mandate to fund male and female sports equitably, “The Biden administration’s effort to fundamentally rewrite the very meaning and purpose of Title IX would threaten the integrity and safety of women’s sports nationwide by allowing men and boys to compete alongside women and girls,” Hageman said in a Tuesday statement following the House vote.
What It Does
The legislation establishes definitions for sports participation based on biological sex at birth, she said. It prohibits federal funding for schools or athletic programs that allow biological males to compete in female categories.
“As one of the first generations to benefit from Title IX, I want all girls to have the same opportunity to safely participate in athletics,” Hageman said. “The ideological war on womanhood completely disregards biological facts, putting our daughters in danger on courts, fields and tracks.
“The left’s anti-woman agenda is a slap in the face to every female who has trained, sacrificed and excelled in their sport and the generations who fought to give them that opportunity,” she added. “The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act is a commonsense solution to ensure fairness, safety, and respect for biological realities. Republicans will not back down in this fight to protect our daughters and their futures.”
The National Women’s Law Center has condemned the legislation.
“In addition to blatantly discriminating against trans, nonbinary and intersex students, sports bans are a gateway into policing how we all look and act,” the group said in a statement.
The legislation died in the last Congress, but Hageman predicted it would become law this time around with Republicans in control of both chambers in Congress and Republican Donald Trump headed to the White House.
Hageman was not available for comment by the time this story was published.
No Republicans voted against the House bill. Two Democrats, Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both of Texas, voted for it; and Rep. Don Davis, D-North Carolina, abstained. Three Republicans and six Democrats did not vote.
