Rep. Hageman Introduces Bill to Tax Colleges That Sideline Female Athletes for Men

Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) introduced legislation to hold accountable those private colleges and universities who continue to allow male athletes to compete in women's intercollegiate sports with a new excise tax. Rep. Sheri Biggs (R-SC) joined as an original cosponsor.

This bill penalizes institutions of higher education who permit males to compete in female athletic programs or events with a tax equal to 10 percent of their total spending on all intercollegiate athletics that year.

"Every man who takes the field against a woman is stealing a roster spot, scholarship, and potential championship from a young woman who earned it. Universities know this. They do it anyway because they have surrendered to woke ideology instead of protecting their own female athletes," said Rep. Hageman. "My bill makes them pay for their denial of biological reality out of their own budget. The erasure of women from sports must be stopped."

"Women and girls should not lose opportunities, scholarships, or playing time because colleges choose to allow men to compete in women's sports. We should do everything we can to hold institutions accountable when they ignore biological reality and put female athletes at a disadvantage or even at risk. I am proud to support legislation that protects women's sports and ensures female athletes have a fair opportunity to compete," stated Rep. Biggs.

"When institutions deny what everyone can plainly see, ordinary people pay the price. Representative Hageman's legislation is a measured response to exactly that failure. It doesn't ban anything or dictate university policy. It uses the most conservative of instruments, finances, to tell private institutions: you are free to make this choice, but you are not free to make it cost-free. Also, by directing the Secretary of Education to prevent schools from shifting the burden onto tuition, the bill ensures that students don't foot the bill for administrators' ideology," stated Nathan Winters, President and CEO of Wyoming Family Alliance.

"Only on a college campus could something as ridiculous as transgender ideology flourish. Radical gender ideology must be eliminated root and branch, and there's no better place to start than our poisoned Ivies. College administrators can continue to play dumb when it comes to biological sex or protecting women on campus, but it is going to cost them. Thank you, Representative Hageman, for fighting to ensure that schools cannot profit at taxpayers' expense for prioritizing ideology over education," stated Terry Schilling, President of American Principles Project.

"Women and girls deserve a level playing field, and Family Policy Alliance is proud to stand behind Rep. Hageman's legislation to protect it. This bill holds institutions accountable when they let biological males compete in women's sports, while ensuring institutions can't shift the cost onto students.

This builds on years of work by our state family policy councils that have led the charge to protect girls' sports in 27 states and counting. We're proud to see that same fight carried forward in Congress, and we won't stop until every young woman has a fair chance to compete," stated Craig DeRoche, President and CEO of Family Policy Alliance.

Background:

• Despite President Trump's executive order and NCAA policy changes intended to keep male athletes out of women's college sports, individual cases of men competing on women's teams continue to surface across the country, underscoring the need for a financial deterrent with real consequences.
• Rep. Hageman's bill excludes state colleges and universities because the intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine limits the federal government's constitutional authority to impose direct taxes on states and their instrumentalities.
• The tax applies to spending across an institution's entire intercollegiate athletic program, not just the sport in question.
• This bill directs the Secretary of Education to write regulations enforcing the tuition and fee protection, so schools cannot shift the cost onto students.