This bill mandates that elementary, secondary, and higher education institutions must certify compliance with biological fairness requirements in women's sports to receive federal funding, with penalties for non-compliance.
Garland "Andy" Barr
Representative
KY-6
The Defend Girls Athletics Act mandates that elementary, secondary, and higher education institutions must certify compliance with Executive Order 14201 regarding biological fairness in women's sports to receive federal funding. This certification must be renewed annually for K-12 districts and by July 1st for colleges and universities. Failure to comply or report results in the immediate requirement to return unobligated federal funds and ineligibility for future federal financial assistance until compliance is restored.
K-12 Schools and Colleges Face Loss of Federal Funds Over Girls' Sports Participation Rules
The “Defend Girls Athletics Act” is a piece of legislation that ties a massive financial lever—federal education funding—to a very specific policy regarding who can play on women’s sports teams. Essentially, if a school or university wants to keep receiving federal money, they must strictly follow the rules laid out in Executive Order 14201 concerning “biological fairness in women’s sports.” This applies across the board, from your local elementary school district (under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) to major universities (under the Higher Education Act).
The Funding Hammer: Compliance or Bust
This isn't a suggestion; it's a hard requirement backed by serious financial consequences. For K-12 school districts, receiving federal funds becomes conditional on annual certification. Every local district must certify by August 15th that they are following the rules. If they don't, or if the U.S. Secretary of Education finds they are non-compliant, they face an immediate order to return any unspent federal money. Imagine a school district relying on those funds for special education or free lunch programs suddenly having to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars mid-year—it would create an instant budget crisis. Section 2 and Section 3 of the bill make this penalty structure severe and immediate.
What It Means for Colleges and Students
For institutions of higher education, the stakes are equally high. Colleges must certify compliance annually by July 1st. If they fail, they are cut off from all federal financial assistance, including participation in federal student loan programs. This means if your university doesn't follow the rules, it could severely impact your ability, or the ability of future students, to access Pell Grants, federal work-study, or subsidized student loans. The bill essentially uses the student financial aid system as the enforcement mechanism to dictate athletic policies on campus, requiring schools to update their standard program agreements to include this new compliance promise.
The Real-World Impact on Local Control
This bill inserts the federal government directly into local and state athletic policy decisions using the power of the purse. State education agencies now have a new bureaucratic task: they must report to the Secretary of Education by September 15th every year, listing every local district that either failed to certify compliance or has unresolved complaints against them. This creates a mandatory state-level reporting mechanism designed to police local compliance. The power is highly concentrated: the Secretary of Education gains the authority to demand the return of funds and block future funding from districts and states that don't toe the line on these specific sports participation rules. This shift means that local districts, which usually manage their own sports policies, must now align those policies with an external federal mandate or risk losing crucial funding for basic educational services.