Republicans are outraged at the Obama administration’s directive expanding the rights of transgendered students in public schools, but they don’t yet know what to do about it.
Other than the introduction of a bill sponsored by Rep. Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., which would block the federal government from withholding funding from non-compliant schools, Republicans made no legislative move to stop the new rule this week.
But some were already talking about taking the fight to court, in the hopes that a judge would decide Obama’s move is illegal.
“We write laws, and we need to respect the president that he disagrees with us, but that is why the courts would be involved,” House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told the Washington Examiner.
Sessions also sent a letter to President Obama this week that called on him to retract the directive pending “thorough judicial review.”
House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline, R-Minn., said lawmakers, “are just looking” at ways to block Obama’s move. But he admitted they are stumped on how to do it because it was sent to schools as guidance, and doesn’t appear to be a new executive action or new rule.
“I’m not sure how you use the power of the purse in this case,” Kline told the Examiner, referring to the possible idea of trying to defund Obama’s initiative. “There have been ongoing discussions, but I don’t even know how you would do that.”
The new guidance, issued last week by the Justice and Education Departments, cites current federal education law in a letter informing schools they must allow transgendered students to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice, and that failure to do so would amount to discrimination. The letter also told schools they must protect transgendered rights to play on sports teams that do not align with their biological gender. The administration said federal funding could be withheld from schools that do not follow the directive.
Republican lawmakers told the Examiner their offices have been flooded with calls and emails from constituents demanding Congress use their “power of the purse,” to defund the new requirement.
“My constituents are mad as heck that the president has tried to take this action,” said Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a large, conservative faction of the GOP.
Flores collected dozens of House GOP signatures on a letter sent to Obama this week demanding clarification and further details about the guidance. The questions they asked include “why schools must disregard privacy, discomfort and emotional strain imposed on other students during use of bathroom, showering and changing facilities and overnight accommodations.”
Flores demanded a reply by May 30.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., dodged a question on whether House Republicans should go even further and use the appropriations process to stop the rule’s implementation. “This should be left up to the states, and the federal government ought to respect that,” Ryan said Thursday.
While the GOP is still searching for the right response, Sessions said Congress may ultimately end up trying to defund the directive.
“Congress can pass legislation in the House and the Senate and take it to the president and say, ‘we disagree with you,'” Sessions said. But with Obama likely to veto such a bill, Sessions said, “a more likely scenario,” involved defunding it during the appropriations process.
Republicans have typically used the annual appropriations bills to insert policy provision that otherwise would never receive a presidential signature, such as banning taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. These provisions end up passing because they’re attached to “must-pass” spending legislation.
And while Democrats often oppose these policy measures in spending bills, the widespread backlash against the directive may lessen their opposition, Sessions said.
A CBS/New York Times poll found more people believe transgendered persons should use the bathroom that aligns with their biological gender, rather than the gender with which they identify, by a margin of 46 percent to 41 percent. Sessions said those numbers give Republicans confidence they can fight Obama with most of the public on their side.
“I’d love to see all the Democrats get behind the president on this issue,” Sessions said.
