WASHINGTON – Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) spoke on the House floor today in support of H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. The bill 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.
Chairwoman Foxx’s remarks (as prepared for delivery):
“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’s 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? Rob women of hard-earned achievements?
“Instead, they appeal to emotion and call the other side bigots. It’s such a tiring act.
“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’s 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’s not about callousness or lack of emotion. This is about grounding a leftist ideology that has lost its collective mind back into 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; well, 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 this.
“With that, I hope this debate and the eventual passage of H.R. 734 help bring sanity to women’s sports.”
