News

Watch live: House Rules Committee holds hearing on transgender athlete legislation

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) arrives for a closed-door House Republican conference meeting on Tuesday, January 10, 2023. (Greg Nash)

The House Rules Committee is holding a hearing Monday afternoon on legislation that would ban transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams.

The measure, known as the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” would amend Title IX, the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education, to recognize sex as that which is “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

The White House said Monday that President Biden would veto legislation to bar transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams if it reaches his desk, denouncing House Republicans’ bill as “unnecessary” and discriminatory.

“If the President were presented with H.R. 734, he would veto it,” the White House said.

The measure was introduced in February by Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.), who said in a statement at the time that transgender female athletes have “no place in women’s sports.” This is Steube’s third attempt at passing the bill, which failed to advance during the last two Congresses, when Democrats controlled the House.

While Republicans now have a majority in the lower chamber, the bill stands no chance in the Democratic-led Senate.

The hearing begins at 3:45 p.m. ET.

Watch the video above.