Republican lawmakers on the House Education and the Workforce Committee approved two measures early Thursday morning: One would bar transgender women and girls from participating in school sports. The other would give parents greater control over K-12 curriculum, according to Roll Call.
The backing for the pair of bills came at 2:20 a.m. after a 16-hour meeting, Roll Call noted.
The bills, priorities of the party's conservative base, are not expected to get the needed support in the Senate. However, they are expected to be key issues in the GOP's "war on woke" during the 2024 election.
Democrats on the House panel didn't have the votes to stop the majority. But they did propose dozens of amendments on the parent's rights measure, sparking an occasional angry exchange on the proposed legislation.
"This bill is about one simple and fundamental principle: Parents should always have a seat at the table when it comes to their children's education," said Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La.
The measure, one of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's legislative priorities, would affirm a parent's right to address a school board, require schools to provide a list of books and other curriculum materials, and receive information about incidents of violence at their child's school, according to Roll Call.
Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., called the measure a "ludicrous, fake, waste of time, bunch of bull."
She listed other steps she said would help parents and aid educational outcomes for students, including providing schoolchildren with a free hot breakfast and lunch and after-school care.
"Those are the things that should be in a parents' bill of rights," Wilson said.
Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said: "This bill is about transparency. Parents have a right to know."
The bill is expected to reach the House floor during the week of March 20.
On the transgender measure, Republicans and Democrats offered amendments.
An amendment by Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., that would require schools to let parents know if their child uses a different name or pronoun sparked an testy response from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Roll Call reported.
"I do not understand why my Republican colleagues are so fixated on a group of children who are trying to live their lives," said Jayapal, who has a transgender daughter. "I firmly oppose this amendment."
Good said the amendment was necessary.
"The bottom line is, parents have a right to know what's happening with kids," Good said. "All this amendment does is require parents to be notified. Can you think of a more harmful thing to your child than to have them being treated a different gender at school without your knowledge … when you could have helped that child with that gender confusion?"
The bill was introduced in February by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., according to The Hill. It seeks to amend the federal civil-rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination to recognize sex as that which is "based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth."
It marks the third time Steube has introduced the legislation. It failed to pass during the last two Congresses, when Democrats were in control of the House.
Roll Call said no date has been set for a floor vote on the measure.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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