Biden withdraws Title IX athletics, debt forgiveness proposals

Higher Ed Dive

Kara Arundel & Laura Spitalniak

December 23, 2024

The Biden administration on Friday withdrew proposed rules that would have extended Title IX protections to transgender student athletes and could have offered debt relief to millions of borrowers facing financial hardship. 

Both proposals faced mixed public sentiment and significant legal challenges, and the withdrawals come as President-elect Donald Trump gears up for his second term in office next month.

Title IX

Title IX regulations have ping-ponged back and forth between Democratic and Republican administrations since President Barack Obama’s administration. Trump and some conservative lawmakers have criticized the proposed rule. The proposal would have prohibited blanket bans on transgender students’ participation on sports teams aligning with their gender identities.

The Biden administration had originally intended to finalize the rule in late 2023, but repeatedly delayed amid political and public controversy and the impending 2024 presidential election.

The U.S. Department of Education “recognizes that there are multiple pending lawsuits related to the application of Title IX in the context of gender identity, including lawsuits related to Title IX’s application to athletic eligibility criteria in a variety of factual contexts,” said the Federal Register notice announcing the end to this rulemaking. The rule had been intended as an update to regulations under the 1972 Title IX statute barring sex discrimination in federally funded education programs.

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