President Donald Trump has halted federal funding for schools in Maine after the state’s governor refused to comply with an executive order barring biological boys from competing in girls’ sports. On Monday, University of Maine System (UMS) officials were informed that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had paused all funding to UMS while conducting a review of the school system’s Title VI and Title IX compliance. According to Maine Public, UMS received at least $30 million in funding from USDA last year alone.

A spokesman for UMS shared that the USDA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer told the agency’s department responsible for awarding grants and funds to “temporarily no longer issue any payments or authorize any other releases of funding to Columbia University or the University of Maine System.” The USDA email continued, “This pause is temporary in nature while USDA evaluates if it should take any follow-on actions related to prospective Title VI or Title IX violations. Please take any necessary actions to effectuate this direction from leadership. This pause will remain in effect until further notice.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Family Research Council’s Senior Fellow for Education Studies Meg Kilgannon said, “It’s great to see immediate and severe consequences for universities who receive federal monies. Americans love supporting education, but taxpayers do not appreciate having our generous support weaponized against the basic truth that there are two sexes.” She added, “Maine and other states are finally going to have to grapple with why and how such a heinous lie like transgenderism could become unquestionably accepted in their state government. And they will have to figure it out on their own dime.”

Shortly after taking office in January, Trump issued an executive order restoring provisions of Title IX to block biological boys from competing in girls’ sports. Various officials in Maine, including Governor Janet Mills (D), the state principals’ association, and the state department of education, refused to comply with the order, continuing to permit biological boys who identify as girls to compete in girls’ sports. That decision quickly resulted in at least one biological boy “winning” first place in a girls’ pole vaulting competition.

In a subsequent meeting late last month with state governors, Trump singled out Maine for defying his executive order. “Are you not going to comply with it?” the president asked Mills. The governor insisted that her state is “complying with state and federal laws,” to which Trump replied, “Well, we are the federal law. Well, you better do it.” He warned Mills that “you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t” comply. Almost immediately, USDA and the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education (DOE) launched investigations into Maine’s potential Title IX violations. The federal agencies may do more than just pause federal funding. Should their investigations yield evidence that Maine entities are violating Title IX provisions, they may completely strip the state’s educational institutions of federal funds until it complies with the law.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also warned Mills that the Department of Justice (DOJ) may potentially prosecute Mills and other Maine officials if they continue to violate Title IX. “Requiring girls to compete against boys in sports and athletic events violates Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. And under the Constitution, federal law — including Title IX — is ‘the supreme Law of the Land,” Bondi wrote in a letter to the Pine State governor. She continued, “It therefore does not matter if Maine state law allows, or even requires, state athletic associations or other similar entities to require girls to compete against boys in sports and athletic events.”

Maine State Rep. Laurel Libby (R) also called out Mills and other state officials for their failure to comply with Title IX, noting that a biological boy had consequently won first place in a girls’ pole vaulting competition. Shortly afterward, Democrat Ryan Fecteau, the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, led an effort to censure Libby for her social media post. The Republican was formally censured late last month in a vote of 75-70. The House resolution censuring Libby declared her “conduct” to be “reprehensible and in direct violation of our code of ethics.” On Tuesday, Libby filed a lawsuit against Fecteau and House Clerk Robert B. Hunt, challenging the censure. The lawsuit claims that Libby’s censure is unlawful and violates her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, in addition to the Equal Protection, Due Process, and Guarantee Clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

Libby commented, “Instead of having an open and honest debate about the devastating impacts of Maine girls being forced to compete against biological males, Speaker Fecteau and his Democratic colleagues resorted to canceling and silencing me.” She continued, “Speaker Fecteau and the Democrat majority are risking hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for our schools by stubbornly refusing to address this injustice. I have the constitutional right to speak out and my constituents have the right to full representation in the Maine House.”

The Maine Republican added, “Biological males have no place in girls’ sports. Our girls have every right, under federal law, to fair competition in sports. We will not let them be erased by the Democrat majority advancing a woke progressive agenda.”