Pennsylvania House Democrats are attempting to stop the bipartisan Senate-approved Save Women’s Sports Act by bizarrely sending the bill out of the Education Committee to the Health Committee in what Republicans exposed as a rule manipulation to disenfranchise female athletes.
The GOP-led bill, SB 9, was passed in the State Senate in early May with five Democrats voting in favor. The bill has since stagnated in the House Education Committee since May 7, says Republican Committee Chairman Bryan Cutler.
According to a press release from Pennsylvania Senate Republicans, “The measure will ensure athletic teams designated for women are reserved for biological females in Pennsylvania’s K–12 and collegiate sports.”
It can be recalled that President Trump signed a landmark executive order in February, which ensured that biological men could not compete in women’s sports. The “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” EO directs the Department of Education to enforce Title IX based on biological sex, threatening to withhold federal funding from educational institutions that allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
However, Democrats in the State House are stonewalling a final vote, which was expected as soon as next week.
Per the Daily Signal:
State Rep. Peter Schweyer, the Democrat chairman of the Pennsylvania House Education Committee, steered the effort to delay the floor vote. Republicans led by state Rep. Barb Gleim had gathered enough signatures on a discharge petition to have a House floor vote on the legislation, potentially by next week. That was until Schweyer moved to re-refer the legislation to the House Health Committee on Tuesday.
The committee ultimately voted along party lines to re-refer the bill to the health panel, with 14 Democrat legislators in favor of the motion and 12 Republican state representatives against it. That vote ensures that the bill will sit without a full House floor vote for at least another 15 legislative days per the Pennsylvania state Legislature’s rules. The state House currently has a Democrat majority of just one vote (102 to 101).
GOP State Rep. Barb Gleim told The Gateway Pundit, “Women and girls in competitive sport don’t deserve to have their future opportunities passed around like a cold towel on a hot practice day. SB 9 ensures that Title IX as it was originally intended is adhered to in PA. It’s time to take the vote before fall school sports begin.”
Ahead of the vote on Tuesday, Gleim accused Democrats on the committee of “silencing the voices of countless women and girls who compete in sports in Pennsylvania.” She added, “We should not be re-referring this bill because there is an executive order from the federal government and our president to be adhering to the rule of law.”
“By voting to re-refer Senate Bill nine, we’re delaying justice for girls,” Rep Joseph D’Orsie said, as he slammed Democrats for “prioritizing the delusions of some over the privacy, safety, and welfare of millions of girls in the Commonwealth.”
“These are daughters like my seven-year-old girl, granddaughters, nieces, and friends, girls who deserve safe and equal fields and courts. A vote to re-refer and further delay the consideration of SB9 is a vote against women and girls. It’s a vote that blatantly discriminates against our girls. It’s a vote that peels back Title IX protections that so many have fought for,” D’Orsie continued.
Rep. Milou Mackenzie called out the lunacy and obvious delay techniques by Chairman Schweyer, saying, “I don’t see what it has to do with the Health Committee, actually. Girls’ sports take place in our schools and in our higher education institutions. So, I do not see it being out of line with being in the Education Committee, and I see no reason why it should go anywhere else.”
After several Republican legislators condemned the idea of arbitrarily moving the legislation to the Health Committee, Schweyer admitted, “we had a conversation internally, and speaking with the majority Chair of Health, there’s a— we decided that this would be a better, more appropriate place to consider this legislation.”
Rep. Stephenie Scialabba responded, calling the explanation a “de facto admission that there is no purpose beyond strategic manipulation of rules,” asking the Democrats, “how are any of you able to sleep at night?”
GOP Chairman Bryan Cutler further called out the Democrats’ delay tactics, noting the motion to re-refer was contemperanous with Rep. Gleim indicating that she will bring a discharge resolution to force the bill to the floor. “By re-referring to another committee, it will simply restart another 15-day waiting period. I want to make it very clear, regardless of which committee this goes to, it will restart the clock so that the girls and women in sports will have to wait another 15 days before this issue could be taken up,” he said. “It’s time that we stand with our female athletes in Pennsylvania. They not only deserve a fair shot on the field, I believe that they are have earned a fair vote and a full vote on the House floor, not a vote to re refer to another committee.”
Still, the Democrats voted unanimously against women and girls to re-refer the bill, continue to allow men to compete in women’s sports, and jeopardize federal funding for schools for at least 15 more days.
Upon passage in the House, the bill will go to Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s desk for his signature.
WATCH:
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