Gov. Noem and Colleagues Oppose Biden’s Proposed Changes to Title IX
PIERRE, S.D. – Today, Governor Kristi Noem and 24 of her fellow Republican governors sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona opposing the Biden Administration’s proposed rule changes regarding Title IX and the fairness of girls’ and women’s sports. You can read the letter here.
“The proposed rule could prevent states from enforcing our duly-enacted statutes protecting fairness in women’s and girls’ sports,” wrote Governor Noem and her colleagues. “If not withdrawn, we are gravely concerned about the impact that the Department’s wholesale reinvention of Title IX’s terms would have on states’ ability to enforce their laws and policies as written.”
Governor Noem has been a leader in the country for fairness in girls’ and women’s sports. Last year, she signed the toughest bill in the nation to protect girls’ sports. She followed that action by leading a letter co-signed by 15 Republican governors urging the Biden Administration not to take this action. That letter stated, “if your administration chooses to move forward with these reinterpretations of Title IX…our states will have no choice but to pursue avenues to redress any harm that is done to our children as a result.”
“Defending the many hard-fought, historic athletic achievements over the last half century is far more than a matter of safety for female athletes. It also protects essential fairness.” continued Governor Noem and the other governors. “This administration apparently sees no irony that its policies validate an average male athlete stealing the recognition from a truly remarkable female athlete whose lifelong athletic discipline and achievements are discarded based on a deliberate misreading of a law whose very purpose was to protect, preserve, and encourage women’s athletics.”
Governor Noem was joined by the following Republican governors in issuing the statement:
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Idaho Governor Brad Little, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon.
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Good for her! She’s really become outspoken on the issue since she realized it was a bad decision to veto the first bill she saw that would’ve protected women’s sports. People CAN change their minds. Maybe Biden will follow her lead.
She did not change her mind. The first bill she refused to sign had an entire section in it which prohibited student athletes from using ANY medication for a year to maintain eligibility.
No list of drugs, no definition of what a “performance enhancing drug” was, no exceptions for drugs necessary to treat a medical condition was attached.
Senator Maggie Sutton even admitted, at a meeting in Sioux Falls, that a doctor’s note would be necessary to verify, because of course, she said, the family doctor would know whether a student had not consumed any caffeine in the previous year. No caffeine, no Coke or Hershey bars, no Pepsi or M&Ms. The schools would have to restrict the contents of their vending machines to eliminate all sources of caffeine . No medication for asthma, ADHD, diabetes, hypothyroidism, allergies. A student couldn’t even take tylenol for a headache. Kids would delay getting their wisdom teeth pulled to be able to play, or else undergo the extractions without medication.
It was insane, that’s all, and Noem sent it back to them and asked them to strike the whole section because the prohibited drugs “could be anything.”
But the legislature wouldn’t budge. Maybe we should demand they all be “drug free” themselves, because the people who voted for that mess shouldn’t have, and have never explained themselves.
I wonder why the Governor originally indicated she was excited to sign “that mess” into law…before she changed her mind the first time.
do you have a reading comprehension problem?? She didn’t change her mind, she found out student athletes would have to provide notes from their physicians verifying they had not consumed any caffeine for a full year. Senator Sutton even admitted the drug prohibition applied to “caffeine or whatever.” She said that at a luncheon of the Republican Women, at Josiah’s in Sioux Falls.
The original bill prohibited caffeine (and everything else.) South Dakota is not Utah; we don’t have enough Mormons to fill the team rosters.
She tweeted her exuberance about signing the bill that had been hanging out there for months for everybody’s consumption. Then she vetoed it. I don’t have a reading comprehension problem. And I don’t buy your version of revisionist history.