The Trump administration has suspended $175 million in federal funding for the College of Pennsylvania, citing its athletics participation insurance policies for transgender college students, in line with a Wednesday submit from a White Home social media account.
The cuts are to discretionary spending from the U.S. Division of Protection and the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies, in line with Fox Enterprise, the primary to report the information.
“We’re conscious of media experiences suggesting a suspension of $175 million in federal funding to Penn, however haven’t but obtained any official notification or any particulars,” a Penn spokesperson stated through electronic mail Wednesday.
The spokesperson added, “Now we have been previously, and stay right now, in full compliance with the rules that apply to not solely Penn, however all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer establishments.”
In an government order final month, President Donald Trump barred schools and Ok-12 colleges from permitting transgender ladies to play on sports activities groups that align with their gender identification and threatened to tug all federal funding from establishments that don’t comply.
The day after Trump signed the directive, the U.S. Division of Training opened a Title IX investigation into Penn, San José State College and a Ok-12 athletics affiliation over insurance policies the company stated have been out of step with the manager order.
Former Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender girl, has been on the heart of polarizing debates over gender identification and school athletics participation. In 2022, Thomas grew to become the primary overtly transgender athlete to win a NCAA Division I championship for her victory within the ladies’s 500-yard freestyle.
Final week, greater than a dozen school athletes sued the NCAA, alleging that permitting Thomas to compete within the championship violated Title IX, the sweeping statute barring sex-based discrimination in federally funded establishments.
The criticism comes solely a month after an analogous lawsuit was filed in opposition to Penn and the NCAA over Thomas’ participation within the Ivy League’s 2022 swimming championship.
The NCAA up to date its insurance policies after Trump’s government order to solely permit college students assigned feminine at start to compete in ladies’s athletics.