Trump Administration Won’t Freeze Federal Funding To Maine Over Trans Athlete Fight | EUROtoday

(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration agreed on Friday to chorus from unilaterally reducing off Maine’s entry to federal funding used to feed college youngsters, ending one in all a number of authorized fights stemming from the state’s refusal to conform together with his calls for to ban transgender athletes from ladies’ sports activities groups.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture settled with the Democratic-led state three weeks after a federal choose issued a brief restraining order blocking it from reducing off federal funds used for diet applications.

“We are pleased that the lawsuit has now been resolved and that Maine will continue to receive funds as directed by Congress to feed children and vulnerable adults,” Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, a Democrat, mentioned in a press release.

USDA didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The settlement doesn’t have an effect on the Trump administration’s determination to sue Maine over allegations that it’s violating Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in teaching programs, or the U.S. Department of Education’s determination to launch an administrative continuing to chop off all federal schooling funding for Maine’s public colleges.

The U.S. departments of Education and Justice declare that Maine is violating Title IX by permitting transgender athletes to take part in ladies’ and ladies’s sports activities.

The Education Department continuing places about $250 million Maine receives yearly for varsity funding into jeopardy. The funding at difficulty with USDA was a smaller sum, about $3 million.

Democratic Maine Governor Janet Mills clashed with the Republican president over the difficulty of transgender athletes throughout a White House occasion in February.

At a February 21 assembly with governors, Trump threatened to withhold funds from Maine if it didn’t adjust to an government order he signed banning transgender athletes from enjoying ladies’ and ladies’s sports activities.

“We’re going to follow the law, sir,” Mills responded. “We’ll see you in court.”

USDA was the primary company to truly lower funding to Maine. But U.S. District Judge John Woodcock on April 11 concluded it probably didn’t adjust to authorized procedures when it froze funding and declared Maine was violating Title IX.

Rather than litigate over whether or not a longer-term injunction needs to be issued, USDA agreed to not freeze or terminate the state’s entry to federal funds going ahead with out following all legally required procedures.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Richard Chang)