Scarborough, Maine – Maine officials sued the administration of President Donald Trump on Monday to try to prevent the government from freezing federal money following a dispute over transgender athletes in sports.
Trump and Maine, who is controlled by the Democrats, are in the midst of a dispute on the anti -discrimination law of title IX and the participation of transgender students in high school sports. The United States Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, said earlier this month that the United States Department of Agriculture was stopping some funds for Maine’s educational programs due to what he described as the breach of Maine with the Law of Title IX.
Maine’s attorney general Aaron Frey filed a complaint in a federal court on Monday that described the pause as “illegally retaining the funds of subsidies that will keep the children fed.” The demand seeks a temporary restriction order that prevents the USDA from retaining money until a court can hear the case.
In a statement, Frey said, the president and his cabinet “Secretaries do not make the law and are not above the law, and this action is necessary to remind the president that Maine will not be intimidated to violate the law.”
The child nutrition program of the Department of Education of Maine cannot access several sources of financing at this time due to the financing pause, Frey said. Money is used to feed children in schools, child care centers and extracurricular programs and is also used to benefit disabled adults in congregated environments, he said.
The demand establishes that the Child Nutrition Program received or should receive more than $ 1.8 million for the current fiscal year. The previous year of the year that were granted but are currently inaccessible in a total of more than $ 900,000, according to the demand. The lawsuit also says that the program anticipated around $ 3 million that is generally awarded every July by the administration of the summer meal program and food reimbursement.
USDA officials did not return a request for comments.
Rollins said in a letter to the governor of Maine Janet Mills on April 2 that the State “cannot openly violate the federal law against discrimination in education and expect federal funds to continue incessantly.” The letter said the financing pause did not affect federal food programs.
“To continue receiving dollars from USDA taxpayers, the state of Maine must demonstrate compliance with the protection of the title IX of student athletes to have to compete with or against or have to seem unleashed to men,” said Rollins’s letter.
The tensions between Maine and the Trump administration have made a slow fire since February, when Trump threatened to withdraw Maine funds if the State does not fulfill its executive order that prohibits the transgender athletes of sports. Mills, who was present at the White House for a governors meeting, told the president: “We will see you in court.”
The Trump administration has promised to cancel more federal funds if Maine does not prohibit the transgender athletes of sports participation soon.
