Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey announced Friday that the state has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding the freezing or termination of federal funds over alleged Title IX violations. The settlement comes after the federal government froze funds tied to Maine’s school food programs due to the state’s transgender policies in public schools.
Settlement reached and lawsuit dropped
Under the settlement signed Friday, the Trump administration agreed to refrain from freezing or terminating Maine’s $3 million in USDA federal funds. In return, the state dropped its lawsuit against the federal government.
“The state of Maine went to court and fought this unlawful attempt to freeze critical funding for our school lunch program — and we won. I applaud the work of Attorney General Frey and his staff in representing the state in this action against USDA, and preserving healthy school meals for 172,000 Maine school children,” Gov. Mills said in a statement.
Federal freeze prompted by Title IX concerns
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins sent a letter to Gov. Janet Mills. The letter notified her that federal funds for Maine were being frozen and placed under review. The USDA cited concerns that the state’s transgender policies in public schools may violate Title IX.
The freeze affected the salaries of state employees working in school food programs.
“In order to continue to receive taxpayer dollars from USDA, the state of Maine must demonstrate compliance with Title IX which protects female student athletes from having to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males,” Rollins wrote in the letter.
Maine challenges freeze in federal court
In response, the state asked the U.S. District Court for the state of Maine to grant a temporary restraining order, arguing that the USDA’s action was unlawful.
“Secretary Rollins’ action is blatantly unlawful: she cannot simply decree the freezing of federal funds to which the state of Maine is entitled,” the state argued. “Rather, she must follow the requisite procedures, which, among other things, would give the state of Maine the opportunity to refute the secretary’s erroneous claim that Title IX prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women from participating on girls’ and women’s teams. In fact, several federal courts have held that Title IX requires schools to permit such participation.”
On April 11, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze the funds.
The state said the funding is enough to feed approximately 170,000 school children across the state.
