The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it had frozen federal funds for some Maine education programs because the state refused to ban transgender students from competing in girls’ and women’s sports as ordered by President Donald Trump.
Brooke Rollins, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), revealed the funding freeze in a letter to Maine Governor Janet Mills (D). The letter explained that federal funding would be paused for “certain administrative and technological functions in schools.”
The USDA did not clarify which specific programs had their funding paused, but they confirmed that federal feeding programs and direct assistance would not be affected.
The USDA also said it was reviewing the state’s research and education-related funding to make sure it aligns with the Constitution, federal law, and the Trump administration’s priorities. Rollins specifically mentioned Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in education, and Title VI, which protects against discrimination based on race and ethnicity.
The Trump administration has used these laws to challenge transgender rights and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in schools. Executive orders signed by Trump aim to prevent transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports and to limit DEI efforts in federal agencies and among grant recipients. Another executive order targets teaching what the administration calls critical race theory, an academic framework focused on racism in U.S. history, which has become a political topic.
Maine officials, including Governor Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey (D), have argued that Trump’s order on transgender athletes goes against the Maine Human Rights Act, which protects transgender students’ right to participate in sports according to their gender identity. However, the Trump administration insists that Maine must follow federal law, including Title IX, which the administration claims is violated by allowing transgender girls to compete with non-transgender girls.
“Where federal and state law conflict, states and state entities are required to follow federal law,” wrote Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) in a letter to Mills and officials in California and Minnesota in February.
“You cannot openly violate federal law against discrimination in education and expect federal funding to continue unabated,” Rollins stated in her letter to Governor Mills. “Your defiance of federal law has cost your state, which is bound by Title IX in educational programming.”
Rollins added, “This is only the beginning, though you are free to end it at any time by protecting women and girls in compliance with federal law.”
A spokesperson for Governor Mills did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rollins also mentioned that the USDA was reviewing grants awarded to Maine’s education department by the Biden administration. She claimed that some of these grants appeared to be wasteful or not in line with the priorities of the Trump administration.
“USDA will not extend the Biden Administration’s bloated bureaucracy and will instead focus on a Department that is farmer-first and without a leftist social agenda,” she wrote.
It is unclear which grants Rollins was referring to, as a USDA spokesperson did not respond to a request for clarification.
The USDA’s freeze on funding marks a new chapter in a month-long conflict between Governor Mills and President Trump over the state’s refusal to comply with the executive order on transgender athletes. Last month, the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services found Maine to be in violation of Title IX, following investigations that Governor Mills previously called “politically directed.” On Monday, the Education Department issued a “final warning” to Maine’s Department of Education before potentially passing the matter on to the Justice Department.
