Text of Letter (PDF)

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Jackie Speier (CA-14), Annie Kuster (NH-02), and Gwen Moore (WI-04), along with 55 of their colleagues, sent a letter today to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Acting Assistant Secretary Suzanne Goldberg urging the Department of Education to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Title IX in October.

In the letter, the Members lauded the steps the Department has already taken to ensure that all students can pursue an education in safety and dignity, and urged the Department to build on that progress by issuing proposed changes to the Trump Administration’s disastrous final rule that has critically undermined schools’ and universities’ responses to sex-based harassment until Title IX.

“The Biden Administration has treated Title IX with the seriousness it deserves, including by holding a public hearing on Title IX enforcement, issuing a Q&A document on the Title IX rule, and halting enforcement of a requirement that prohibits statements not subject to cross-examination,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, we are concerned by reports that the Department is not planning to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) until May 2022. The final rule issued by the Trump Administration took 21 months to go into effect after the original changes were proposed. If the Department uses a similar timeline, it is on track to not issue a final rule until February 2024. Simply put, students cannot wait much longer for the Department to restore their civil rights.”

“As a result of the Trump Administration’s rule, students have already been discouraged from reporting, denied supportive services, and subjected to retraumatizing proceedings and delays,” the lawmakers continued. “As we begin the school year, we have an opportunity to further campus safety. We must proceed with urgency, since we know that more than half of campus sexual assaults occur before students depart for Thanksgiving break.”