During Tuesday's House Democratic leadership press briefing, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) discussed the upcoming DOGE committee hearing on men's participation in women's sports.
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00:00Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Tomorrow, the Doge subcommittee is holding a hearing on men and women's sports.
00:09You're understanding what does men and women's sports have to do with government efficiency?
00:14And then secondly, how should Democrats approach the issue of transgender participation in sports,
00:21given that it's not an issue that's necessarily split on party lines?
00:24You know, one, I have no idea what the Doge committee has to do about this.
00:30But I assume, like many things that the Doge committee here in Congress does,
00:35it's part of some sort of handshake deal that Marjorie Taylor Greene extracted from Speaker Johnson.
00:41That's why she's leading the committee.
00:43And so they will get to talk about the issues that she wants to talk about.
00:48With respect to the issue, the president has put out an executive order.
00:52The NCAA has guidance.
00:56Each of our states have rules guiding sports in high school athletics.
01:04In California, our law says that the student gets to decide where they participate.
01:09If Republicans want to add layers of government to that, they're free to engage in that debate.
01:14We feel that that is a topic that is best left to our scholastic and sports authorities locally and parents in that case.
01:27And so I'd ask Lori to also come up because she's talked about this issue in the past as a Division I athlete.
01:36But House Democrats, there's no space in between House Democrats on this issue.
01:44We oppose Marjorie Taylor Greene adding this to a list of things that they want to affect.
01:52Again, this does nothing to address that their policies that they're advocating are to kick people off of health care coverage.
01:59Nothing talks about reducing costs or the burdens that Americans face.
02:06You know, all of this is just just for show.
02:10Yeah, to be honest, I don't really have anything to add.
02:13Chairman Aguilar covered it quite well.
02:15They look at this issue as something that they can just lodge a political win.
02:23Even though the president has signed an executive order, they should be moving on to the issues that actually matter and impact so many hardworking families in this country.
02:31But they won't because they keep coming back to this issue as though it's one that is relevant in people's lives.
02:41So, look, I was a college athlete myself, and I've been pretty upfront about, you know, where there's big differences between, you know,
02:52a transgender athlete playing at a collegiate level or a high school level and not letting six-year-olds play in their youth soccer sports.
02:59And that's who they're targeting with these cruel policies is not letting kids participate in youth leagues.
03:05It's totally government overreach, and we've got the structures in place to make those rules, but they're bypassing it because they look at it as a political opportunity.