Republican lawmakers expressed frustration over their failed attempts to pass any standalone transgender-related bills into law with the midterm elections looming.
Lawmakers have introduced 127 bills in 2026 so far to fight transgenderism, which included prohibiting men from competing in women’s sports, ensuring parental rights and barring medical procedures for minors, according to counts from Trans Legislation Tracker. Republican Florida Rep. Greg Steube and others expressed frustration with the GOP’s congressional leadership for failing to pass several pieces of legislation on trans issues as the midterms draw nearer.
The 2024 Republican platform explicitly promised to “keep men out of women’s sports,” ban taxpayer funds for sex changes and stop schools from promoting transgenderism and gender transitions. While lawmakers have attempted to get this done, congressional Republicans have struggled to actually get this agenda to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Steube, who introduced the legislation in the House, accused Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Republicans of failing to deliver on their promise to protect women and girls. The bill passed the House on Jan. 14, 2025, but has still not passed the Senate.
“Senate Republicans keep talking about protecting women and girls, but under Leader Thune, commonsense bills like my legislation to keep biological men out of women’s sports are stalled,” Steube told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The American people gave Republicans a mandate to act, not let Senate Democrats and a handful of Republican holdouts dictate what can and cannot pass. If Leader Thune is serious about delivering on our promises, he should be willing to end the filibuster and get these bills to the President’s desk.”
Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace expressed her exasperation with House leadership since her legislation, the Stop the Invasion of Women’s Spaces Act, has yet to pass. Her bill would bar funding from public places that allow trans-identifying individuals to use single-sex bathrooms or locker rooms. Mace told the DCNF that leadership is allowing “common sense” legislation to die on the House floor.
“Our legislation to cut off federal funding to any agency allowing men into women’s bathrooms has not received a floor vote. This is exactly what happens: bills get introduced, then go dark. Leadership controls what comes to the floor and these bills are not making the cut,” Mace told the DCNF. “Keeping mentally ill men out of women’s spaces is common sense. There is no good reason this bill is not law yet. This should not be a hard vote.”
Mace has been very outspoken about her opposition to allowing trans-identifying people into bathrooms. She introduced a resolution in November 2024 that mandated that individuals in the Capitol complex use bathrooms that align with their biological sexes. The proposal emerged after Democratic Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride, a trans-identifying male, was set to be sworn in.
Throughout her gubernatorial run, Mace has pledged to withhold public funding from schools that allow men to play in women’s sports and that aim to use pronouns like “they/them.”
In a statement to the DCNF, Speaker Mike Johnson’s office outlined a number of trans-related bills that House Republicans passed this session. These bills included the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act, which passed the House on May 20. The chamber also passed the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which was introduced by former Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) included a provision banning transgender therapy for minor dependents through TRICARE. The Working Families Tax Cuts banned funding trans surgeries through Medicaid.
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley also claimed leadership is ignoring the issue.
“It just amazes me that they aren’t listening on this issue, I really don’t understand that,” Hawley said, according to Politico. He also stated Monday that taxpayer funds should not go toward surgeries for minors.
Taxpayer money shouldn’t be funding transgender surgeries for minorshttps://t.co/HqSLFN3fqk
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) June 1, 2026
Hawley sponsored the Prohibiting Abortion & Transgender Procedures on the Exchanges Act in October 2025, which would amend the Affordable Care Act to prohibit health plans offered through Exchanges from covering trans-related procedures for minors. He also co-sponsored the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, which Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville introduced to prohibit men from competing against women in sports.
The latter legislation was blocked in the Senate in March 2025 after all Senate Democrats voted against it. A lobbying disclosure form by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) listed the latter bill under “LGBTQ Rights,” while opposition involved standard advocacy tactics like grassroots mobilization, testimony and congressional contacts. Conservative and women’s lobbying groups such as the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee and Alliance Defending Freedom lobbied for the legislation.
During his re-election campaign in 2024, Hawley released advertisements explicitly targeting his opponent, former Democratic Missouri Senate nominee Lucas Kunce, for supporting a “radical trans agenda” and “extreme transgender policies.”
Steube and Tuberville also introduced the legislation in February 2024 to ban men from competing on U.S. Olympic teams ahead of the Summer Games in Paris.
While the standalone bills stalled in the Senate, the chamber passed specific provisions in larger packages that added restrictions to transgender issues. In July 2025, the Senate passed a Rescissions package that cut foreign aid spending on LGBT programs, such as the Democracy Fund, which included $500,000 for a gender equality and empowerment hub and $3.9 million for strengthening information integrity, equality and democracy for the LGBTQI+ population of the Western Balkans. The package also cut funding for the International Disaster Assistance, which included $2.4 million to make aid more considerate of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Trump signed executive orders to prohibit men from competing in women’s sports, banned trans-identifying people from the military, declared that the federal government recognizes two sexes and withheld federal funding from institutions providing gender-related procedures for minors. Many congressional Republicans want to codify some of these executive orders into law, though Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson expressed skepticism that it can get done before the midterms, according to Politico.
Trump’s 2024 campaign spent more on advertisements criticizing former Vice President Kamala Harris’ support for pro-transgender policies than on any other topic, Politico reported in October 2024. The ads ended with the line, “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit struck down Trump’s trans military ban, ruling the administration intentionally excluded people based on their gender identity. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared the administration would challenge this ruling at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Polls found that a vast majority of Americans support bans on men participating in women’s sports. A New York Times/Ipsos survey from March 14, 2025, found that 79% of Americans believed men should be banned from competing against women, including 67% of Democrats. A Pew Research survey from February 2025 found that 56% of Americans supported bans on medical procedures for minors. A Siena Research Institute survey from April found that 59% of Americans are opposed to trans-identifying athletes playing against the opposite sex at the high school level, while 58% oppose it at the college level.
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Republished with permission from Daily Caller News Foundation
