Sponsors (2)
The bill creates a clear, birth‑sex–based rule and funding incentives that simplify placement policy and preserve grants for compliant states, but it risks serious harms to transgender people, can clash with medical judgments, and pressures noncompliant states with federal funding loss.
State correctional systems that adopt this rule keep eligibility for federal grants, preserving funding for prison programs and services in those states.
People in prison will be placed in housing based on biological sex at birth, which reduces mixed-sex overnight sleeping arrangements and can lower the risk of sexual assault in overnight housing.
Prison administrators and federal officials get a uniform statutory definition of 'biological sex' for housing decisions, reducing ambiguity in placement rules and legal uncertainty for facilities that follow the rule.
Transgender incarcerated people may be forced into housing that does not match their gender identity, increasing their risk of harassment, violence, and mental-health harms.
States that decline to certify compliance with the rule will lose federal grant funding, which would reduce resources for state and local correctional programs and services.
Using a birth-assigned definition of 'biological sex' can conflict with medical determinations (e.g., hormone therapy or surgery), complicating individualized safety assessments and access to appropriate medical care in prisons.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires federal prisons to use a birth‑based definition of "biological sex" for housing and bans co-housing of different biological sexes; conditions certain state grants on similar rules.
Introduced October 8, 2025 by Thomas Bryant Cotton · Last progress October 8, 2025
Requires the Bureau of Prisons to use an individual’s "biological sex," defined by chromosomes, hormones, gonads, and unambiguous genitalia at birth, to make housing decisions and forbids co-housing persons of different biological sex except for brief, non-overnight situations. It also conditions certain federal grant eligibility for states on the state certifying the same prohibition and use of biological sex for housing in state and local confinement facilities, with the grant condition taking effect in the first fiscal year after enactment.