Sponsors (3)
The bill aims to protect female-only athletic opportunities and prevent tuition hikes by imposing a punitive tax on institutions that allow males in female-designated athletics, but it risks shrinking athletic programs, shifting costs onto other revenue sources, creating administrative burdens, and producing legal and access harms for transgender and nonbinary students.
Female student-athletes and other students: the bill creates a financial disincentive for colleges to allow males in female-designated athletics, which may help preserve single-sex female athletic opportunities.
Enrolled students: the law bars colleges from raising tuition or mandatory fees to cover the tax, protecting students from a direct tuition increase tied to enforcement of the rule.
Schools and federal agencies: the bill provides statutory definitions of 'male', 'female', and 'sex', reducing ambiguity for interpretation and enforcement of the tax provision.
Students, athletes, and athletic staff at private colleges: violating institutions face a new 10% tax on all athletic spending, which is likely to force cuts to athletic programs, scholarships, and jobs and reduce opportunities for students despite the tuition-protection clause.
Transgender and nonbinary students and institutions: the bill's sex definitions exclude gender identity, creating legal uncertainty and likely triggering lawsuits, policy disputes, and access problems for LGBTQ+ students.
Students, donors, and college programs: private institutions may shift the cost of the tax onto non-tuition revenue (donations, optional athletics fees, reallocated program budgets), potentially reducing donor-funded programs or changing fee structures and lowering support for other campus services.
Based on analysis of 1 section of legislative text.
Imposes a 10% excise tax on eligible private colleges that allow males to compete in female-designated intercollegiate athletics and bans passing the tax to students.
Official title: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose an excise tax on certain institutions of higher education that allow male participation in female intercollegiate athletic programs or events.
Introduced August 13, 2026 by Harriet Hageman · Last progress August 13, 2026
Imposes a new 10% excise tax on private institutions of higher education that allow males to participate in intercollegiate athletic programs or events designated for females. The tax is calculated on the institution’s total intercollegiate athletic expenditures for any taxable year when such participation occurs, forbids passing the tax to students through tuition or mandatory fees, and defines sex biologically (male/female). Applies to eligible private colleges (as defined by cross-reference) and begins for taxable years starting after December 31, 2025. The Department of Education must issue regulations to enforce the ban on passing the tax cost to students.