Rep. Tim Burchett says it is time for Republican voters to get past the euphoria of last November's election because governing through executive order has an immediate effect but a temporary guarantee. While Donald Trump is an agent for change at the federal level, he must find help on Capitol Hill.
He did not get that late Monday, when the Republican-led Senate could not muster the necessary 60 votes to end a Democrat filibuster.
As a result, a bill sponsored by Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville that would have kept males from competing on girls' and women's sports teams and kept federal funding from schools and institutions that ignored such a law failed.
The vote was 51-45 against invoking cloture to end the filibuster and allow the bill to be brought forward.
The House passed its version of the measure last month.
While Trump has already issued an executive order that should end the process, an EO can be quickly overturned if a Democrat is elected president in four years, just as Trump has overturned numerous Joe Biden executive orders.
But if Congress can get him a bill to sign, then it would become law and be much harder to reverse.
"Even after @realdonaldtrump's landslide election, Democrats STILL support men competing in women's sports," Tuberville wrote on X. "This is far from over."
Burchett to GOP: Work harder
In spite of the party-line vote from both sides, Burchett told American Family Radio Tuesday that Republicans are not doing enough to get laws passed.
“The real problem is not going to come from the Marxists over there on the Left, the Democrats. The real problem is coming from the Republican Party" he said, questioning why other problematic government initiatives remain funded. "We are not codifying these things President Trump has put in place."
"Why in the world are we sending our tax dollars to NPR and to public broadcasting?" he asked show host Jenna Ellis.
He said he recently heard an NPR host describe Lee Greenwood's famous song, "God Bless the USA," as propaganda.
"I nearly wrecked my truck," the representative told Ellis. "That's your American tax dollars paying for that."
He also suggested that more cuts could be made to defense spending as war-making has changed.
"We're building weapon systems that we mothball the day they come off the line," said Burchett. "[Democrats] sit there in these meetings and tell us, Republicans, 'Well, they make the plane in your district. They make the bombs in your district. They make the guns in your district.' And that's all they care about."
He submits that type of commitment to business as usual distracts from codifying executive orders like the one to protect girls' sports.
Representative Diana Harshbarger (R-Tennessee) told "Washington Watch" Monday, in advance of the Senate vote, that though Trump carried 31 states and won 312 electoral votes, Democrats' focus has not changed.
"I had a town hall [meeting] this week, and these people are still adamant – protesters and Democrats – that men should play in women's sports even if the women get injured while playing that sport," she told show host Tony Perkins. "It's unconscionable."
Two Democrats joined Republicans in passing the House version of the bill by a final vote of 218-206.
Headed to the high court?
This is an issue that may ultimately be decided at the Supreme Court.
Already, the state of Maine is defying Trump's order as at least one young man who goes by the name Katie Spencer continues to dominate girls' sports. He recently won the girls' pole vault championship.
Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) accuses Trump of trying to "coerce compliance" and has threatened to sue the Trump administration over any loss of federal funding. Her stance threatens more than $360 million, roughly $2,100 per student in the state, according to data from the 2021-22 school year, the most recent year available.
Federal investigations through the Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Education are ongoing.
Meanwhile, "I'll NEVER stop fighting to protect women and girls," Tuberville promises.
"Forty-five Democratic Senators voted NO on Protecting Women and Girls in Sports," women's sports activist Riley Gaines wrote following the Senate's vote. "Never ever let them gaslight you into thinking Democrats care about women's rights."
