The Trump administration has paused $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over the university’s insistence on allowing men to compete in women’s sports.
The action follows President Donald Trump’s executive order issued last month that bars federally funded institutions from allowing male athletes to compete against women and threatens to rescind funding from any institution that refuses to comply.
The funding pause is a “proactive punishment” from President Trump that pulls back discretionary funding from the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, a senior administration official told Fox Business on Wednesday. The move was described as the first step in holding UPenn accountable. The $175 million sum is a fraction of the Ivy League school’s total federal funding.
UPenn received over $1 billion in federal funding last fiscal year, the student-run Daily Pennsylvanian newspaper reported. More than 80 percent of the funding came from HHS.
The Department of Education is currently investigating UPenn for alleged Title IX violations in relation to the university’s inclusion of men in women’s sports. The funding pause is not a direct result of the Title IX probe.
One day after Trump signed the executive order protecting women’s sports, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights launched investigations into UPenn, San Jose State University, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for apparent violations of Title IX. The 1972 law protects women from sex-based discrimination in federal funded educational institutions, ranging from elementary schools to universities.
In 2022, transgender-identifying athlete Lia Thomas made headlines when she started competing on the women’s swimming team at UPenn and eventually won a national championship title in the women’s 500-yard freestyle event. That same season, Thomas tied with former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle.
The episode drew national attention and made Gaines a leading advocate for fairness in women’s sports.
Gaines responded to the Trump administration pulling some funding from UPenn, calling the decision “serendipitous.”
“The Trump administration has yet again taken swift action to uphold common sense and preserve women’s opportunities by pausing $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania. UPenn allowed a male to compete in women’s swimming, stripping female athletes like myself and my teammates of their hard-earned podium spots, trophies, and records all while forcing them to share a locker room with this fully intact man who exposed himself to us,” she told OutKick, a sports outlet for which she works.
“This proactive step sends a clear message: institutions that disregard the integrity of women’s sports and the rights of female athletes will face consequences. More of this.”
Last week, the Department of Agriculture cut an undisclosed amount of funding to the University of Maine System in response to the state’s defiance of President Trump’s executive order banning men from women’s sports. The funding freeze, however, was reversed by the USDA after Senator Susan Collins (R., Maine) intervened on the state’s behalf.
There were concerns about Maine farmers not receiving enough agricultural resources if the funding pause persisted indefinitely.