During President Donald Trump’s term in office, he and the Senate were able to confirm a record number of judges. However, the fight to place department heads was an entirely different story. Senate Democrats obstructed several of Trump’s nominees leaving some agencies without an official secretary. Although some Senate Republicans have sounded the alarm on some of President Joe Biden’s nominees, they have decided to play nicely… until now.
In order to continue his progressive agenda, Biden nominated Catherine Lhamon earlier this year to serve as assistant secretary for civil rights in the United States Department of Education (DOE). She held this position previously during the Obama administration which means we have a record of her dangerous agenda. She has three priorities she hopes to force on our children while in office: critical race theory, transgender ideology, and dismantling our justice system.
In the vein of so-called “racial equity,” Democrats are perpetuating racism through critical race theory. Lhamon is happy to continue that agenda. After leaving the DOE, she was appointed to lead the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights where she would investigate schools’ discipline policies. These investigations were used as harassment techniques to force schools to implement more lenient discipline policies for students of color even though reports showed no evidence of discrimination. Because of her warped view of racism and her bullying methods, we can only assume that critical race theory will be forced into schools under her reign.
As we all know, where there is critical race theory, there is likely transgender ideology. Under the Obama administration, Lhamon assisted in the creation of the DOE’s bathroom guidance. The directive allowed students to use the bathroom of their choice based on how they identify. This caused a huge stir among parents because this stripped their children of their privacy rights and put them at risk of sexual assault. The Trump administration overturned this guidance, but Lhamon is ready to reinstate it. She plans to back that guidance with Biden’s executive order to redefine “sex” in Title IX which prohibits discrimination in education based on sex. The policy will be expanded to all forms of gender ideology allowing boys in girls’ bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms as well as sports.
The same Title IX policy covers higher education as well. Arguably, one of the biggest criticisms of Lhamon’s agenda is her desire to weaken due process rules for sexual assault cases on college campuses. Under the Trump administration, new regulations were created to allow live hearings and cross-examinations of witnesses in order to protect the innocent. In May 2020, Lhamon tweeted:
[Betsy DeVos] presides overtaking us back to the bad old days, that predate my birth, when it was permissible to rape and sexually harass students with impunity.
This became a point of contention during her nomination hearing in July of this year with Republican Senators questioning about her intent. She doubled down on her disdain of the Trump-era policies but assured she would continue to enforce the rules as long as they are in place. We all know that won’t last long.
In August, a vote in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to move Lhamon’s nomination to the Senate floor ended in a tie. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) stated:
Catherine Lhamon’s track record is also deeply troubling if not outright disqualifying. Ms. Lhamon has a history of using inflammatory rhetoric, violating students’ constitutionally-based right to due process, and abusing regulatory power.
The nomination did not move until last week when Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) discharged it out of committee himself. Now, Senators are awaiting a vote this week. All Republicans plan to vote against her.
Eagle Forum opposes Catherine Lhamon’s confirmation and will hold Senators accountable by scoring the vote. We have hopes that a failed vote will stall the implementation and enforcement of terrible policies that will rewrite our history and weaken our freedoms.