Representative Jim Banks joins the podcast this week to talk about the legislative work he and others are doing to defend equal opportunity in women’s sports. More specifically, they are seeking to amend Title IX to recognize sex as based solely on a person’s reproductive biology at birth. We also discuss his support of the Women’s Bill of Rights and the fight against fentanyl, the large-scale epidemic in need of immediate attention in this country.
Rep. Jim Banks is an Afghanistan veteran and the father of three daughters. He represents northeast Indiana in the U.S. House, where he serves on the Armed Services Committee, the Education and Workforce Committee, and the Select Committee on China.
TRANSCRIPT
Beverly Hallberg:
And welcome to She Thinks, a podcast where you’re allowed to think for yourself. I’m your host, Beverly Hallberg. And on today’s episode, representative Jim Banks joins us to talk about the legislative work he and others are doing to defend equal opportunity in women’s sports by seeking to amend Title IX to recognize sex as based solely on a person’s reproductive biology at birth. We’re also going to discuss his support of the Women’s Bill of Rights and the fight against Fentanyl, the large scale epidemic in need of immediate attention in this country. And representative Jim Banks, he is an Afghanistan veteran and the father of three daughters. He represents Northeast Indiana in the House where he serves on the Armed Service Services Committee, the Education and Workforce Committee, and the Select Committee on China. Representative, a pleasure to have you on She Thinks today.
Rep. Jim Banks:
Great to be with you. Thanks for having me.
Beverly Hallberg:
So we do have something in common. I am actually one of three girls, so my father could probably relate to you. You have three daughters yourself. And one of the things I wondered is, is the reason why you have decided to put so much effort into supporting women and equal opportunity in sports in other areas, because you do have three daughters.
Rep. Jim Banks:
Absolutely. That’s exactly why these issues matter so much to me. My daughters are 13, 11, and 9 years old, and I literally lay awake at night worried about the type of culture and the type of America that they’re going to grow up and inherit from this generation, one that devalues the role of women in our society and our country. And I’m going to fight every single day, every chance that I get as a member of Congress to make sure that we protect women, that we value women as a country in our federal government. And that’s why the girls’ sports issue matters. It’s why the Parents’ Bill of Rights, all those issues matter so much to protect and value my three daughters and girls all over the country just like them.
Beverly Hallberg:
Well, one of the most notable examples that we can give as far as women’s sports and some of the issues surrounding it is the person named Lia Thomas. So this is a man who identifies as a woman who was competing in women’s swimming, women’s college swimming, of course dominated that. And I think if somebody said that Lia Thomas, this situation is an isolated situation, what would you say, is Lia Thomas isolated or are we seeing this all across the country?
Rep. Jim Banks:
Yeah, sadly, it’s one example of many, a growing number of examples. Last year I was Republican Study Committee chairman, the largest caucus on Capitol Hill, and we held a round table discussion with female athletes who were forced to compete against biological men. And it included swimmers who swam against Lia Thomas, but we had athletes from all kinds of different sports, basketball, volleyball, other sports who had been subjected to this too. So it’s why we have to pass a law at the federal level. I’m glad that my state in Indiana, our legislature acted last year and passed a bill to save girls’ sports at the state level. But by the way, the governor vetoed it, but they overrode his veto.
Now we need to do it at the federal level to protect women all over the country. And I’m proud to be on the front lines of fighting to get that done. In fact, just this month we passed a bill out of the House Education Committee that I sit on, Greg Steube, my colleague from Florida, author of the bill, I’m a co-author and we’ve been fighting to pass this bill in the Democrat-led majority. But now that Republicans have the majority, we passed a bill out of the House Education Committee to save girls’ sports. And I’m looking forward to voting for it on the House floor here coming soon.
Beverly Hallberg:
And that is called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. And I believe this is the third time it’s come to the floor. As you said, this is the first time since Republicans controlled the House. Any expectations on how you think votes are going to go? Do you think Republicans across the board are going to vote for it? And what do you expect some Democrats to do?
Rep. Jim Banks:
Well, I can’t imagine a single Republican would vote against it. I hope I’m not surprised, but I believe it’ll be supported 100% by Republican members. But it sure puts a lot of Democrats on the spot. The Democrat Party is more radical than it’s ever been on issues like these. So I imagine that you will see a number of, maybe a handful I hope, maybe more Democrats who will vote for it too, who recognize the insanity of this issue that biological men are being allowed to compete against our girls and women in sports. So I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m hopeful. I’m optimistic that there will be Democrats who would join us and vote for it.
Beverly Hallberg:
So if this passes and it’s likely to, it will go to the Senate. Any predictions on how it will go in the Senate?
Rep. Jim Banks:
Chuck Schumer runs the Senate and he’s on the side of the insanity. So I don’t know, I’m not going to hold my breath and expecting that the Democrat-led Senate will take this up, but hopefully we have a courageous senator or two who will force a vote on it and hopefully that will use the rules of the Senate to force a vote, an amendment or something, or another opportunity in the Senate as an avenue to do that. But we’ll have to wait and see. We will do our part in the House. In fact, I’m proud that this was one of our commitments that we made on the campaign trail last year, one of the promises that we made to the American people. If you give us the majority in the House, we’re going to pass a bill to protect girls’ sports and we’re going to fulfill that commitment. So I’m proud of the House for doing their job.
Beverly Hallberg:
And let’s talk about some of the specifics within the bill. So basically you’re looking at Title IX, Title IX is the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination. Correct me if I’m wrong, but what this would do is ensure that when we talk about sex-based discrimination, we’re talking about sex based on biology, not based on identity. Correct?
Rep. Jim Banks:
That’s right. That’s exactly right.
Beverly Hallberg:
And so how would that language be put into this legislation? How do you explain that?
Rep. Jim Banks:
Well, it’s that simple. This is about biology. It’s about genetics at birth and making sure that at the federal level, that as universities, colleges and universities and schools accept federal money, that they don’t allow for biological men and boys to compete against girls. So it’s a very simple matter and taken in effect, I think you, you’ll see that as a very effective way to stop the insanity that we’re seeing proliferate around the country.
Beverly Hallberg:
Across party, whether it’s this topic or other topics, we discuss quite often about the more moderate wing and then the very progressive wing. What do you hear in these conversations among Democrats on issues such as this where you and I would agree this is just radical ideology, talking about men competing with women. I’m assuming there are a lot of moderate Democrats who agree, but are they afraid to speak up on issues like this?
Rep. Jim Banks:
Well, in the last few years they have been because the radical progressive socialist left, I mean, they’ve advanced this pro-transgender ideology and agenda in such a big way using the federal government to do it, with Joe Biden and the White House. They have a friendly White House, a friendly president to enact, to push this agenda in such a significant way. So I think there are a number of Democrats who recognize the insanity of it, but who are afraid to speak out because the base of their party is dominated by those that believe that it’s not just fair, but that biological boys are entitled to competing in women’s sports.
On our side, on the side of sanity, it is a matter of fairness. My three daughters are physically different than biological boys and males, and it’s just unfair that they would be forced to compete in any competition against someone who has a physical advantage over them at birth. And I can’t believe that there are so many Democrats who have been silent that they don’t recognize that there is a political consequence to accepting the insanity of the radical left. But hopefully by putting this bill to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives that I expect to pass, it will expose that divide in a bigger way and give some Democrats a chance to be a courageous and do the right thing and vote the right way and support it.
Beverly Hallberg:
And for our listeners who want to know a little bit more about this as well, IWF does have a report, it’s called “Competition Title IX, Male-Bodied Athletes and the Threat to Women’s Sports.” You can go to iwf.org to go take a look at that and read more about it. And for you, Representative, I want to move beyond sports. So it’s not just sports that are being attacked and where women are being erased, it’s also just erasing them in general in our laws, in the language, “female” being erased from so much of what is described in state and federal law.
This would then impact privacy, your workplace, all of those. So this is where the Women’s Bill of Rights comes in. This ensures that sex-based words such as male and female, they remain, and that they mean based on biology and not just identity. Give a better explanation than I just did there. The Women’s Bill of Rights; why is this so important to women and how they operate in all facets of society?
Rep. Jim Banks:
We passed this bill on the same committee hearing, I believe that we passed the Protect Girls Sports, and it passed out of on a party line vote, it passed out of the House Education Committee. And it’s that simple. Debbie Lesko, my great colleague from the state of Arizona, introduced this last Congress when we were in the minority. Now she’s introduced it again this Congress in the majority. And it simply does what you say, it defines women as a biological term in the federal law because you see the radical left trying to strip biological and gender terms out of the federal laws. As we talked about a little bit ago, raising my daughters in a society and a culture that values women, the radical left is doing exactly the opposite. They’re diminishing the role of women by taking the term woman and women out of federal law.
So Debbie Lesko’s bill would simply do that, define women as biological women in the federal law and cement that across the federal government. It also would prevent biological males from gaining access to sex segregated spaces like locker rooms. We’re talking about prisons, domestic abuse shelters. We hear horror stories from prisons and domestic abuse shelters all the time. And because of this issue when men who identify as women are being mixed in with biological women and the tragic outcome of that, the violent outcome of that. So that’s why we have to define these terms and put it in the law to protect women in these places. And Debbie Lesko’s bill, which is so important, does exactly that.
Beverly Hallberg:
And what do you say to the critics, those who push against you, who say that what this is about, what you’re actually doing is just discriminating against a transgender community, whether it’s through what we’re talking about with women’s sports or in our laws, the terminology or what you’re doing for parental rights. What is your main comeback to that claim?
Rep. Jim Banks:
Yeah, the discrimination is clear only in the direction of attacking women and that that’s the abuse of women that’s being allowed and pushed by this radical agenda. That’s where the discrimination occurs. So I quickly dismissed those charges and again, we’re talking about common sense and sanity versus the radical insanity of the left and protecting women. And some of the work that IWF has done and public polling on these issues shows that the vast majority of the American people are on our side, on the side of sanity. And that’s why these aren’t just very important public policy measures, they’re also very politically popular as well when we do the right thing.
Beverly Hallberg:
It’s one of those issues that I think regardless of how you vote politically, you can find some common ground on these issues, especially those who have daughters. All of us have women in our lives. And I think it’s just a common sense thing. And something else that’s common sense that you’re working on quite a bit is the fight against what we’re tragically seeing in this country, which are so many drug overdose deaths from Fentanyl. I think the recent number is we surpassed 100,000 drug overdose deaths within 12 months for the first time in American history. Tell us a little bit about the work that you were doing on that front.
Rep. Jim Banks:
Well, this is really unbelievable. If you think about over 100,000 Americans who have died of Fentanyl poisonings. Made in China, Fentanyl, that’s sent to our southern border, pushed over our southern border by the Mexican drug cartels, who are making more money than they’ve ever made before because of the open border policies, the Biden administration and all that Fentanyl flowing into our country, killing Americans, poisoning Americans all over the place. When I travel around the state of Indiana, I hardly talk to a family today that’s not impacted by this, tragically. And we have an administration that’s not doing anything about it. So first and foremost, we have to stop the flow. We have to secure the border and stop the flow of Fentanyl coming into our country. And then I think we got to declare war on the Mexican drug cartels, use the military to go in and root them out and take them out to stop what they’re doing to directly poison the American people.
I introduced a bill last month to sanction China as well, sanction the Chinese Communist Party to hold them accountable because they’re directly responsible for this happening as well. And then I think on top of all that, we’ve got to do more at the local level to support prevention efforts at the local level, addiction recovery facilities too because the effect on local communities and families is so drastic, so severe. There’s so much more that we can do to affect people at the local level who are trying to overcome these problems. So that that’s the recipe. Unfortunately, we have a president and administration directly responsible for this happening, that’s not doing anything about it.
Beverly Hallberg:
And for parents out there who are concerned about their children not knowing whether or not they have access to Fentanyl in schools, what do you say to parents who want to do something and don’t know where to start?
Rep. Jim Banks:
Well, first of all, educate yourself and talk to your kids. Tell them don’t take anything that isn’t given to you by a doctor, by a healthcare provider, by a school nurse, someone in a position of authority that is giving them what they need to have rather than taking it from a friend or someone that you don’t know. I got to tell you, I hear stories all the time. I think of a local firefighter in Fort Wayne in my district whose son died from Fentanyl poisoning because he took something that he thought was something else the first time that he ever took it, and he tragically died. And we hear those stories over and over again. And I think this is just a matter of where parents need to talk to their kids and get educated and be a voice of reason to do everything we can to prevent this from happening.
Beverly Hallberg:
And like you said, it’s a multi-pronged effort. First of all, it’s securing our border, then it’s dealing with the drug cartels, dealing with China, who is the one selling this, manufacturing it, and then the local level and what we can do to prosecute those who are selling it to our children. So I know you have votes to get to, so we are going to let you go, but I just want to thank you representative so much on your work that you’re doing to defend women, make sure that we have equal opportunity also to protect our kids, especially with the issue of Fentanyl. Representative Jim Banks from the great state of Indiana, thank you for joining us.
Rep. Jim Banks:
Thank you. Good to be with you.
Beverly Hallberg:
And thank you all for joining us. Before you go, Independent Women’s Forum does want you to know that we rely on the generosity of supporters like you. An investment in IWF fuels our efforts to enhance freedom, opportunity, and wellbeing for all Americans. So please consider making a small donation to IWF by visiting iwf.org/donate. That is iwf.org/donate. Last, if you enjoyed this episode of She Thinks, do leave us a rating or a review. It does help, and we’d love it if you shared this episode so your friends can know where they can find more She Thinks. From all of us here at IWF, thanks for watching.
