Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald, file
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Maine have reached a settlement in a lawsuit over the agency’s freezing of about $3 million in federal funds to the state.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced in March that she would freeze funding to Maine education, saying the state had violated Title IX related to its transgender athlete policies. The announcement said the freeze would not affect any food programs for students, only administrative and technological costs, but the state Department of Education said it was unable to access funds for its administrative staff that oversee nutrition programs. Maine attorney general Aaron Frey filed a lawsuit in early April, seeking a temporary restraining order to restore funding.
[mtm-related-linkurl=”https://www.pressherald.com/2025/04/02/usda-freezes-funds-to-maine-education-citing-title-ix-violations/”]USDA freezes funds to Maine education, citing Title IX violations[/mtm-related-link]
In the settlement, signed Friday morning, the agency agreed not to freeze, terminate or interfere with the state’s access to USDA funds based on Title IX violations without going through the legally required process. Frey celebrated the news in an emailed statement Friday afternoon.
“It’s unfortunate that my office had to resort to federal court just to get USDA to comply with the law and its own regulations,” he said. “But we are pleased that the lawsuit has now been resolved and that Maine will continue to receive funds as directed by Congress to feed children and vulnerable adults.”
In its lawsuit, Maine argued that the USDA was preventing students from being fed, that Rollins had not provided a legal basis for her interpretation of Title IX and that the agency did not follow the federal rules for revoking funds. The agency responded that it had frozen just $3 million, not enough to warrant a emergency temporary restraining order. But a federal judge granted the state’s request on April 11, temporarily stopping the department from cutting or pausing funding.
The USDA matter is just one of several ways the Trump administration has attempted to pull education funding from Maine over alleged Title IX violations. A lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education, announced by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi April 16, threatens to pull future and retroactive federal education funding, which primarily supports students with disabilities and low income students. That lawsuit is ongoing.
This story will be updated.
