Soros-backed policy group notches victory with Biden’s transgender Title IX rules

A liberal group bankrolled by millions of dollars from George Soros notched a victory with the Biden administration’s newly proposed Title IX rules, which include gender identity and would bar educational institutions from banning transgender athletes.

The Education Department rolled out its Title IX proposed rule on Thursday, which mirrors an action memo from a once shadowy group called Governing for Impact (GFI). GFI quietly works behind the scenes with the Biden administration on policy and also has a high-level Soros employee on its board of directors.

‘The U.S. Department of Education (Department) proposes to amend its regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) to set out a standard that would govern a recipient’s adoption or application of sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female athletic team consistent with their gender identity,’ the Education Department wrote.

‘The proposed regulation would clarify Title IX’s application to such sex-related criteria and the obligation of schools and other recipients of Federal financial assistance from the Department (referred to below as ‘recipients’ or ‘schools’) that adopt or apply such criteria to do so consistent with Title IX’s nondiscrimination mandate.’

The Education Department’s proposal is similar in structure and reasoning to a legal memo GFI earlier supplied to the department. A backbone of the Biden administration’s proposal includes bringing in gender identity, which GFI advocated for within the document.

GFI’s memo proposed ‘implementing regulations to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and transgender status; and that Title IX and its implementing regulations require schools to treat students consistent with their gender identity for purposes of Title IX and not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.’ 

GFI has received immense funding from Soros’ Open Society Foundations network. The Foundation to Promote Open Society, a nonprofit in Soros’ network, has funneled nearly $10 million to GFI since 2019, records show. The Open Society Policy Center, Soros’ advocacy nonprofit, sent $7.45 million to GFI’s action fund during that time.

While GFI’s total contributions are unknown, the sheer amount of Soros’ cash likely makes him one of the group’s largest – if not its largest – donors. GFI and its action fund are not required to file tax documents to the Internal Revenue Service since they are fiscally sponsored projects of the New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund, not standalone organizations. 

GFI’s four-person board, meanwhile, includes Tom Perriello, the executive director of Soros’ Open Society-U.S, who maintains close access to the White House. 

Perriello’s name appears in White House visitor logs 13 times on eight different days between May 2021 and September 2022, according to a review of the records. On three of the days he visited, multiple appointments appeared on the forms.

‘Open Society is proud to support Governing for Impact’s efforts to protect American workers, consumers, patients, students and the environment through policy reform,’ Perriello previously told Fox News Digital.

‘Their work gives voice to people often overlooked in a regulatory environment too often dominated by corporate interests,’ he said. ‘Our support for Governing for Impact’s work is publicly available on our website and we are transparent about our enthusiasm for their victories for American workers and families.’ 

GFI was established with a vision of preparing the Biden administration for a ‘transformative governance’ and produced ‘more than 60 in-depth, shovel-ready regulatory recommendations’ for dozens of federal agencies,’ a now-deleted job advertisement on Harvard Law School’s website read.

The group has bragged in internal memos of executing more than 20 of its regulatory agenda items as they work with the administration to reverse Trump-era deregulations by focusing on education, health care, housing, labor and environmental issues. 

GFI has also organized legal policy memos for at least 10 federal departments and agencies and 10 administrative law primers as of 2021, according to an internal slideshow from the group.

‘We’re glad the administration is revising its Title IX guidance,’ Rachel Klarman, GFI’s executive director, previously told Fox News Digital. ‘During the transition, Governing for Impact made a number of recommendations for how this policy could be improved, which are available on our public website.’

Klarman also previously said that they are proud of the ‘ongoing efforts to help ensure that the federal government works more effectively for everyday working Americans, not just for members of industry groups that have long devoted vast resources to pursuing their own policy agendas.’

The public will have 30 days to provide comments on the rule before its implementation. 

The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed reporting.