Montgomery, AL – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined a multistate coalition in submitting a formal comment letter supporting the Trump administration’s proposal to rescind a Biden-era federal regulation tied to disability funding.
The regulation, finalized in 2024 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Joe Biden administration, expanded the definition of “disability” under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to include “gender dysphoria.” Under the rule, states receiving federal funding for disability programs would have been required to cover certain sex-change procedures for individuals who identify as transgender.
Attorney General Marshall previously joined a multistate lawsuit challenging the rule, arguing that it conflicted with federal law. The lawsuit, Texas v. Becerra, contended that Congress explicitly excluded coverage for “gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments” and that the regulation unlawfully conditioned federal funding on compliance with the expanded definition.
Marshall and other attorneys general also argued that the rule would have required states to redirect limited resources away from individuals with physical disabilities and could have jeopardized disability services in states that did not adopt the administration’s policy interpretation.
Following Donald Trump’s return to office, the Trump administration issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to rescind the Biden-era regulation. In response, Alabama has dismissed its claims in the lawsuit, citing the administration’s decision to reverse the policy.
“I applaud President Trump and his administration for working to remove woke ideology from HHS regulations,” Marshall said in a statement. “The Biden administration’s attempt to require states to pay for sex-change procedures or risk losing federal funding was unlawful and would have hurt the very individuals Congress sought to help when it enacted the Rehabilitation Act. I am glad our work challenging the prior administration’s power grab has yielded such important fruit.”
The comment letter was filed by a multistate coalition led by the Texas Attorney General and joined by attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.
