Speaker Mike Johnson quietly gave Rep. Nancy Mace a victory in her quest to ban transgender women from using the ladies' bathrooms on Capitol Hill. In the Congressional Record published on Jan. 3, Johnson officially implemented a policy stating that “all single-sex facilities—such as restrooms,

The GOP-controlled House approved several amendments that ax rights for transgender people and other vulnerable communities, however.

The policy was left out of last week’s proposed package but Rep. Johnson quietly included the ban in the final rules.

The House will also have to pass a new set of rules that will govern how the House works over the next two years, and them noticed that one much-discussed rule from 2024 is not in the resolution: Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-SC) ban on trans women using the appropriate restrooms at the Capitol complex.

After South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace made a spectacle of transgender people’s access to bathrooms in the U.S. Capitol at the end of the 118th Congress last year, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has quietly announced a rule restricting bathroom usage in the 119th Congress.

According to the Congressional Record, the policy will be enforced by the sergeant-at-arms and applies to “all areas of the Capitol subject to the Speaker’s general control.” This includes the House chamber, the hallways and pathways in the Capitol designated for House use, and any unassigned rooms in that area, per the House rules.

Nancy Mace’s hopes of banning transgender women from sharing a bathroom with her on Capitol Hill appear dashed for now. The South Carolina Republican’s controversial bathroom ban was not included in the GOP’s House rules package unveiled this week—a surprise omission less than two months after Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly assured Mace it would be included.

Speaker Mike Johnson maintained a policy that will bar transgender people from using single-sex facilities that align with their gender identities in the House.