WATCH: Hearing erupts after Dem chair tries to sidestep GOP transgender sports bills: ‘They’re petrified’
A Pennsylvania hearing on transgender sports legislation erupted in chaos Monday, as Republicans accused Democrats of trying to sidestep votes on two related bills.
Pennsylvania became a focal point of the transgender sports debate in 2022, as UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas competed against female athletes, including the University of Kentucky’s Riley Gaines. Since then, conservatives have sought to codify the separation of biological sexes in scholastic sports and public restrooms nationwide.
The top Republican on the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee told Fox News Digital that the scene captured on official video showed the Democratic chairman trying to "re-refer" two bills to the House Health Committee without fully explaining which bills he was citing.
Ranking member Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Chambersburg, said that Republicans ultimately determined the two bills focused on separating scholastic athletes by biological sex and that Democrats resisted any debate before sending them to another committee to restart the process.
"It's fascinating. But the key is, in the legislative process, whether it be on the House floor or in any committee meeting, they'll say the number of the bill and then they'll give a title or brief description of the bill before anyone votes on it. You don't just call up a bill by number," Kauffman told Fox News Digital in a Tuesday interview.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Timothy Briggs was doing just that in a Monday hearing, Kauffman said.
Briggs, D-King of Prussia, sought to move two bills out of the committee quickly, announcing that all Democrats would vote to re-refer them while identifying the measures only by bill number.
Republicans said they were unaware of the bills’ contents because their titles were not read as Briggs tried to re-refer them to the House Health Committee.
Briggs asked the clerk to call the roll for the "sole purpose of referring [them] to the Health Committee" and added that "all Democrats will be voting ‘Yes.'"
"Could we kinda know what the bills are?" interjected Kauffman, before someone in the gallery called out that they were related to transgender athletes in children’s sports.
HB 158 is the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act from Rep. Barb Gleim, R-Mechanicsburg, and HB 1849 is the related Dads Defending Daughters Act by Rep. Clint Owlett, R-Tioga.
Briggs sighed and began to speak before Kauffman continued.
"We can’t vote on a re-referral when we don't even know what the title of the bill is. Obviously, you don't want us to know what the title of the bill is," he said, chuckling as Briggs cut in that the committee is "running out of time."
Kauffman quipped that if he ever pulled such a move as chairman, Briggs’ caucus would have "lost your mind."
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After another pointed exchange between Briggs and Kauffman, the Democrat ordered the clerk to call the roll on the bills and then claimed aloud that some Republicans were refusing to vote.
One of those named, Rep. Stephanie Borowicz of Lock Haven, objected after learning the bills’ true identities:
"Now you’re deciding how we’re voting?" said Borowicz, who co-sponsored Gleim’s bill.
"We might as well be better off in the Russian Duma at this point," Kauffman added as Briggs plowed through their objections and tried to move past the two bills.
The blow-up showed that Democrats are "petrified of this issue [so much] that they broke legislative protocol, parliamentary norms and everything I’ve learned in this legislature in 20 years," Kauffman told Fox News Digital.
He said that if the bills were moved to another committee without first being voted out of his own, the parliamentary "clock" would restart and Democrats could continue moving the measures through committee without taking a direct vote on the underlying transgender sports issue.
Kauffman said the kerfuffle was indicative of the national debate over transgender sports, calling it an "80-90%" issue in favor of separating youth athletes by sex.
Kauffman added that Democrats will eventually have to confront the issue because the state Senate is advancing its own transgender sports bill, which will be taken up by the House.
"It's a mom and dad issue. It's a biological fact issue. So we're going to keep at it," he said, adding that critics are "cater[ing] to the far-progressive fringe" of their party and "generally don’t care what the people want."
Fox News Digital reached out to Briggs for a response to the situation.
A representative for the King of Prussia Democrat said he was "regrettably unavailable" for comment.
The clash came just weeks after a Republican lawmaker's attempt to define "woman" in a Women's Month resolution led Democrats to pull the commemoration.
Fox News Digital's Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.