I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 897 

To ensure that organizations with religious or moral convictions are allowed 

to continue to provide services for children. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 30, 2019 

Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr. PETERSON, Mr. ADERHOLT, Mr. 

COLE, Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. CARTER of Texas, Mr. COMER, 

Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. FORTENBERRY, Mr. FLORES, Mr. GAETZ, Mr. 

GIANFORTE, Mr. GIBBS, Mr. GOHMERT, Mr. GROTHMAN, Mr. HICE of 

Georgia, Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana, Mr. JONES, Mr. LAMBORN, Mrs. 

LESKO, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mr. MEADOWS, Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia, Mr. PALMER, Mr. POSEY, Mr. DAVID P. ROE of Tennessee, Mr. 

ROONEY of Florida, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. STEWART, Mr. 

WALKER, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. 

WITTMAN, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. COLLINS of New York, Mr. ALLEN, and 

Mr. RUTHERFORD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To ensure that organizations with religious or moral convictions are allowed to continue to provide services for children. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Welfare Provider 

5 Inclusion Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 

2 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Child welfare service providers, both individ4 uals and organizations, have the inherent, funda5 mental, and inalienable right to free exercise of reli6 gion protected by the United States Constitution. 

7 (2) The right to free exercise of religion for 

8 child welfare service providers includes the freedom 

9 to refrain from conduct that conflicts with their sin10 cerely held religious beliefs. 

11 (3) Most States provide government-funded 

12 child welfare services through various charitable, re13 ligious, and private organizations. 

14 (4) Religious organizations, in particular, have 

15 a lengthy and distinguished history of providing 

16 child welfare services that predates government in17 volvement. 

18 (5) Religious organizations have long been and 

19 should continue contracting with and receiving 

20 grants from governmental entities to provide child 

21 welfare services. 

22 (6) Religious organizations cannot provide cer23 tain child welfare services, such as foster-care or 

24 adoption placements, without receiving a government 

25 contract, grant or license. 


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1 (7) Religious organizations display particular 

2 excellence when providing child welfare services. 

3 (8) Children and families benefit greatly from 

4 the child welfare services provided by religious orga5 nizations. 

6 (9) Governmental entities and officials admin7 istering federally funded child welfare services in 

8 some States, including Massachusetts, California, Il9 linois, and the District of Columbia, have refused to 

10 contract with religious organizations that are unable, 

11 due to sincerely held religious beliefs or moral con12 victions, to provide a child welfare service that con13 flicts, or under circumstances that conflict, with 

14 those beliefs or convictions; and that refusal has 

15 forced many religious organizations to end their long 

16 and distinguished history of excellence in the provi17 sion of child welfare services. 

18 (10) Ensuring that religious organizations can 

19 continue to provide child welfare services will benefit 

20 the children and families that receive those federally 

21 funded services. 

22 (11) States also provide government-funded 

23 child welfare services through individual child wel24 fare service providers with varying religious and 

25 moral convictions. 


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1 (12) Many individual child welfare service pro2 viders maintain sincerely held religious beliefs or 

3 moral convictions that relate to their work and 

4 should not be forced to choose between their liveli5 hood and adherence to those beliefs or convictions. 

6 (13) Because governmental entities provide 

7 child welfare services through many charitable, reli8 gious, and private organizations, each with varying 

9 religious beliefs or moral convictions, and through 

10 diverse individuals with varying religious beliefs or 

11 moral convictions, the religiously impelled inability 

12 of some religious organizations or individuals to pro13 vide certain services will not have a material effect 

14 on a person’s ability to access federally funded child 

15 welfare services. 

16 (14) The activities of funding and admin17 istering these child welfare services substantially af18 fect interstate commerce. 

19 (15) Taking adverse actions against child wel20 fare service providers that are unable, due to their 

21 sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions, 

22 to provide certain services (or provide services under 

23 certain circumstances) substantially affects inter24 state commerce. 


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1 (16) The provisions of this Act are remedial 

2 measures that are congruent and proportional to 

3 protecting the constitutional rights of child welfare 

4 service providers guaranteed under the Fourteenth 

5 Amendment to the United States Constitution. 

6 (17) Congress has the authority to pass this 

7 Act pursuant to its spending clause power, com8 merce clause power, and enforcement power under 

9 section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the 

10 United States Constitution. 

11 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as fol12 lows: 

13 (1) To prohibit governmental entities from dis14 criminating or taking an adverse action against a 

15 child welfare service provider on the basis that the 

16 provider declines to provide a child welfare service 

17 that conflicts, or under circumstances that conflict, 

18 with the sincerely held religious beliefs or moral con19 victions of the provider. 

20 (2) To protect child welfare service providers’ 

21 exercise of religion and to ensure that governmental 

22 entities will not be able to force those providers, ei23 ther directly or indirectly, to discontinue all or some 

24 of their child welfare services because they decline to 

25 provide a child welfare service that conflicts, or 


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1 under circumstances that conflict, with their sin2 cerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions. 

3 (3) To provide relief to child welfare service 

4 providers whose rights have been violated. 

5 SEC. 3. DISCRIMINATION AND ADVERSE ACTIONS PROHIB6 ITED. 

7 (a) The Federal Government, and any State that re8 ceives Federal funding for any program that provides child 

9 welfare services under part B or part E of title IV of the 

10 Social Security Act (and any subdivision, office or depart11 ment of such State) shall not discriminate or take an ad12 verse action against a child welfare service provider on the 

13 basis that the provider has declined or will decline to pro14 vide, facilitate, or refer for a child welfare service that con15 flicts with, or under circumstances that conflict with, the 

16 provider’s sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convic17 tions. 

18 (b) Subsection (a) does not apply to conduct forbid19 den by paragraph (18) of section 471(a) of such Act. 

20 SEC. 4. FUNDS WITHHELD FOR VIOLATION. 

21 The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 

22 withhold from a State 15 percent of the Federal funds 

23 the State receives for a program that provides child wel24 fare services under part B or part E of title IV of the 


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1 Social Security Act if the State violates section 3 when 

2 administering or disbursing funds under such program. 

3 SEC. 5. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION. 

4 (a) A child welfare service provider aggrieved by a 

5 violation of section 3 may assert that violation as a claim 

6 or defense in a judicial proceeding and obtain all appro7 priate relief, including declaratory relief, injunctive relief, 

8 and compensatory damages, with respect to that violation. 

9 (b) A child welfare service provider that prevails in 

10 an action by establishing a violation of section 3 is entitled 

11 to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. 

12 (c) By accepting or expending Federal funds in con13 nection with a program that provides child welfare services 

14 under part B or part E of title IV of the Social Security 

15 Act, a State waives its sovereign immunity for any claim 

16 or defense that is raised under this section. 

17 SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY. 

18 If any provision of this Act, or any application of such 

19 provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be un20 constitutional, the remainder of this Act and the applica21 tion of the provision to any other person or circumstance 

22 shall not be affected. 

23 SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

24 (a) The amendments made by this Act shall take ef25 fect on the 1st day of the 1st fiscal year beginning on 


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1 or after the date of the enactment of this Act, and the 

2 withholding of funds authorized by section 4 shall apply 

3 to payments under parts B and E of such Act for calendar 

4 quarters beginning on or after such date. 

5 (b) If legislation (other than legislation appropriating 

6 funds) is required for a governmental entity to bring itself 

7 into compliance with this Act, the governmental entity 

8 shall not be regarded as violating this Act before the 1st 

9 day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the first 

10 regular session of the legislative body that begins after the 

11 date of the enactment of this Act. For purposes of the 

12 preceding sentence, if the governmental entity has a 2- 

13 year legislative session, each year of the session is deemed 

14 to be a separate regular session. 

15 SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS. 

16 The following definitions apply throughout this Act: 

17 (1) The term ‘‘child welfare service provider’’ 

18 includes organizations, corporations, groups, entities, 

19 or individuals that provide or seek to provide, or 

20 that apply for or receive a contract, subcontract, 

21 grant, or subgrant for the provision of, child welfare 

22 services. The provider need not be engaged exclu23 sively in child welfare services to be considered a 

24 child welfare service provider. 


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1 (2) The term ‘‘child welfare services’’ means so2 cial services provided to or on behalf of children, in3 cluding assisting abused, neglected, or troubled chil4 dren, counseling children or parents, promoting fos5 ter parenting, providing foster homes or temporary 

6 group shelters for children, recruiting foster parents, 

7 placing children in foster homes, licensing foster 

8 homes, promoting adoption, recruiting adoptive par9 ents, assisting adoptions, supporting adoptive fami10 lies, assisting kinship guardianships, assisting kin11 ship caregivers, providing family preservation serv12 ices, providing family support services, and providing 

13 time-limited family reunification services. 

14 (3) The term ‘‘State’’ includes any of the sev15 eral States, the District of Columbia, any common16 wealth, territory or possession of the United States, 

17 and any political subdivision thereof. 

18 (4) The terms ‘‘funding’’, ‘‘funded’’, or ‘‘funds’’ 

19 include money paid pursuant to a contract, grant, 

20 voucher, or similar means. 

21 (5) The term ‘‘adverse action’’ includes, but is 

22 not limited to, denying a child welfare service pro23 vider’s application for funding, refusing to renew the 

24 provider’s funding, canceling the provider’s funding, 

25 declining to enter into a contract with the provider, 


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1 refusing to renew a contract with the provider, can2 celing a contract with the provider, declining to issue 

3 a license to the provider, refusing to renew the pro4 vider’s license, canceling the provider’s license, ter5 minating the provider’s employment, or any other 

6 adverse action that materially alters the terms or 

7 conditions of the provider’s employment, funding, 

8 contract, or license. 

Æ 


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