I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1431 

To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to establish provisions 

with respect to religious accommodation in employment, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 9, 2007 

Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York (for herself, Mr. SOUDER, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, 

Mr. CANTOR, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. JINDAL, Mr. WEINER, 

Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. EDWARDS, Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. 

WEXLER, Mr. WAMP, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, and Mrs. 

BLACKBURN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Education and Labor 

A BILL 

To amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to 

establish provisions with respect to religious accommodation in employment, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Workplace Religious 

5 Freedom Act of 2007’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS. 

2 (a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 701(j) of the Civil Rights 

3 Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e(j)) is amended— 

4 (1) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(j)’’; 

5 (2) by inserting ‘‘, after initiating and engaging 

6 in an affirmative and bona fide effort,’’ after ‘‘un7 able’’; 

8 (3) by striking ‘‘an employee’s’’ and all that fol9 lows through ‘‘religious’’ and inserting ‘‘an employ10 ee’s religious’’; and 

11 (4) by adding at the end the following: 

12 ‘‘(2)(A) In this subsection, the term ‘employee’ in13 cludes an employee (as defined in subsection (f)), or a pro14 spective employee, who, with or without reasonable accom15 modation, is qualified to perform the essential functions 

16 of the employment position that such individual holds or 

17 desires. 

18 ‘‘(B) In this paragraph, the term ‘perform the essen19 tial functions’ includes carrying out the core requirements 

20 of an employment position and does not include carrying 

21 out practices relating to clothing, practices relating to tak22 ing time off, or other practices that may have a temporary 

23 or tangential impact on the ability to perform job func24 tions, if any of the practices described in this subpara25 graph restrict the ability to wear religious clothing, to take 


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1 time off for a holy day, or to participate in a religious 

2 observance or practice. 

3 ‘‘(3) In this subsection, the term ‘undue hardship’ 

4 means an accommodation requiring significant difficulty 

5 or expense. For purposes of determining whether an ac6 commodation requires significant difficulty or expense, 

7 factors to be considered in making the determination shall 

8 include— 

9 ‘‘(A) the identifiable cost of the accommodation, 

10 including the costs of loss of productivity and of re11 training or hiring employees or transferring employ12 ees from 1 facility to another; 

13 ‘‘(B) the overall financial resources and size of 

14 the employer involved, relative to the number of its 

15 employees; and 

16 ‘‘(C) for an employer with multiple facilities, 

17 the geographic separateness or administrative or fis18 cal relationship of the facilities.’’. 

19 (b) EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES.—Section 703 of such 

20 Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e–2) is amended by adding at the end 

21 the following: 

22 ‘‘(o)(1) In this subsection: 

23 ‘‘(A) The term ‘employee’ has the meaning 

24 given the term in section 701(j)(2). 


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1 ‘‘(B) The term ‘leave of general usage’ means 

2 leave provided under the policy or program of an 

3 employer, under which— 

4 ‘‘(i) an employee may take leave by adjust5 ing or altering the work schedule or assignment 

6 of the employee according to criteria deter7 mined by the employer; and 

8 ‘‘(ii) the employee may determine the pur9 pose for which the leave is to be utilized. 

10 ‘‘(2) For purposes of determining whether an em11 ployer has committed an unlawful employment practice 

12 under this title by failing to provide a reasonable accom13 modation to the religious observance or practice of an em14 ployee, for an accommodation to be considered to be rea15 sonable, the accommodation shall remove the conflict be16 tween employment requirements and the religious observ17 ance or practice of the employee. 

18 ‘‘(3) An employer shall be considered to commit such 

19 a practice by failing to provide such a reasonable accom20 modation for an employee if the employer refuses to per21 mit the employee to utilize leave of general usage to re22 move such a conflict solely because the leave will be used 

23 to accommodate the religious observance or practice of the 

24 employee.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICATION OF AMENDMENTS. 

2 (a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Except as provided in sub3 section (b), this Act and the amendments made by section 

4 2 take effect on the date of enactment of this Act. 

5 (b) APPLICATION OF AMENDMENTS.—The amend6 ments made by section 2 do not apply with respect to con7 duct occurring before the date of enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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