II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 677 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 17, 2005 

Mr. SANTORUM (for himself, Mr. KERRY, Mr. ENSIGN, Mr. LIEBERMAN, Mr. 

BROWNBACK, Mrs. CLINTON, Mr. SMITH, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. TALENT, 

Mr. CORZINE, Mr. COBURN, and Mr. HATCH) introduced the following 

bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

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 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS. 

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

8 Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e(j)) is amended— 
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1 (1) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(j)’’; 

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

3 in an affirmative and bona fide effort,’’ after ‘‘un4 able’’; 

5 (3) by striking ‘‘an employee’s’’ and all that fol6 lows through ‘‘religious’’ and inserting ‘‘an employ7 ee’s religious’’; and 

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

9 ‘‘(2)(A) In this subsection, the term ‘employee’ in10 cludes an employee (as defined in subsection (f)), or a pro11 spective employee, who, with or without reasonable accom12 modation, is qualified to perform the essential functions 

13 of the employment position that such individual holds or 

14 desires. 

15 ‘‘(B) In this paragraph, the term ‘perform the essen16 tial functions’ includes carrying out the core requirements 

17 of an employment position and does not include carrying 

18 out practices relating to clothing, practices relating to tak19 ing time off, or other practices that may have a temporary 

20 or tangential impact on the ability to perform job func21 tions, if any of the practices described in this subpara22 graph restrict the ability to wear religious clothing, to take 

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

24 observance or practice. 
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1 ‘‘(3) In this subsection, the term ‘undue hardship’ 

2 means an accommodation requiring significant difficulty 

3 or expense. For purposes of determining whether an ac4 commodation requires significant difficulty or expense, 

5 factors to be considered in making the determination shall 

6 include— 

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

8 including the costs of loss of productivity and of re9 training or hiring employees or transferring employ10 ees from 1 facility to another; 

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

12 the employer involved, relative to the number of its 

13 employees; and 

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

15 the geographic separateness or administrative or fis16 cal relationship of the facilities.’’. 

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

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

19 the following: 

20 ‘‘(o)(1) In this subsection: 

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

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

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

24 leave provided under the policy or program of an 

25 employer, under which— 
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1 ‘‘(i) an employee may take leave by adjust2 ing or altering the work schedule or assignment 

3 of the employee according to criteria deter4 mined by the employer; and 

5 ‘‘(ii) the employee may determine the pur6 pose for which the leave is to be utilized. 

7 ‘‘(2) For purposes of determining whether an em8 ployer has committed an unlawful employment practice 

9 under this title by failing to provide a reasonable accom10 modation to the religious observance or practice of an em11 ployee, for an accommodation to be considered to be rea12 sonable, the accommodation shall remove the conflict be13 tween employment requirements and the religious observ14 ance or practice of the employee. 

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

16 a practice by failing to provide such a reasonable accom17 modation for an employee if the employer refuses to per18 mit the employee to utilize leave of general usage to re19 move such a conflict solely because the leave will be used 

20 to accommodate the religious observance or practice of the 

21 employee.’’. 

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

23 (a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Except as provided in sub24 section (b), this Act and the amendments made by section 

25 2 take effect on the date of enactment of this Act. 
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1 (b) APPLICATION OF AMENDMENTS.—The amend2 ments made by section 2 do not apply with respect to con3 duct occurring before the date of enactment of this Act.

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