I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 6485 
To ensure that organizations with religious or moral convictions are allowed 
to continue to provide services for children. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 28, 2023 
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr. CLOUD, Mr. RESCHENTHALER, 
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska, Mr. GOODEN of Texas, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. 
SMUCKER, Mr. MOORE of Alabama, Mrs. MILLER of West Virginia, and 
Mrs. MILLER of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To ensure that organizations with religious or moral convic-
tions are allowed to continue to provide services for chil-
dren. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Welfare Provider 
Inclusion Act of 2023’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Child welfare service providers, both individ-
uals and organizations, have the inherent, funda-
mental, and inalienable right to free exercise of reli-
gion protected by the United States Constitution. 
(2) The right to free exercise of religion for 
child welfare service providers includes the freedom 
to refrain from conduct that conflicts with their sin-
cerely held religious beliefs. 
(3) Most States provide government-funded 
child welfare services through various charitable, re-
ligious, and private organizations. 
(4) Religious organizations, in particular, have 
a lengthy and distinguished history of providing 
child welfare services that predates government in-
volvement. 
(5) Religious organizations have long been and 
should continue contracting with and receiving 
grants from governmental entities to provide child 
welfare services. 
(6) Religious organizations cannot provide cer-
tain child welfare services, such as foster-care or 
adoption placements, without receiving a government 
contract, grant or license. 
(7) Religious organizations display particular 
excellence when providing child welfare services. 
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(8) Children and families benefit greatly from 
the child welfare services provided by religious orga-
nizations. 
(9) Governmental entities and officials admin-
istering federally funded child welfare services in 
some States, including Massachusetts, California, Il-
linois, and the District of Columbia, have refused to 
contract with religious organizations that are unable, 
due to sincerely held religious beliefs or moral con-
victions, to provide a child welfare service that con-
flicts, or under circumstances that conflict, with 
those beliefs or convictions; and that refusal has 
forced many religious organizations to end their long 
and distinguished history of excellence in the provi-
sion of child welfare services. 
(10) Ensuring that religious organizations can 
continue to provide child welfare services will benefit 
the children and families that receive those federally 
funded services. 
(11) States also provide government-funded 
child welfare services through individual child wel-
fare service providers with varying religious and 
moral convictions. 
(12) Many individual child welfare service pro-
viders maintain sincerely held religious beliefs or 
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moral convictions that relate to their work and 
should not be forced to choose between their liveli-
hood and adherence to those beliefs or convictions. 
(13) Because governmental entities provide 
child welfare services through many charitable, reli-
gious, and private organizations, each with varying 
religious beliefs or moral convictions, and through 
diverse individuals with varying religious beliefs or 
moral convictions, the religiously impelled inability 
of some religious organizations or individuals to pro-
vide certain services will not have a material effect 
on a person’s ability to access federally funded child 
welfare services. 
(14) The provisions of this Act are remedial 
measures that are congruent and proportional to 
protecting the constitutional rights of child welfare 
service providers guaranteed under the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the United States Constitution. 
(15) Congress has the authority to pass this 
Act pursuant to its spending clause power and en-
forcement power under section 5 of the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the United States Constitution. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as fol-
lows: 
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