I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1299 
To ensure that organizations with religious or moral convictions are allowed 
to continue to provide services for children. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 4, 2015 
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. JOLLY, Mr. 
LATTA, Mr. PITTENGER, Mr. HUELSKAMP, Mr. DUNCAN of South Caro-
lina, Mr. LUETKEMEYER, Mr. PEARCE, Mr. ROTHFUS, Mr. SMITH of Ne-
braska, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mr. 
GARRETT, Mr. FLEMING, Mr. HULTGREN, Mr. PITTS, Mr. FRANKS of 
Arizona, Mr. JONES, Mr. MESSER, Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. 
PALAZZO, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. BRADY of Texas, Mr. THOMPSON of Penn-
sylvania, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. MARINO, Mr. AMODEI, Mr. BARLETTA, 
Mr. RENACCI, Mr. GROTHMAN, Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia, Mrs. 
HARTZLER, Mr. MULVANEY, Mr. CLAWSON of Florida, Mr. FORBES, Mr. 
POMPEO, Mr. ROUZER, and Mr. SALMON) 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 2015’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(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. 
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(7) Religious organizations display particular 
excellence when providing child welfare services. 
(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. 
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(12) Many individual child welfare service pro-
viders maintain sincerely held religious beliefs or 
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 activities of funding and admin-
istering these child welfare services substantially af-
fect interstate commerce. 
(15) Taking adverse actions against child wel-
fare service providers that are unable, due to their 
sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions, 
to provide certain services (or provide services under 
certain circumstances) substantially affects inter-
state commerce. 
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under circumstances that conflict, with their sin-
cerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions. 
(3) To provide relief to child welfare service 
providers whose rights have been violated. 
SEC. 3. DISCRIMINATION AND ADVERSE ACTIONS PROHIB-
ITED. 
(a) The Federal Government, and any State that re-
ceives Federal funding for any program that provides child 
welfare services under part B or part E of title IV of the 
Social Security Act (and any subdivision, office or depart-
ment of such State) shall not discriminate or take an ad-
verse action against a child welfare service provider on the 
basis that the provider has declined or will decline to pro-
vide, facilitate, or refer for a child welfare service that con-
flicts with, or under circumstances that conflict with, the 
provider’s sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convic-
tions. 
(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to conduct forbid-
den by paragraph (18) of section 471(a) of such Act. 
SEC. 4. FUNDS WITHHELD FOR VIOLATION. 
The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
withhold from a State 15 percent of the Federal funds 
the State receives for a program that provides child wel-
fare services under part B or part E of title IV of the 
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Social Security Act if the State violates section 3 when 
administering or disbursing funds under such program. 
SEC. 5. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION. 
(a) A child welfare service provider aggrieved by a 
violation of section 3 may assert that violation as a claim 
or defense in a judicial proceeding and obtain all appro-
priate relief, including declaratory relief, injunctive relief, 
and compensatory damages, with respect to that violation. 
(b) A child welfare service provider that prevails in 
an action by establishing a violation of section 3 is entitled 
to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. 
(c) By accepting or expending Federal funds in con-
nection with a program that provides child welfare services 
under part B or part E of title IV of the Social Security 
Act, a State waives its sovereign immunity for any claim 
or defense that is raised under this section. 
SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY. 
If any provision of this Act, or any application of such 
provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be un-
constitutional, the remainder of this Act and the applica-
tion of the provision to any other person or circumstance 
shall not be affected. 
SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
(a) The amendments made by this Act shall take ef-
fect on the 1st day of the 1st fiscal year beginning on 
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or after the date of the enactment of this Act, and the 
withholding of funds authorized by section 4 shall apply 
to payments under parts B and E of such Act for calendar 
quarters beginning on or after such date. 
(b) If legislation (other than legislation appropriating 
funds) is required for a governmental entity to bring itself 
into compliance with this Act, the governmental entity 
shall not be regarded as violating this Act before the 1st 
day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the first 
regular session of the legislative body that begins after the 
date of the enactment of this Act. For purposes of the 
preceding sentence, if the governmental entity has a 2- 
year legislative session, each year of the session is deemed 
to be a separate regular session. 
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS. 
The following definitions apply throughout this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘child welfare service provider’’ 
includes organizations, corporations, groups, entities, 
or individuals that provide or seek to provide, or 
that apply for or receive a contract, subcontract, 
grant, or subgrant for the provision of, child welfare 
services. The provider need not be engaged exclu-
sively in child welfare services to be considered a 
child welfare service provider. 
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(2) The term ‘‘child welfare services’’ means so-
cial services provided to or on behalf of children, in-
cluding assisting abused, neglected, or troubled chil-
dren, counseling children or parents, promoting fos-
ter parenting, providing foster homes or temporary 
group shelters for children, recruiting foster parents, 
placing children in foster homes, licensing foster 
homes, promoting adoption, recruiting adoptive par-
ents, assisting adoptions, supporting adoptive fami-
lies, assisting kinship guardianships, assisting kin-
ship caregivers, providing family preservation serv-
ices, providing family support services, and providing 
time-limited family reunification services. 
(3) The term ‘‘State’’ includes any of the sev-
eral States, the District of Columbia, any common-
wealth, territory or possession of the United States, 
and any political subdivision thereof. 
(4) The terms ‘‘funding’’, ‘‘funded’’, or ‘‘funds’’ 
include money paid pursuant to a contract, grant, 
voucher, or similar means. 
(5) The term ‘‘adverse action’’ includes, but is 
not limited to, denying a child welfare service pro-
vider’s application for funding, refusing to renew the 
provider’s funding, canceling the provider’s funding, 
declining to enter into a contract with the provider, 
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refusing to renew a contract with the provider, can-
celing a contract with the provider, declining to issue 
a license to the provider, refusing to renew the pro-
vider’s license, canceling the provider’s license, ter-
minating the provider’s employment, or any other 
adverse action that materially alters the terms or 
conditions of the provider’s employment, funding, 
contract, or license. 
Æ 
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