I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1881 
To ensure that organizations with religious or moral convictions are allowed 
to continue to provide services for children. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 4, 2017 
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania (for himself, Mr. PITTENGER, Mr. DUNCAN of 
South Carolina, Mr. ROTHFUS, Mr. SMITH
of New Jersey, Mr. 
HULTGREN, Mr. JONES, Mr. PALAZZO, Mr. RENACCI, Mr. KING of Iowa, 
Mr. PALMER, Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia, Mr. GROTHMAN, and Mr. 
SESSIONS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee 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 2017’’. 
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 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. 
(16) The provisions of this Act are remedial 
measures that are congruent and proportional to 
protecting the constitutional rights of child welfare 
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service providers guaranteed under the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the United States Constitution. 
(17) Congress has the authority to pass this 
Act pursuant to its spending clause power, com-
merce clause power, and enforcement power under 
section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the 
United States Constitution. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as fol-
lows: 
(1) To prohibit governmental entities from dis-
criminating or taking an adverse action against a 
child welfare service provider on the basis that the 
provider declines to provide a child welfare service 
that conflicts, or under circumstances that conflict, 
with the sincerely held religious beliefs or moral con-
victions of the provider. 
(2) To protect child welfare service providers’ 
exercise of religion and to ensure that governmental 
entities will not be able to force those providers, ei-
ther directly or indirectly, to discontinue all or some 
of their child welfare services because they decline to 
provide a child welfare service that conflicts, or 
under circumstances that conflict, with their sin-
cerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions. 
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