Title: Child Marriage Prevention Act
Policy area: Families

Summary:
Child Marriage Prevention Act
This bill declares that a state is not required to recognize a marriage conducted in another state if one or both of the individuals in the relationship are not at least 18 years old. For purposes of federal law, a marriage shall only be recognized if it is between two people that are 18 or the age defined by the state, whichever is higher. However, state and federal law must recognize a marriage if it was approved by a judge in a proceeding where the minor was represented by independent counsel.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4867 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4867

To clarify the definitions of certain terms relating to marriage under 
    Federal law to prevent child marriages, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 19, 2018

   Mr. Rush introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To clarify the definitions of certain terms relating to marriage under 
    Federal law to prevent child marriages, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Child Marriage Prevention Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) A February 2017 study by Unchained At Last found that, 
        between 2000 and 2010, 248,000 children had been married in the 
        United States, mostly to adult men.
            (2) The United States Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent 
        Girls, released last year by the State Department recognizes 
        marriage before 18 to be a ``human rights abuse''.
            (3) Child marriages in the United States have included 
        parties as young as 10.
            (4) Marriages in the United States have given a semblance 
        of legitimacy to relationships that would otherwise be illegal.
            (5) Women who marry at 18 or younger face a 23 percent 
        higher risk of heart attack, diabetes, cancer and stroke than 
        do women who marry between ages 19 and 25.
            (6) Women who wed before 18 also are at increased risk of 
        developing various psychiatric disorders.
            (7) American girls who marry before 19 are 50 percent more 
        likely than their unmarried peers to drop out of high school 
        and four times less likely to graduate from college.
            (8) A girl who marries young is 31 percentage points more 
        likely to live in poverty when she is older.
            (9) Women who marry before 18 are three times more likely 
        to be beaten by their spouses than women who wed at 21 or 
        older.

SEC. 3. POWERS RESERVED TO THE STATES.

    No State shall be required to give effect to any public act, 
record, or judicial proceeding of any other State respecting a 
relationship where one or both persons are below the marriageable age 
that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, or a 
right or claim arising from such relationship.

SEC. 4. DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE.

    In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any 
ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative 
bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word ``marriage'' means 
only a legal union between two people of marriageable age, and the word 
``spouse'' refers only to a person of marriageable age.

SEC. 5. EXCEPTIONS.

    (a) Section 3.--Section 3 shall be inapplicable to any marriage 
where the parties involved have received the approval of a judge 
appointed or elected pursuant to the laws of any State or the United 
States.
    (b) Section 4.--Section 4 shall be inapplicable to any marriage 
where the parties involved have received the approval of a judge 
appointed or elected pursuant to the laws of any State or the United 
States.
    (c) Independent Counsel.--Subsections (a) and (b) shall only apply 
in cases where the minor in question was represented by independent 
counsel.

SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the several 
        States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 
        Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, 
        the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, any other 
        territory or possession of the United States, and each 
        federally recognized Indian Tribe.
            (2) Marriageable age.--The term ``marriageable age'' means 
        the age of 18 or the age as defined by a State, whichever is 
        older.
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