Text of US HB 2796 (2017)

I 115TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2796 To repeal executive overreach, to clarify that the proper constitutional authority for social transformation belongs to the legislative branch. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 7, 2017 Mr. OLSON (for himself, Mr. BABIN, Mr. ABRAHAM, and Mrs. HARTZLER) in- troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To repeal executive overreach, to clarify that the proper constitutional authority for social transformation belongs to the legislative branch. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Civil Rights Uni- 4 formity Act of 2017’’. 5 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF 6 PURPOSE. 7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:57 Jun 13, 2017 Jkt 069000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2796.IH H2796 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2796 IH (1) Over the past half century, Congress has 1 passed numerous civil rights laws prohibiting dis- 2 crimination on the basis of ‘‘sex’’, a designation long 3 understood to be grounded in objective biology up to 4 the present day. There is no evidence that Congress 5 or the American people ever understood the word sex 6 or gender in civil rights laws to include subjective 7 self-identification. 8 (2) For years, advocates have pressed Congress 9 to include a person’s subjective self-declared ‘‘gender 10 identity’’ in Federal civil rights laws that prohibit 11 sex discrimination. Congress has declined to do so 12 except for the Shepard-Byrd Act of 2009 and the 13 Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 14 2013 where gender identity is defined as ‘‘actual or 15 perceived gender-related characteristics’’ with ‘‘gen- 16 der’’, there referring to characteristics associated 17 with biological males and females. 18 (3) This demonstrates that when Congress 19 wants to protect sex, it does so explicitly; when it 20 wants to also elevate gender identity it does so ex- 21 plicitly; and when it does not want to elevate gender 22 identity, it can do so either explicitly or by simply 23 not disturbing the status quo. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:57 Jun 13, 2017 Jkt 069000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2796.IH H2796 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2796 IH (4) Despite the complete clarity of this point, 1 President Barack Obama’s administration has at- 2 tempted to effectively replace the word ‘‘sex’’ with 3 the phrase ‘‘gender identity’’ for purposes of Federal 4 antidiscrimination law and policy through a series of 5 unilateral executive actions. 6 (5) For example, on December 15, 2014, Attor- 7 ney General Eric Holder announced that the De- 8 partment of Justice would reinterpret the ban on 9 ‘‘sex’’ discrimination under title VII of the Civil 10 Rights Act of 1964 to encompass ‘‘gender identity’’. 11 This was followed on March 27, 2015, by an Equal 12 Employment Opportunity Commission decision hold- 13 ing that declining to use a female pronoun to ad- 14 dress a male who identifies as female constituted 15 ‘‘sex’’ discrimination under title VII. 16 (6) On May 9, 2016, the Obama administration 17 sued the State of North Carolina and threatened it 18 with fines and loss of Federal funding if it did not 19 adopt the administration’s incorrect readings of title 20 VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and title IX of 21 the Education Amendments of 1972. 22 (7) On May 13, 2016, the Departments of Jus- 23 tice and Education issued a ‘‘significant guidance’’ 24 letter stating that under title IX of the Education 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:57 Jun 13, 2017 Jkt 069000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2796.IH H2796 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2796 IH Amendments of 1972 ‘‘when a school provides sex- 1 segregated activities and facilities, transgender stu- 2 dents must be allowed to participate in such activi- 3 ties and access such facilities consistent with their 4 gender identity.’’ The guidance further states that 5 schools ‘‘must treat a student’s gender identity as 6 the student’s sex’’ including in the context of ‘‘sex- 7 segregated restrooms, locker rooms, shower facilities, 8 housing, and athletic teams, as well as single-sex 9 classes.’’ In other words, the Departments consider 10 it a title IX violation if a person of the male sex who 11 self-identifies as a female is not granted unfettered 12 access to women’s or girls’ dorms, showers, locker 13 rooms, and bathrooms. This, despite assurance that 14 such a thing would never happen from the likes of 15 Ruth Bader Ginsburg who wrote in 1975 that ‘‘sep- 16 arate places to disrobe, sleep, perform personal bod- 17 ily functions are permitted, in some situations re- 18 quired, by regard for individual privacy.’’ This posi- 19 tion was codified in Federal regulations, 34 CFR 20 106.33, which state that recipients of Federal funds 21 ‘‘may provide separate toilet, locker room, and show- 22 er facilities on the basis of sex,’’ with sex obviously 23 referring to biology. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:57 Jun 13, 2017 Jkt 069000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2796.IH H2796 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2796 IH (8) Also on May 13, 2016, the Department of 1 Health and Human Services finalized regulations 2 that redefined the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition 3 on ‘‘sex’’ discrimination in federally funded health 4 programs and activities to cover ‘‘gender identity’’, 5 thereby opening health care professionals and insur- 6 ers to extensive liability if they decline to participate 7 in or pay for ‘‘gender transition’’ treatments or ‘‘sex 8 change’’ operations. 9 (9) The Obama administration’s actions are an 10 affront to the rule of law, the separation of powers, 11 the will of the people, language, history, safety, pri- 12 vacy, and biological realities. 13 (b) PURPOSE.—The purposes of this Act are— 14 (1) to prevent the executive branch from unilat- 15 erally rewriting Federal civil rights laws by enacting 16 or implementing any policy or undertaking any en- 17 forcement action that is based on construing the 18 term ‘‘sex’’ or ‘‘gender’’ to mean ‘‘gender identity’’; 19 and 20 (2) to ensure that gender identity is not treated 21 as a protected class in Federal law or policy without 22 the affirmative approval of the people’s representa- 23 tives in Congress. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:57 Jun 13, 2017 Jkt 069000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2796.IH H2796 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 2796 IH SEC. 3. PROHIBITION OF POLICIES REDEFINING SEX TO 1 MEAN GENDER IDENTITY. 2 (a) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—In determining the 3 meaning of any Federal civil rights law, and of any related 4 ruling, regulation, guidance, or interpretation of the var- 5 ious administrative bureaus and agencies of the United 6 States, the words ‘‘sex’’ and ‘‘gender’’ and their equiva- 7 lents shall not be interpreted to mean ‘‘gender identity’’ 8 or its equivalent, and the words ‘‘man’’ and ‘‘woman’’ and 9 their equivalents shall refer exclusively to a person’s ge- 10 netic sex. 11 (b) RULE OF INTERPRETATION.—No Federal civil 12 rights law shall be interpreted to treat gender identity or 13 transgender status as a protected class, unless such law 14 expressly designates ‘‘gender identity’’ or ‘‘transgender 15 status’’ as a protected class. 16 (c) DEFINITION OF ‘‘FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS 17 LAW’’.—For purposes of this Act, the term ‘‘Federal civil 18 rights law’’ means any Federal law prohibiting discrimina- 19 tion on the basis of sex or gender, including title IX of 20 the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et 21 seq.), the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000a et 22 seq.), the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.), the 23 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:57 Jun 13, 2017 Jkt 069000 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2796.IH H2796 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 2796 IH 111–148), and any other Federal law or provision thereof 1 prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex or gender. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:57 Jun 13, 2017 Jkt 069000 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2796.IH H2796 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS