[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 22 (Thursday, February 9, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S398-S400]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PREVENTIVE SERVICES MANDATE

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, for some time now Americans have suspected 
that this administration has lost touch with the American people. John 
Meacham, the former editor of Newsweek and a fan of the President, 
explained this detachment by explaining that the President does not 
``particularly like people.'' That might be an overstatement, but he is 
on to something. This administration seems to take its cues from the 
far left, whether or not they represent the aspirations and hopes of 
ordinary Americans.
  Nowhere is this disconnection from the American people on better 
display than with the hamfisted decision by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius 
and the Department of Health and Human Services to require that 
religious persons and institutions violate their most cherished beliefs 
or face the consequences.
  Late last year, HHS ordered all employers, including religious 
institutions, to cover in their employer insurance plans such things as 
sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs and devices. 
With very limited exceptions, religious hospitals, universities, and 
charitable institutions would face the choice of dropping coverage for 
their employees or violating their consciences.
  The Nation's Catholic bishops and many other religious institutions 
pleaded with this administration to grant broader waivers to avoid 
jeopardizing these institutions' constitutional rights to freely 
exercise religion. But the administration, rather than side with 
millions of religious Americans who just want to be left alone to 
practice their own faith, decided to throw in with the most radical of 
proabortion advocates. They decided to subordinate our central 
constitutional commitment to religious liberty to a radical agenda that 
is overtly hostile to all of these people of faith.
  The response has been overwhelming. At church this weekend millions 
of American Catholics were read a letter from their bishops. The 
message was simple, and it was powerful. This action is unjust and one 
with which they

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will not comply. They are right, and they shouldn't. The first 
amendment doubly protects religious liberty. It prohibits the 
government establishment of religion and explicitly protects the free 
exercise of religion, the first individual right listed in the Bill of 
Rights. That is how important religious liberty is to America.
  In our system of government, such fundamental rights and principles 
are supposed to trump statutes, regulations, and political agendas. The 
Constitution and the liberties that it protects are supreme not the 
fleeting politically driven motivations of any particular 
administration. Yet the Obama administration, as it has always does, 
has turned these priorities upside down. In this administration, 
politics trumps absolutely everything else, even the Constitution and 
religious liberty. Instead of conforming their political agenda to the 
Constitution, they distort the Constitution and even liberty itself to 
conform to their political agenda.
  The politicians driving this mandate underestimated the American 
people who have in succession rejected the sorry efforts by the 
administration to defend its actions. The administration first hid 
behind the opinion of a purportedly objective medical group that birth 
control should be included in health insurance plans, but the American 
people knew who was ultimately responsible for this rule--not some 
board of so-called experts but the President and his officers. They 
tried to minimize this mandate's impact by arguing that many States 
already have similar requirements. But this was incredibly misleading 
since nearly all of those States have much broader religious 
protections. In fact, only three States have religious exemptions as 
narrow and limited as this new Federal mandate.
  They tried to assuage the concerns of religious citizens by saying 
that the rule does not cover churches and houses of worship, but 
Americans will not accept only the remnant of our constitutional rights 
that the President chooses to recognize. Were we supposed to thank the 
Obama administration for letting us retain a few scraps of religious 
liberty? There are many religious institutions and organizations that 
do not fit into the Obama administration's artificial, narrow 
categories but that just as fully exercise their faith and religious 
missions. Religious liberty belongs to the Catholic hospital or the 
University of Notre Dame no less than it belongs to the Catholic 
Church.
  Then, when this simmering controversy broke wide open a few weeks 
ago, Secretary Sebelius thought she could make it all go away by 
agreeing not to impose this mandate for another year. Like her boss the 
President she just plain doesn't get it. Religious liberty is not a 
bargaining chip or a deal sweetener like premium floor mats or an 
upgraded appliance. Did she think Americans would not mind losing this 
cherished liberty if they were allowed to spend just a little extra 
time with it?
  The Obama administration's attitude toward religious liberty has 
become ``enjoy it while it lasts.'' And to the administration's 
surprise, the American people have been less than enthusiastic about 
this cavalier attitude toward constitutional rights.
  The President of the United States takes an oath to support and 
defend the Constitution, to stand for the fundamental liberty of all 
Americans. He and the officials responsible for this mandate have 
fallen far short of this oath.
  The fight for religious liberty began before America was born, and it 
must be fought continually. We can all see that now. It is a part of 
our constitutional heritage. Our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, 
fortunes, and sacred honor to defend the principle that all people are 
created equal and endowed by God with certain unalienable rights. The 
right for persons and institutions to be free to practice their faith 
without undue interference by the government is among our most 
cherished rights and liberties.
  There was a day when liberals and conservatives, Democrats and 
Republicans--everyone--joined to defend liberty. I should know. I was 
the principal Republican co-sponsor of the Religious Freedom 
Restoration Act which brought together unprecedented grassroots and 
congressional coalitions to defend this first freedom. They knew that 
rights such as religious liberty rise and fall together, that religious 
liberty cannot be packaged, sliced, diced, and doled out in little 
pieces to please certain interest groups. We need that same unity today 
because religious liberty is just as important and, sadly, just as 
threatened as it was in the past.
  In addition to violating the first amendment right to freely exercise 
our religion, this mandate also appears to violate that landmark law, 
the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It burdens the free exercise of 
religion and is clearly not, as the law requires, a narrow means of 
achieving a compelling purpose.
  Last month the Supreme Court unanimously held that the right of 
religious organizations to decide who may further their religious 
mission trumps nondiscrimination statutes. The Obama administration 
argued that religious organizations are nothing special, that they 
should have no more freedom from Federal control than, say, a labor 
union or a social club. In other words, religious liberty is simply no 
big deal to the Obama administration.
  Writing for the entire Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts called 
this a remarkable view of religious liberty, one that is ``hard to 
square with the text of the First Amendment itself, which gives special 
solicitude to the rights of religious organizations.''
  Soon the Supreme Court will have the opportunity to rule on the 
constitutionality of ObamaCare. What the preventive services mandate 
confirms beyond all doubt is that the constitutional defects in 
ObamaCare only begin with the insurance mandate that will be before the 
Supreme Court. There are some other issues there as well, and I hope 
the Court examines every one of them and overturns this law.
  The very DNA of ObamaCare is unconstitutional. At its core, the law 
and its expansion of government are a threat to personal liberty. The 
decision to implement this law in a way that forces religious 
institutions to violate their deepest principles is a vivid 
demonstration of what happens to personal liberty when the power of the 
state expands. As the state controls more and more of our lives to 
further a political agenda, our freedom is put in greater and greater 
jeopardy.
  After 3 years of this administration, the American people seem to be 
saying enough is enough. Those responsible for this decision to force 
religious institutions to subsidize health coverage for abortifacient 
drugs need to be brought to account. The President needs to answer for 
this. Secretary Sebelius needs to answer for this. The Attorney General 
needs to answer for this. How could he let this happen?
  Let me say, however, that getting answers is not enough. Congress 
needs to assert its authority as the representative of the American 
people, stand for the first amendment, and restore religious liberty by 
overturning this health care law.
  For those who are on the front lines fighting this mandate: I applaud 
your courage, and please understand that you are not alone; you are 
Democrats, Independents, Republicans, and others. The Obama 
administration may not care about religious liberty, but the 
Constitution does, and I, along with many of my colleagues, will fight 
alongside you until we prevail over this unjust law. This new HHS 
mandate cannot be allowed to stand, and I am confident that if the will 
of the American people prevails, it will not stand.
  I belong to a faith that has been persecuted and mischaracterized for 
many decades. We are the only church in the history of America that had 
a Governor issue an extermination order against its members. That is 
how bad it got in this greatest of all countries where religious 
liberty is without question our most valued right. We understand what 
it is like to be persecuted. I don't care whether one is liberal, 
conservative, independent, or what, and I don't care what religious 
beliefs folks out there all have. There is no excuse for this type of 
heavy-handed, ham-handed, overgovernmentalization of our religious 
freedom. We simply cannot allow this to stand.
  Does President Obama have the guts to stand up for religious liberty? 
If he doesn't, he should not be President of this United States. If he 
does, I will be

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the first to compliment him for it. It comes right down to the 
Constitution itself and, in many respects, I believe the most important 
provision in the Constitution. Religious liberty is something that our 
early leaders risked their lives to obtain because they were persecuted 
because of their religious beliefs.
  I call on the President of the United States to change this, to 
acknowledge that this is a mistake, and to understand that we are 
united--Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and others--in the 
protection of this great liberty.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown of Ohio). Without objection, it is 
so ordered.

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