[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 24, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H592-H593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PROTECTING OUR MOST SACRED FREEDOMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, government intervention often causes more harm 
than good. I have spent my time in Congress working to protect 
individual freedoms from unnecessary bureaucratic burdens.
  I recognize that a strong family is vital to our Nation's progress 
and prosperity, which is why I have worked to advance legislation that 
allows families to flourish and protects life at all stages. It is 
unconscionable that in America, where we fight for life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness, we tolerate the systemic extermination of an 
entire generation. The right to life demands that we protect our 
Nation's most vulnerable, including the unborn.
  Our First Amendment is a powerful instrument that has protected our 
most sacred freedoms for hundreds of years.

                              {time}  1015

  Few other countries provide the same protections and freedoms that 
our First Amendment guarantees. We are the land of the free because of 
it. Our individual liberties are the envy of people around the world 
and they are the cornerstone of the world's oldest democracy.
  Yet, today, these essential rights are under attack. H.R. 5 is the 
latest example of Democrats' misleading and partisan manner of 
legislating.

[[Page H593]]

  As a former educator and the Republican leader of the Education and 
Labor Committee, I can tell you that the bill may have equality in the 
title, but it certainly does not serve all Americans.
  This legislation has a clever name and an allegedly noble purpose, 
but it is a vehicle for serious harmful consequences.
  The Equality Act would empower the government to interfere in how 
regular Americans think, speak, and act. Specifically, it would amend 
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make sexual orientation and gender 
identity protected classes. According to the National Review, this 
extreme legislation ``redefines sex to include gender identity, 
undermines religious freedom, gives males who identify as females the 
right to women's spaces, and sets a dangerous political precedent for 
the medicalization of gender-confused youth.''
  Under H.R. 5, our Nation's K-12 schools would be forced to treat 
gender as being fluid, subjective, and not tied to biological reality. 
The bill would undermine Title IX protections for girls by outlawing 
sex-based athletic competitions.
  Even more troubling is the bill's meticulous and intentional 
destruction of religious freedom protections.
  Religiously-affiliated colleges and universities that maintain 
student codes of conduct, hiring practices, or housing rules reflecting 
sincerely held beliefs about marriage and sexuality, risk losing 
Federal funding under the Equality Act, as such policies would be 
deemed discriminatory.
  Beloved secular private colleges that maintain single-sex policies, 
like Smith College and Morehouse College, would be forced to change 
their policies or forego Federal funding.
  In the State of Virginia, we have already seen the displeasure among 
parents regarding such policy implementation. In an opinion piece 
published by the Washington Post in 2019, a former middle and high 
school teacher whose children attend Arlington public schools said: 
``It would erode parents' rights over their children's education, 
corrode Title IX protections for girls, and risk convincing healthy, 
normally developing boys and girls that their bodies are wrong and must 
be altered with hormones and be vandalized by surgical instruments.''
  The bill also lacks any pro-life protections, which is why I am 
submitting my amendment that will protect religiously affiliated groups 
and individuals from being forced to perform abortions.
  This bill is a brazen attempt to replace longstanding constitutional 
rights with the identity politics of the moment.
  We have entered treacherous waters by considering legislation that 
stifles proven, bipartisan solutions and, more seriously, our Bill of 
Rights. It is outrageous that Democrats would advertise these proposals 
as guaranteeing fundamental civil and legal rights.
  Mr. Speaker, as elected Representatives, we all strive for equality 
before the law, but H.R. 5 is another classic example of Democrats 
passing a law now and figuring out what it means later. This is no way 
to legislate.

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