WASHINGTON, DC-House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA) released the following statement condemning the Trump Administration’s newly finalized rule that allows foster care and adoption agencies that use religious criteria in their placement decisions to accept federal funds:
“This dangerous move is just another abdication of the administration’s responsibility to serve all Americans, regardless of their faith, who they are, or who they love. These child services processes are already emotionally trying, and should focus on finding loving, safe placements, rather than discriminating based on sexual orientation or religion.
“While last year’s Supreme Court case, Bostock v Clayton County, was an enormous step forward in the federal protection of the LGBTQ community, these individuals still do not experience full protections under the law. Now that the balance of power in both Congress and the Executive Branch is changing, we must reverse this new discriminatory rule before it causes any undue harm and extend full federal civil rights protections to the LGBTQ community."
Read Ways and Means Committee Democrats’ December 2019 response to this proposed rule HERE.
Chairman Neal also sent a December 2019 letter on the proposed rule to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with the Chairs of the House Oversight and Reform, Education and Labor, and Energy and Commerce Committees. That letter can be found HERE.
Last year, Ways and Means Committee Democrats released Children at Risk: The Trump Administration’s Waiver of Foster Care Nondiscrimination Requirements, a majority staff report that found that the Trump Administration’s HHS allowed federal dollars in the foster care system to be spent in discriminatory ways.
