WASHINGTON, DC--Today, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA), House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), and House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) issued the following statement condemning the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalizing a far-reaching rule that would expand discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, and women in its federal grant programs:
“The Trump Administration’s eleventh hour rule directly undermines civil rights protections in federally funded programs, specifically for LGBTQ+ people, religious minorities, and women. As the coronavirus pandemic escalates to unprecedented and grim new levels, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should be serving and protecting all Americans-regardless of who they love, who they are, or how they practice their faith. Instead, the Administration is doubling down on an abhorrent track record of discrimination in its final days. We unequivocally condemn this discriminatory final rule and call on Secretary Azar to rescind it immediately.
On Dec. 19, 2019, the Chairs sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar expressing their opposition to the then-proposed rule and urging the Department to immediately withdraw it.
