John Kline: “The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act maintains without change from the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 a…”

“The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act maintains without change from the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 a nondiscrimination requirement. The requirement not only prohibits participating organizations from discriminating against those who need job training assistance, but it also requires faith-based organizations to stop considering religion when hiring staff as the price of partnering with the federal government to help these job seekers. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) prohibits the government from substantially burdening religious exercise. RFRA applies to every federal law, and it protects the right of religious hiring, notwithstanding the restrictive language we just affirmed. This specific use of RFRA is explained in an extensive Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memorandum dated June 29, 2007. This use of RFRA to protect religious hiring by religious organizations even when a federal grant program prohibits it was recently reaffirmed by the Office on Violence Against Women (OVAW) of the Department of Justice. In reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) last year, Congress inserted into the law a broad nondiscrimination requirement such as the one we maintain in today's workforce bill. On April 9, 2014, OVAW issued ``Frequently Asked Questions'' about [this new--should this read ``the VAWA''] nondiscrimination requirement.…”