Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, at the sole subcommittee hearing on H.R. 2694 and at the committee markup, Democrat members encouraged the committee to follow the examples of States that had enacted pregnancy accommodation laws. However, the majority of these States have laws that are different from H.R. 2694 because they do include important protections for religious organizations. At least 16 States and the District of Columbia have pregnancy discrimination or pregnancy accommodations laws that include a religious organization protection similar to section 702 of the Civil Rights Act. The States include Arkansas, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. It is a broad range of States in the country. Our attitude is the States can do this, and we already have very, very good protections at the Federal level. Unless we are going to follow the example of the States and include this very important section 702 of the Civil Rights Act, then maybe we should leave this up to the States. We should be following their example and put that provision in this bill. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.”