II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 75
To ensure equal treatment for religious organizations in the Federal provision
of social services programs, grantmaking, and contracting, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY25, 2023
Mr. R
UBIO(for himself, Mr. HAWLEY, Mr. SCOTTof Florida, and Mr.
L
ANKFORD) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To ensure equal treatment for religious organizations in the
Federal provision of social services programs,
grantmaking, and contracting, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Lifting Local Commu-4
nities Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 6
The purposes of this Act are the following: 7
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(1) To enable assistance to be provided to indi-1
viduals and families in need in the most effective 2
manner. 3
(2) To prohibit discrimination against religious 4
organizations in receipt and administration of Fed-5
eral financial assistance, including the provision of 6
that assistance through federally funded social serv-7
ice programs. 8
(3) To ensure that religious organizations can 9
apply and compete for Federal financial assistance 10
on a level playing field with nonreligious organiza-11
tions. 12
(4) To provide certainty for religious organiza-13
tions that receipt of Federal financial assistance will 14
not obstruct or hinder their ability to organize and 15
operate in accordance with their sincerely held reli-16
gious beliefs. 17
(5) To strengthen the social service capacity of 18
the United States by facilitating the entry of new, 19
and the expansion of existing, efforts by religious or-20
ganizations in the administration and provision of 21
Federal financial assistance. 22
(6) To protect the religious freedom of, and 23
better serve, individuals and families in need, includ-24
ing by expanding their ability to choose to receive 25
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federally funded social services from religious organi-1
zations. 2
SEC. 3. PROVISION OF SERVICES FOR GOVERNMENT PRO-3
GRAMS BY RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 4
Title XXIV of the Revised Statutes is amended by 5
inserting after section 1990 (42 U.S.C. 1994) the fol-6
lowing: 7
‘‘SEC. 1990A. ENSURING EQUAL TREATMENT FOR RELI-8
GIOUS ORGANIZATIONS IN FEDERAL PROVI-9
SION OF SOCIAL SERVICES, GRANTMAKING, 10
AND CONTRACTING. 11
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—For any social services program 12
carried out by the Federal Government, or by a State, 13
local government, or pass-through entity with Federal 14
funds, the entity that awards Federal financial assistance 15
shall consider religious organizations, on the same basis 16
as any other private organization, to provide services for 17
the program. 18
‘‘(b) E
QUALTREATMENT FORRELIGIOUSORGANIZA-19
TIONS INFEDERALFINANCIALASSISTANCE.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A religious organization 21
shall be eligible to apply for and to receive Federal 22
financial assistance to provide services for a social 23
services program on the same basis as a private non-24
religious organization. 25
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‘‘(2) SELECTION.—In the selection of recipients 1
for Federal financial assistance for a social services 2
program neither the Federal Government nor a 3
State, local government, or pass-through entity re-4
ceiving funds for such program may discriminate for 5
or against a private organization on the basis of reli-6
gion, including the organization’s religious character, 7
affiliation, or exercise. 8
‘‘(3) P
ROHIBITION AGAINST IMPROPER BURDEN 9
ON RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS .— 10
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except in the case of 11
another applicable provision of law that requires 12
or provides for a religious exemption or accom-13
modation that is equally or more protective of 14
a religious organization’s religious exercise, the 15
provisions of subparagraphs (B) through (E) 16
shall apply for any social services program ad-17
ministered by the Federal Government or by a 18
State, local government, or pass-through entity. 19
‘‘(B) E
QUAL TREATMENT ON ASSURANCES 20
AND NOTICES.—No document, agreement, cov-21
enant, memorandum of understanding, policy, 22
or regulation, relating to Federal financial as-23
sistance shall require religious organizations to 24
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provide assurances or notices that are not re-1
quired of private nonreligious organizations. 2
‘‘(C) E
QUAL APPLICATION OF RESTRIC -3
TIONS.—Any restrictions on the use of funds 4
received as Federal financial assistance shall 5
apply equally to religious and private nonreli-6
gious organizations. 7
‘‘(D) P
ROGRAM REQUIREMENTS .—All or-8
ganizations that receive Federal financial assist-9
ance for a social services program, including re-10
ligious organizations, shall carry out eligible ac-11
tivities in accordance with all program require-12
ments, and other applicable requirements gov-13
erning the conduct of activities funded by the 14
entity that awards Federal financial assistance. 15
‘‘(E) N
O DISQUALIFICATION BASED ON RE -16
LIGION.—No document, agreement, covenant, 17
memorandum of understanding, policy, or regu-18
lation, relating to Federal financial assistance 19
shall— 20
‘‘(i) disqualify religious organizations 21
from applying for or receiving Federal fi-22
nancial assistance for a social services pro-23
gram on the basis of the organization’s re-24
ligious character or affiliation, or grounds 25
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that discriminate against the organization 1
on the basis of the organization’s religious 2
exercise; or 3
‘‘(ii) prohibit the provision of religious 4
activities or services at the same time or 5
location as any program receiving such 6
Federal financial assistance. 7
‘‘(c) R
ELIGIOUSCHARACTER ANDFREEDOM.— 8
‘‘(1) F
REEDOM.—A religious organization that 9
applies for or receives Federal financial assistance 10
for a social services program shall retain its inde-11
pendence from Federal, State, and local govern-12
ments, including its autonomy, right of expression, 13
religious character or affiliation, authority over its 14
internal governance, and other aspects of independ-15
ence. 16
‘‘(2) R
ELIGIOUS CHARACTER .—A religious or-17
ganization that applies for or receives Federal finan-18
cial assistance for a social services program may, 19
among other things— 20
‘‘(A) retain religious terms in the organiza-21
tion’s name; 22
‘‘(B) continue to carry out the organiza-23
tion’s mission, including the definition, develop-24
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ment, practice, and expression of its religious 1
beliefs; 2
‘‘(C) use the organization’s facilities to 3
provide a program without concealing, remov-4
ing, or altering religious art, icons, scriptures, 5
or other symbols from the facilities; 6
‘‘(D) select, promote, or dismiss the mem-7
bers of the organization’s governing body and 8
the organization’s employees on the basis of 9
their acceptance of or adherence to the religious 10
tenets of the organization; and 11
‘‘(E) include religious references in the or-12
ganization’s mission statement and other char-13
tering or governing documents. 14
‘‘(d) R
IGHTS OFCOVEREDBENEFICIARIES OFSERV-15
ICES.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as otherwise pro-17
vided in any applicable provision of law that requires 18
or provides for a religious exemption or accommoda-19
tion that is equally or more protective of a religious 20
organization’s religious exercise, an organization 21
that receives Federal financial assistance under a so-22
cial services program shall not discriminate against 23
a covered beneficiary in the provision of a federally 24
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funded program on the basis of religion, a religious 1
belief, or a refusal to hold a religious belief. 2
‘‘(2) S
PECIAL RULE.—It shall not be considered 3
discrimination under paragraph (1) for a program 4
funded by Federal financial assistance to refuse to 5
modify any components of the program to accommo-6
date a covered beneficiary who participates in the or-7
ganization’s program. 8
‘‘(3) A
LTERNATIVE SERVICES .—If a covered 9
beneficiary has an objection to the character or af-10
filiation of the private organization from which the 11
beneficiary receives, or would receive, services as 12
part of the federally funded social services program, 13
the appropriate Federal, State, or local govern-14
mental entity shall provide to such beneficiary (if 15
otherwise eligible for such services) within a reason-16
able period of time after the date of such objection, 17
a referral for alternative services that— 18
‘‘(A) are reasonably accessible to the cov-19
ered beneficiary; and 20
‘‘(B) have a substantially similar value to 21
the services that the covered beneficiary would 22
initially have received from such organization. 23
‘‘(4) D
EFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 24
‘covered beneficiary’ means an individual who ap-25
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plies for or receives services under a social services 1
program. 2
‘‘(e) R
ELIGIOUSEXEMPTIONS.—A religious organiza-3
tion’s exemptions, in title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 4
1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.) (including exemption from 5
prohibitions in employment discrimination in section 6
702(a) of that Act (42 U.S.C. 2000e–1(a))), title VIII of 7
the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.), 8
title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 9
1681 et seq.), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 10
(42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.), the Religious Freedom Res-11
toration Act (42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq.), the Religious 12
Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (42 13
U.S.C. 2000cc et seq.), or any other provision in law pro-14
viding an exemption for a religious organization, shall not 15
be waived because of the religious organization’s participa-16
tion in, or receipt of funds from, a social services program 17
funded with Federal financial assistance. 18
‘‘(f) L
IMITEDAUDIT.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A religious organization 20
providing services for a social services program using 21
Federal financial assistance may segregate Federal 22
funds and any required matching funds provided for 23
such program into a separate account or accounts. 24
Only the separate accounts consisting of Federal 25
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funds and any required matching funds shall be sub-1
ject to audit by the Federal Government with re-2
spect to an audit undertaken for the purposes of 3
oversight of Federal financial assistance. 4
‘‘(2) C
OMMINGLING OF FUNDS .—If a religious 5
organization providing services for a social services 6
program using Federal financial assistance contrib-7
utes the organization’s own funds in addition to 8
those funds required by a matching requirement or 9
agreement to supplement Federal funds, the organi-10
zation may segregate the organization’s own funds 11
that are not matching funds into separate accounts, 12
or commingle the organization’s own funds that are 13
not matching funds with the matching funds. If 14
those funds are commingled, the commingled funds 15
may all be subject to audit by the Federal Govern-16
ment. 17
‘‘(g) P
RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.—Any religious or-18
ganization that alleges a violation of its rights under this 19
section and seeks to enforce its rights under this section— 20
‘‘(1) may bring an action in a court of com-21
petent jurisdiction and assert that violation as a 22
claim, or assert that violation as a defense in a judi-23
cial action; and 24
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‘‘(2) may obtain appropriate relief, including at-1
torney’s fees, against an entity or agency that com-2
mitted such violation. 3
‘‘(h) F
EDERALPREEMPTION OFSTATE ANDLOCAL 4
L
AWS.—With respect to any Federal financial assistance 5
provided to a religious organization for the provision of 6
a social service program, or such assistance commingled 7
with State or local funds, no State or political subdivision 8
of a State may adopt, maintain, enforce, or continue in 9
effect any law, regulation, rule, or requirement covered by 10
the provisions of this section, or a rule, regulation, or re-11
quirement promulgated under this section. 12
‘‘(i) C
ONSTRUCTION.—The provisions of this section 13
shall supersede all Federal law (including statutory and 14
other law, and policies used in the implementation of that 15
law) that is enacted or issued before the date of enactment 16
of this section. No provision of law enacted after the date 17
of the enactment of this section may be construed as lim-18
iting, superseding, or otherwise affecting this section, ex-19
cept to the extent that it does so by specific reference to 20
this section. 21
‘‘(j) S
EVERABILITY.—If any provision of this section 22
or the application of such provision to any person or cir-23
cumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder 24
of this section and the application of the provisions of such 25
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to any person or circumstance shall not be affected there-1
by. 2
‘‘(k) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
‘‘(1) D
ISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF AN OR -4
GANIZATION’S RELIGIOUS EXERCISE.— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘discrimi-6
nate’, used with respect to an organization’s re-7
ligious exercise, means, on the basis of covered 8
conduct or motivation, to disfavor an organiza-9
tion in a selection process or in oversight, in-10
cluding— 11
‘‘(i) by failing to select an organiza-12
tion; 13
‘‘(ii) by disqualifying an organization; 14
or 15
‘‘(iii) by imposing any condition or se-16
lection criterion that penalizes or otherwise 17
disfavors an organization, or has the effect 18
of so penalizing or disfavoring an organiza-19
tion. 20
‘‘(B) C
OVERED CONDUCT OR MOTIVA -21
TION.—In this paragraph, the term ‘covered 22
conduct or motivation’ means— 23
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‘‘(i) conduct that would not be consid-1
ered grounds to disfavor a nonreligious or-2
ganization; 3
‘‘(ii) conduct for which an organiza-4
tion must or could be granted an exemp-5
tion or accommodation in a manner con-6
sistent with the Free Exercise Clause of 7
the First Amendment to the Constitution, 8
the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (42 9
U.S.C. 2000bb et seq.), or any other provi-10
sion referenced in subsection (e); or 11
‘‘(iii) the actual or suspected religious 12
motivation for the organization’s religious 13
exercise. 14
‘‘(2) O
THER DEFINITIONS.— 15
‘‘(A) F
EDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE .— 16
The term ‘Federal financial assistance’ means 17
financial assistance from the Federal Govern-18
ment that non-Federal entities receive or ad-19
minister through grants, contracts, loans, loan 20
guarantees, property, cooperative agreements, 21
food commodities, direct appropriations, or 22
other assistance, but does not include a tax 23
credit, tax deduction, or guaranty contract. 24
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‘‘(B) PASS-THROUGH ENTITY .—The term 1
‘pass-through entity’ means an entity, including 2
a nonprofit or nongovernmental organization, 3
acting under a grant, contract, or other agree-4
ment with the Federal Government or with a 5
State or local government, such as a State ad-6
ministering agency, that accepts direct Federal 7
financial assistance as a primary recipient (such 8
as a grant recipient) and distributes that assist-9
ance to other organizations that, in turn, pro-10
vide government-funded social services through 11
a social services program. 12
‘‘(C) P
ROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ in-13
cludes the services provided through that pro-14
gram. 15
‘‘(D) R
ELIGIOUS EXERCISE .—The term 16
‘religious exercise’ has the meaning given the 17
term in section 8 of the Religious Land Use 18
and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (42 19
U.S.C. 2000cc–5). 20
‘‘(E) S
ERVICES.—The term ‘services’, used 21
with respect to a social services program, in-22
cludes the provision of goods, or of financial as-23
sistance, under the social services program. 24
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‘‘(F) SOCIAL SERVICES PROGRAM .—The 1
term ‘social services program’— 2
‘‘(i) means a program that is adminis-3
tered by the Federal Government, or by a 4
State or local government using Federal fi-5
nancial assistance, and that provides serv-6
ices directed at reducing poverty, improv-7
ing opportunities for low-income children, 8
revitalizing low-income communities, em-9
powering low-income families and low-in-10
come individuals to become self-sufficient, 11
or otherwise helping people in need; and 12
‘‘(ii) includes a program that provides, 13
to people in need— 14
‘‘(I) child care services, protective 15
services for children and adults, serv-16
ices for children and adults in foster 17
care, adoption services, services re-18
lated to management and mainte-19
nance of the home, day care services 20
for adults, and services to meet the 21
special needs of children, older indi-22
viduals, and individuals with disabil-23
ities; 24
‘‘(II) transportation services; 25
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‘‘(III) job training and related 1
services, and employment services; 2
‘‘(IV) information, referral, and 3
counseling services; 4
‘‘(V) the preparation and delivery 5
of meals, nutrition services, and serv-6
ices related to soup kitchens or food 7
banks; 8
‘‘(VI) health support services; 9
‘‘(VII) literacy and mentoring 10
services; 11
‘‘(VIII) services for the preven-12
tion and treatment of juvenile delin-13
quency and substance abuse, services 14
for the prevention of crime and the 15
provision of assistance to the victims 16
and families of criminal offenders, and 17
services related to intervention in, and 18
prevention of, domestic violence; or 19
‘‘(IX) services related to the pro-20
vision of assistance for housing under 21
Federal law.’’. 22
Æ
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