Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:
Dec 20 2019
Senators say HHS
decision to roll back essential nondiscrimination protections would
allow federally-funded organizations to discriminate against LGBTQIA+
people
Senators:
“This is yet another step in the Trump Administration’s efforts to
erode civil rights protections and leave millions of people across the
country again subject to discrimination”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Patty
Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Senate health committee, and
Maria Cantwell (D-WA), today demanded that the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) rescind its proposed rule that would allow
recipients of HHS awards and contracts to discriminate on the basis of
religion. In a letter
to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, the senators also expressed concern with
the agency’s decision to bypass the rulemaking process and immediately
permit this discrimination.
“This is yet another step in the Trump
Administration’s efforts to erode civil rights protections and leave
millions of people across the country again subject to discrimination,” the senators wrote.
“Taken together, these actions leave vulnerable populations unable to
access the services they need. We strongly urge the Department to
enforce existing federal nondiscrimination regulations that protect
against discrimination based on sex and religion and rescind this
proposed rule.”
HHS annually awards more than $500 billion in
taxpayer-funded awards and contracts to support a wide range of critical
programs and services including for public health, early childhood
education, youth homelessness, the elderly, federally funded adoption
and foster care, and much more. By no longer enforcing existing
nondiscrimination regulations, HHS is allowing funding recipients to
cite their religious faith as justification for choosing not to serve
certain people—potentially leaving people of various religious
affiliations and LGBTQIA+ people without the services necessary to
support their health and well-being.
Read the full text of the letter HERE.
Additionally, on December 12, Senator Murray
sent a letter to Secretary Azar requesting the Department rescind the
notice of non-enforcement of the rule and extend the comment period,
allowing the impacted communities to make their voices heard about the
devastating consequences of the rule. A copy of that letter is available
HERE.
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