Messer Highlights Commitment to Protect Religious Liberty

Statement

Since being elected as your Representative in Congress in 2012, I have always been clear - I support religious liberty and oppose discrimination. My vote on the Energy and Water Appropriations Act and its amendments reflect those principles. Last week, Mr. Maloney offered an amendment that would have barred federal contractors from making employment decisions based on one's sexual orientation or gender identity without regard for the employer's religious convictions. I opposed that amendment because it lacked the necessary and vital safeguards for religious liberty that were included in a modified version this week.

As modified, the Maloney amendment provided protections "as required by the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and Article I of the Constitution." In addition, an amendment offered by Mr. Byrne that was adopted would protect the rights of religious corporations, associations, educational institutions, and societies to act in accordance with their own religious convictions. These changes provided the requisite protections for faith-based employers that I felt were needed.

These amendments had nothing to do with schools and did not codify the President's unprecedented overreach into our nation's school bathrooms. If it had, I would not have supported it. That is why I introduced legislation last week that would prohibit the federal government from making these decisions and instead return the authority to state and local officials to determine their own bathroom policies.

Freedom of religion is our constitutional right. No amendment should ever even come close to jeopardizing that freedom. I will always prioritize protecting our ability to exercise our own faith while at the same time encouraging equal protection under the law for all Americans.

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