Providing for Consideration of S. Speak Out Act; and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I thank the Representative from Pennsylvania for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Today, we are here to consider House Resolution 1464, providing for the consideration of the Speak Out Act, among other provisions.

Let me be clear: House Republicans agree that victims of sexual harassment and assault deserve justice. Unfortunately, due to the fact that this bill is poorly drafted and questionable findings from the Senate bill remain that were specifically stripped out of the House version during Judiciary markup, there are still several legitimate concerns surrounding the unintended consequences of H.R. 8227, the Speak Out Act.

We must maintain respect for the victims and their privacy. Making settlements less valuable to defendants by making confidentiality provisions unenforceable could leave victims worse off.

This bill may force victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment to take their claims to court in a public process, but some victims may be reluctant to speak out in any form if they know that their stories will be public.

Furthermore, removing the benefit of confidentiality may remove the incentives that defendants have to settle and give them more reason to fight harder in court, which may not be in the plaintiff's best interest.

The bill is also worded in a way that may also apply to certain post- dispute nondisclosure and non-disparagement clauses, broadly making both predispute and post-dispute nondisclosure and non-disparagement clauses unenforceable and may affect existing settlements.

This begs the question: What is the point of drawing up a contract if Congress will eventually step in after the fact and invalidate it? What is more, this bill would effectively impose a new regulatory floor that comes from the top down, overtaking the role of the State. Republicans do not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach, especially in this case, where it may do more harm than good for these victims.

This legislation should remind us all to think carefully about federalism and when Congress should enact Federal regulatory floors.

States have traditionally decided how to regulate contract clauses, and some have already passed laws to regulate these specific clauses relating to sexual harassment and assault.

The bill even uses State and Tribal laws to define terms within it, but this bill should supersede those State decisions in some cases.

Though I believe this bill is well-intentioned, it would be a mistake to rush to pass it as is, where significant concerns need to be addressed.

Madam Speaker, it is for those reasons I oppose this rule and ask Members to do the same.

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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, as I said in my opening remarks, the bill under consideration by this rule is well-intentioned but flawed. It deserves additional time to thoughtfully consider legitimate concerns. House Republicans are committed to ensuring victims of sexual violence receive the justice they are entitled to, but that does not mean the flaws outlined should be ignored.

Madam Speaker, again, I oppose the rule, and I encourage Members to do the same.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 215, nays 208, not voting 9, as follows: [Roll No. 479] YEAS--215 Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Demings DeSaulnier Dingell Doggett Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Kahele Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Peltola Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (NY) Ryan (OH) Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth NAYS--208 Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Brooks Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Calvert Cammack Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Comer Conway Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Ellzey Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flood Flores Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia (CA) Gibbs Gimenez Gohmert Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Hern Herrell Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Jackson Jacobs (NY) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Letlow Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meijer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Obernolte Owens Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sempolinski Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walberg Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Yakym Zeldin NOT VOTING--9 Doyle, Michael F. Herrera Beutler Issa Kinzinger Mooney Mullin Suozzi Welch Wexton

Mr. KATKO changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''

So the resolution was agreed to.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress Axne (Stevens) Beyer (Blumenauer) Connolly (Pallone) Courtney (Perlmutter) DeFazio (Pallone) Gonzalez, Vicente (Correa) Johnson (TX) (Stevens) Kirkpatrick (Pallone) Lawson (FL) (Evans) McEachin (Trone) Morelle (Meng) Newman (Correa) Palazzo (Bilirakis) Porter (Neguse) Rice (NY) (Meng) Rice (SC) (Valadao) Ryan (OH) (Correa) Sherrill (Pallone) Speier (Correa) Wild (Evans) Wilson (FL) (Cicilline)

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