Congress of the United States ‘Washington, DE 20515 April, 2017 President Donald J. Trump 11600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20006 Dear President Trump, We write to expross our encouragement and support for prompt executive action ensuring religious liberty protections forall Americans and look forward to working with you on complementary legislation. During your campaign, you repeatedly expressed your commitment to defending religious liberties enshrined in our founding documents stating that, "..the fist priority of my administration willbe to preserve and protect our religious liberty. The First Amendment suarantees our right to practice our faith as we see fit. all the time, always, wherever.” We share that sentiment in Full and request that you sign the draft executive order on religous liberty, as reported by numerous outlets on February 2, 2017, in order to protect millions of ‘Americans whose religious freedom has been attacked or threatened over the lat elt years The draft executive order would undo the unworkable Health and Human Services (HHS) contraception mandate and also ensure that Americans are not coerced to buy abortion coverage under Obamacare exchange plan. Although the U.S. Supreme Court blocked enforcement of the contraceptive mandate against the Little Sisters of the Poor, absent a full Obamacare repeal, there remains a need for your administration to protect organizations and individuals from being coerced into providing or purchasing health coverage in violation of thelr faith and conscience, ‘There is also a critical need to adopt executive and legislative protections that prohibit government discrimination against health care providers that decline to participate in or perform abortion. Despite clear federal statutes to the contrary, medical professionals have been forced by their employing hospitals to assist in abortions and state governments such as California have required religious organizations to cover abortion in thelr health plans. To correct these abuses, Representative Diane Black of Tennessee has re-introduced H.R. 644 the Conscience Protection Act which you have pledged to sign into law. Numerous times, you reiterated your support for restoring the free speech rights of charities ‘and churches threatened by the unconstitutional nature ofthe Johnson Amendment. As youmay know, House Majority Whip, Representative Scalise of Louisiana and Representative Hice ‘of Georgia jointly introduced the Free Speech Fairness Act, H.R. 78. Simply put, the underying bill provides non-profits and faith-based congregations much needed relief from the specter of ‘an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigation for Incidental references to paltical events or candidates. The recent revelations of IRS targeting of conservatives groups, along with regulary-ssued demand leters sent to churches by outside entities, has created a chiling effect on pastors from merely mentioning political events. Executive and legislative action is also needed to protect religious liberty in light of the Supreme Court's recent redefinition of marriage. We were therefore greatly encouraged to see that the draft executive order contained protections similar to those in the First Amendment Defense {Act (FADA), as introduced by Senator Lee of Utah and Representative Labrador of Idaho last Congress. During oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, then Solicitor General Donald Verril stated that the nonprofit tax status of religous colleges could be jeopardized should they live out ther traditional beliefs about marriage. FADA would, among other things, prohibit the ‘ederal government from denying a tax exempt status or withholding a government benefit, contract, or license due to one's belief that marrage i the union between one man and ane woman. This legislation would prevent instances such as the USDA threatening to shut down ‘meat-packing plants simply because they express their beliefs on marriage at their business. \We are encouraged that you have three times pledged in writing to sign the First Amendment Defense Act ifpassed by Congress, but you need not and should not wait for Congress to act before ordering the federal government to stop discriminating against individuals and institutions because of their reasonable beliefs on issues of deep concern to people of faith and ‘00d wil ‘we also strongly support the Russell Amendment to the House-passed Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act and were very encouraged to see thatthe draft executive ‘order explicitly incorporates the Russell Amendment’ protections. The Russell Amendment |would ensure that long-standing federal religious freedom pratections for religious ‘organizations would not be forfeited merely because they partner with the federal government. Inthis way, Catholic, Baptist, and Jewish charities, for example, can retain staffing policies that allow them to remain fully Catholic, Baptist, and Jewish and remain eligible to provide chaplain services for our men and women in uniform and to provide critical socal services more broadly AAs you know, President Obama attempted to circumvent the democratic process through his Unprecedented use of his “pen and phone” and to the extent his abuses can be undone by executive order, they should be. Its important to note, however, that none of the legislative oF ‘executive protections discussed above would repeal any Obama-era executive orders you have stated should remain ntact. They do not take away anything from anyone. They only provide a shield from federal assaults on religious freedom. Because religious liberty is of such importance and under such threat, we believe that the draft executive order should be signed without delay and that all the protections discussed in this,letter should be enshrined permanently in our laws. We look forward to coordinating with your ‘administration on these efforts so that critical religious liberty and conscience protections may finally be restored to millons of Americans who have been harmed and left unprotected for far too many years. Sincerely, ‘Warren Davidson ‘Member of Congress Usk Roiigl Member of Congres Bob Gibbs ( 2 ‘deol ag ‘Member of Congress ‘Mark Meadows Thomas Massie Member of Congress Member of Congress Nb Hace Glenn Grothman Member of Congress (Me Ge Mike Johnson Steve Russell Member of Congress Member of CongressMember of Congress 0 Re David Roteer Mepabgr of Congress 7 Dave Brat Member of Congress BGinin- Gabpo— ‘Member of Congress ‘Member of Congress ‘Member of Congress ef Brdd abd R ebude, * Raul Labrador Kacthp~ Louie Gohmert Member of Congress ‘Steve King Member of Congressal 4 Ss Sg Us i Member of Coxgress ‘Member of Congress Revingramer ohn 96fler ‘Member of Congress Member of Congress in uihcan, J bles —— . amber of Congress Member ‘SAO wlamelomen mer _fokbesl Member of Congress Member of Congress Member = ° fez — wnat Mm. Walker Folie) Wilson Member of Congress Member of Congress iM DM 4p (Bardon Trg 7 Lives Sl sey — gee Yocee He 7X-7 2