The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions have revised the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) following clamor from religious groups on its anti-religious freedom language but an alliance pointed out the bill remains a matter of concern.
As per The Christian Post, the Senate committee have decided to hear the concerns raised by religious group on revising the language of the BBBA so that faith-based child care providers would not be restricted against their held beliefs.
The BBBA's potentially "detrimental" effects were raised by a group of concerned parents in November. The parents pointed to the "strings attached to the Pre-K and child care plans" of the bill, which are anticipated to push faith-based providers to violate their own beliefs. The BBBA mandates providers to comply with all federal nondiscrimination statutes, which encompasses anti-discrimination statutes on gender identity and sexual orientation.
However, parents were not the only ones against the said provisions but also a religious coalition of Christians, Jews, and Muslims who sent a letter to the United States Congress asking for the implementation of revisions.
The letter indicated areas in the bill where revisions are necessary so as not to hamper a big chunk of child care providers, who are faith-based, from continuing in its operations should the act become a law. The coalition urged Congress to consider their request to make the BBBA non-restrictive to faith-based providers.
"While language in the BBBA does not preclude parents from selecting sectarian providers, the subsequent provisions in the bill text make it virtually impossible for many religious providers to participate," the coalition said in the letter..
The Senate committee have removed the "proposed nondiscrimination requirements that would have banned religious hiring and religiously selective admissions in child care and pre-K programs" on December 11.
In line with this, the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance highlighted on Monday the developments in the BBBA. The Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance welcome the said developments and also stressed that the bill remains to ban religion from the pre-K program.
"Child care certificates are confirmed to be 'indirect' government funding that allows child care providers to include religious teaching and activities. However, religion continues to be banned from the pre-K program, which is a grant-funded program," the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance said.
"The language for both programs stresses the many legal obligations of participating programs without clearly emphasizing the protections for faith-based organizations and small organizations that will enable a wide range of them to know they are welcome in these programs," the alliance continued.
The BBBA has faced much opposition from various sectors and persons, which is mostly due to its language being dangerous to religious freedom and unbelievably costly funding needs. Former President Donald Trump also cited the BBBA as an indication of the United States heading to becoming a communist because he projects it will "destroy the American Dream."
Despite these, the BBBA has passed the United States House of Representatives and is currently pending next steps in the Senate following Senator Joe Manchin withholding support for it. Manchin said the bill's historically sky-high cost would only make matters worse for the country, which is currently faced with high inflation rates and rising COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.
