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To amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 to protect civil rights and otherwise prevent meaningful harm to third parties, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill would amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to limit its application by adding exceptions for civil rights protections, anti-discrimination laws, workplace protections, child protection laws, and laws ensuring access to health care. Under the amendment, religious freedom claims could not be used to circumvent non-discrimination requirements, employer benefit or wage obligations, protections against child labor or abuse, or access to government-funded health care services. The bill would also clarify that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act applies only to disputes involving government action, not to disputes between private parties. The stated purpose is to balance religious freedom protections with protections against harm to third parties.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
25 cosponsors
- Sen. Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI] (D-WI)
- Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] (D-CT)
- Sen. Cortez Masto, Catherine [D-NV] (D-NV)
- Sen. Duckworth, Tammy [D-IL] (D-IL)
- Sen. Fetterman, John [D-PA] (D-PA)
- Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] (D-NY)
- Sen. Heinrich, Martin [D-NM] (D-NM)
- Sen. Hickenlooper, John W. [D-CO] (D-CO)
- Sen. Hirono, Mazie K. [D-HI] (D-HI)
- Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] (D-MN)
- Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA] (D-MA)
- Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] (D-OR)
- Sen. Murray, Patty [D-WA] (D-WA)
- Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA] (D-CA)
- Sen. Reed, Jack [D-RI] (D-RI)
- Sen. Rosen, Jacky [D-NV] (D-NV)
- Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] (I-VT)
- Sen. Schiff, Adam B. [D-CA] (D-CA)
- Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH] (D-NH)
- Sen. Smith, Tina [D-MN] (D-MN)
- Sen. Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD] (D-MD)
- Sen. Warren, Elizabeth [D-MA] (D-MA)
- Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT] (D-VT)
- Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI] (D-RI)
- Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR] (D-OR)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Cory A. Booker’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- NULL $92,425
- PRIME HEALTHCARE $19,800
- APOLLO $15,800
- LOWENSTEIN SANDLER LLP $15,700
- HARVARD UNIVERSITY $14,100
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Cory A. Booker → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Mar 6, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. · senate
- Mar 6, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
March 6, 2025
Mr. Booker (for himself, Mr. Van Hollen, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Hickenlooper, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Welch, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Schiff, Ms. Smith, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Duckworth, Mr. Markey, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Reed, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Fetterman, and Ms. Warren) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 to protect civil rights and otherwise prevent meaningful harm to third parties, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Do No Harm Act”.
SEC. 2. EXCEPTION FROM APPLICATION OF ACT WHERE FEDERAL LAW PREVENTS HARM TO OTHERS.
Section 3 of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 2000bb-1) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(d) Additional Exception From Application of Act Where Federal Law Prevents Harm to Others.—Subsections (a), (b), and (c) do not apply to—
“(1) any provision of law or its implementation that provides for or requires—
“(A) a protection against discrimination or the promotion of equal opportunity, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000a et seq.), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.), the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.), and the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12291 et seq.);
“(B) an employer to provide a wage, other compensation, or a benefit, including leave, or a standard protecting collective activity in the workplace;
“(C) a protection against child labor, child abuse, or child exploitation; or
“(D) access to, information about, a referral for, provision of, or coverage for, any health care item or service;
“(2) any term of a government contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or other award, that provides funds directly or indirectly, and that requires a good, service, function, or activity to be performed for or provided to a beneficiary of or a participant in a program or activity funded, directly or indirectly, by a government contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or other award; or
“(3) the extent that application would result in denying a person the full and equal enjoyment of a good, service, benefit, facility, privilege, advantage, or accommodation provided by the government.”.
SEC. 3. CLARIFICATION OF PRECLUSION OF LITIGATION BETWEEN PRIVATE PARTIES.
(a) Purpose.—The purpose of the amendment made by subsection (b) is to clarify the applicability of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 2000bb et seq.).
(b) Preclusion.—Section 3(c) of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 2000bb-1(c)) is amended, in the first sentence, by striking “judicial proceeding” and all that follows through the first period and inserting “judicial proceeding to which a government is a party and obtain appropriate relief against that government.”. <all>
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