Good Bills for a Better Congress: 2024

We hope to pass bills like these in the next Congress if we regain our House majority and increase our Senate majority. We hope you can use them to inspire your friends and family to vote in 2024. Look up additional information on bills by number or topic at GovTrack.us or ProPublica’s database.

Feel free to let your representatives know you will be voting in 2024 in hopes of passing bills like these: https://indivisiblesf.org/call-your-reps

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

Democrats have extended the rights of LGBTQ+ people over the past twenty years, and a majority of Americans believe those rights should be protected. Our society has become more inclusive, but this has been despite Republicans’ long campaign of fear and hatred against LGBTQ+ people. These attacks have only grown more fevered and more damaging in the MAGA era. Democrats, in their effort to protect the hard-won rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, have introduced the Equality Act in each Congress since 2015. We’ll pass this act once and for all when we win a larger majority in the Senate and win back our House majority. 

The Equality Act – S. 5,  H.R. 15

Introduced on June 21, 2023, by Senator Merkley, with 50 co-sponsors (47 Democrats and 3 Independents), and on the same date in the House by Rep. Mark Takano, with 217 co-sponsors (all Democrats).

These bills prohibit discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity with respect to businesses, employment, housing, federally funded programs, and other settings. Specifically, these bills establish these rights:

  • Expand Title II and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit public accommodations and federally funded programs, respectively, from discriminating based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity. It also includes stores, transit services, recreational facilities, and establishments that provide health care, accounting, or legal services as public accommodations under Title II. 

  • Expand Title IV (desegregation of public schools) and Title VII (employment discrimination) to specifically include sexual orientation and gender identity. (The Supreme Court held in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII's prohibition of employment discrimination based on sex also prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.)

  • Expand the Fair Housing Act (discrimination in public and private housing) to include sexual orientation and gender identity. It also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity by creditors and with respect to jury selection.

These bills define sex for purposes of the aforementioned provisions to include sex stereotypes, pregnancy, childbirth, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Democrats in Congress worked hard to finally obtain protection of our reproductive rights in 1973, via Roe v. Wade.. Democrats in Congress have never stopped fighting to restore and strengthen our reproductive rights since the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs v. Jackson decision on June 24, 2022. These bills are also written to protect those who provide or facilitate abortion care. They are designed to define and expand our rights legislatively to make all of us less vulnerable to the whims of a highly partisan Supreme Court.

My Body, My Data Act of 2022 – H.R. 8111, S.1656

Introduced 6/16/2022 by Rep. Sara . Cosponsors: 118, all Democrats. Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Establishes protections for personal reproductive or sexual health information. This includes information relating to past, present, or future surgeries or procedures, such as the termination of a pregnancy. Specifically, commercial entities, including individuals, nonprofits, and common carriers, may not collect, retain, use, or disclose personal reproductive or sexual health information.

Senate bill S.1656 introduced 5/17/2023 by Senator Mazie Hirono. Cosponsors: 15 Democrats

Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022 – S. 4504 

Introduced: 7/12/2022, by Senator Cortez-Masto. Cosponsors: 39 Democrats, 1 Independent. Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Freedom to Travel for Healthcare Act of 2023– S.4503. Reintroduced 6/20/2023, by Senator Cortes Masto.

Prohibits anyone from interfering with a person's ability to access out-of-state reproductive health care. (Reproductive health care is defined as medical, surgical, counseling, or referral services related to pregnancy, the termination of a pregnancy, contraception services, and other reproductive care.)

Reproductive Freedom for All Act – S.4688

Introduced: 8/1/2022 by Senator Tim Kaine. Cosponsors: Kyrsten Sinema, Lisa Murkowski & Susan Collins. Referred to the Judiciary Committee.)

Establishes a general right of all persons to make certain reproductive decisions without undue government interference. It specifically provides statutory authority for the Supreme Court's prior holdings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. In Roe, the Court held that the Constitution protects a woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy. 

Protecting National Access to Reproductive Care Act of 2022 – S.4748

Introduced: 8/2/2022 by Senator Booker. Cosponsors: 5 Democrats, 1 Independent. 

A bill to provide for national uniformity for reproductive health products.

Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Healthcare Act – H.R.8650 , S.1297

Introduced 8/2/2022 by Rep. Kim Shriver. Cosponsors: 3 Democrats.

Sets out protections for and establishes programs to support health care providers (and those who assist such providers) who offer reproductive health care services that are lawful in the state where the services are provided. Reproductive health care services refer to abortion services; contraceptive services; in vitro fertilization; or other reproductive care, education,

Senate Bill, S.1297, introduced 4/26/2023 by Senator Patty Murray. Cosponsors: 28 Democrats, 1 Independent 

Reproductive Healthcare Accessibility Act – S.4764, H.R.9040

Introduced 8/03/2022 by Senator Murray. Cosponsors: 10 Democrats.1 Independent.

Establishes various grants and related programs that address sexual and reproductive health care for individuals with disabilities. 

House bill introduced 9/30/2022 by Rep Cori Bush. Cosponsors: 24 Democrats.

SHIELD Act – H.R.8838 

Introduced 9/15/2022 by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. Cosponsors: 2 Democrats

Safeguard Healthcare Industry Employees from Litigation and Distress Act or the SHIELD Act This bill establishes a framework to limit interference with persons seeking to provide or access reproductive health services at the state level. For the purposes of this summary, interference with persons seeking to provide or access reproductive health services includes acts to prevent, restrict, impede, or retaliate against a health care provider.

SAFE for Patients Act – H.R.8667 

Introduced 9/15/2022 by Rep. Jackie Speier. Cosponsors:10 Democrats

To establish a cause of action with respect to reproductive health services, and for other purposes.

HHS Reproductive and Sexual Health Ombuds Act of 2022 – H.R.9254

Introduced 10/28/2022 by Rep. Nikema Williams. Cosponsors: 4 Democrats

To establish within the Department of Health and Human Services an Ombuds for Reproductive and Sexual Health.

Right to Build Families Act of 2022 – S.5276 

Introduced 12/15/2022 by Senator Tammy Duckworth. Cosponsors: 3 Democrats/

A bill to prohibit the limitation of access to assisted reproductive technology, and all medically necessary care surrounding such technology.

Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act — H.R. 782 

Introduced: 2/02/2023. Cosponsors: 176 Democrats

Prohibits anyone acting under state law from interfering with a person's ability to access out-of-state abortion services. (Abortion services include the use of any drugs that are approved to terminate pregnancies and any health care services related to an abortion, whether or not the services are provided at the same time or on the same day as the abortion.)

Specifically, the bill prohibits any person acting under state law from preventing, restricting, impeding, or retaliating against health care providers who provide legal abortion services to out-of-state residents, any person or entity who helps health care providers to provide such services, any person who travels to another state to obtain such services, any person or entity who helps another person travel to another state to obtain such services, or the movement in interstate commerce of drugs that are approved to terminate pregnancies. The Department of Justice may enforce this bill through civil actions; the bill also establishes a private right of action for violations.

Reproductive Health Patient Navigator Act of 2023 – S.2439

Introduced 7/20/2023 by Senator Cortez-Masto. Cosponsors:10 Democrats.

A bill to establish a grant program to fund reproductive health patient navigators for individuals seeking abortion services.

Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act — H.R. 782 

Introduced: 2/02/2023. Cosponsors: 176 Democrats

This bill prohibits anyone acting under state law from interfering with a person's ability to access out-of-state abortion services. (Abortion services include the use of any drugs that are approved to terminate pregnancies and any health care services related to an abortion, whether or not the services are provided at the same time or on the same day as the abortion.)