Washington, D.C. – A group of congressional Democrats, including Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-California), took to Twitter on Tuesday night to state their opposition to the “Aderholt Amendment”, otherwise known as H.R. 1881, the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act. Earlier this month, the House Appropriations Committee passed the Inclusion Act as an amendment to the FY2019 Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill. The amendment, which was introduced by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Alabama), passed 29-23.

The Inclusion Act is a bipartisan legislative response to rampant discrimination against faith-based child welfare providers across the nation, including Catholic Charities.

Terry Schilling, Executive Director at American Principles Project (APP), released the following statement:

“Make no mistake: Democrats will do anything they can to shut down Catholic Charities. That’s what this is about. The Inclusion Act maintains the status quo — it allows Catholic Charities and other faith-based providers to continue to exist and serve children. The Democrats want to shut it all down — damn the kids, damn the consequences. They must be stopped. We need to pass the Inclusion Act.”

In an op-ed in The Federalist on Monday, Jon Schweppe, Director of Government Affairs at APP, explained why faith-based providers play an important role in the child welfare system and should not be discriminated against:

“The state works with adoption agencies and foster care providers to place children in homes. The providers recruit families to adopt or foster the children. Different providers recruit different types of families. For example, Christian providers, which often work directly with churches or other faith-based charities, usually recruit Christian families. If you get rid of some of the providers, you get rid of some of the families. The fewer providers doing the work of recruitment, the fewer homes for children.

“Simple enough, right? Yet the Left obfuscates by claiming LGBT couples should have a right to force providers to violate their faith or go out of business, while showing no concern for children in desperate need of families.”

To schedule an interview with Terry Schilling or Jon Schweppe, contact Paul Dupont at (o) 202-503-2010 or pdupont@americanprinciplesproject.org.