HR 36 and HR 620: Two Bills We Must Fight

Posted on by Grayson Schultz

Photo of the Supreme Court building against a blue sky - a black text box on the lower half with white text: "HR 36 and HR 620: Two Bills We Must Fight - chronic sex"

After the good news that the Graham-Cassidy plan wasn’t going to be voted on, you might’ve thought we’d get a break.

Sadly, there are two bills right now that we need to fight.

HR 36: Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

In 2015, the House approved this but the Senate did not. Unfortunately, Trent Franks in Arizona decided it was time to try again. It’s unknown right now if the Senate would approve this once it passes in the House, but Cheeto Voldemort has vowed to sign it if so.

What this bill does is make it illegal to perform or attempt to perform an abortion if the fetus is 20 weeks or older. This is targeted toward abortion performers (i.e., doctors, etc), and those breaking this federal law would be subject to fines and/or jail time.

While people say this does not affect the person seeking the abortion, I doubt that is true. There are exceptions for rape, incest, and if the procedure is deemed medically necessary.

You can read the bill here. Note that the bill currently has support from representatives in just about every single state.

HR 620: ADA Education Reform Act of 2017

Contrary to what the title might suggest, HR 620 negatively impacts the ability of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to work. The ADA, passed 27 years ago, was supposed to secure certain rights for those of us with disabilities. Instead, there is a lack of enforcement of the ADA, with businesses and schools getting away with not making necessary changes.
This bill would only make that worse. It would make it nearly impossible for many disabled people to make a formal complaint about ADA violations. The complaint would first have to be in writing with very specific language. If (or, really, when) the business/whatever fails to respond and/or update things, it’s then on the disabled person to gather data to send in.
There’s no reason for this. All this is doing is making it harder for us to report businesses that are not compliant with a nearly 30-year old law.
Check to see if your representatives are currently co-sponsoring this. See also the following articles:

What to do

Like with Graham-Cassidy, we’re going to have to get loud over these bills.

  • Contact your Senators
    • Call them at 844-859-3118
    • Use ResistBot
    • Talk to them on social media
    • Email
    • Fax
    • While you’re at it, tell them it’s unfair and illegal to strip the ACA’s funding
  • Protest and picket (if able)
  • Get loud on social media
    • Use tags like #savetheADA
  • Send letters to the editors or reach out to your local news to explain your concerns
You can also take a moment to contact members of the House Judiciary Committee as listed below:
  • Chairman Bob Goodlatte (VA-06)
  • Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, Jr. (WI-05)
  • Rep. Lamar Smith (TX-21)
  • Rep. Steve Chabot (OH-01)
  • Rep. Darrell Issa (CA-49)
  • Rep. Steve King (IA-04)
  • Rep. Trent Franks (AZ-08)
  • Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01)
  • Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-04)
  • Rep. Ted Poe (TX-02)
  • Rep. Tom Marino (PA-10)
  • Rep. Trey Gowdy (SC-04)
  • Rep. Raúl Labrador (ID-01)
  • Rep. Blake Farenthold (TX-27)
  • Rep. Doug Collins (GA-09)
  • Rep. Ron DeSantis (FL-06)
  • Rep. Ken Buck (CO-04)
  • Rep. John Ratcliffe (TX-04)
  • Rep. Martha Roby (AL-02)
  • Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL-01)
  • Rep. Mike Johnson (LA-04)
  • Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05)
  • Rep. John Rutherford (FL-04)
  • Rep. Karen Handel (GA-06)
  • Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13)
  • Rep. Jerry Nadler (NY-10)
  • Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA-19)
  • Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18)
  • Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-09)
  • Rep. Hank Johnson, Jr. (GA-04)
  • Rep. Ted Deutch (FL-22)
  • Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL-04)
  • Rep. Karen Bass (CA-37)
  • Rep. Cedric Richmond (LA-02)
  • Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08)
  • Rep. David Cicilline (RI-01)
  • Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-15)
  • Rep. Ted Lieu (CA-33)
  • Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08)
  • Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07)
  • Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10)