21st Century President Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Representative for the time.

The current field of Presidential candidates looks more like American society than ever before, and we are closer than ever to the possibility that a woman or LGBT person could hold the country's highest office.

We have decades of activism by women and the LGBT community to thank for this fact, and the least Congress can do is to ensure the law recognizes the progress our country has made.

We have come a long way from 1872 when Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to seek the Presidency, decades before women won the right to vote. Today, six women, more than ever before, are running for President.

Almost 100 years after the passage of the 19th Amendment, and thanks to trailblazers like Victoria Woodhull, Shirley Chisholm, and Hillary Clinton, we are closer than ever before to having a woman in the Oval Office.

In 2012, Fred Karger, a Republican, was the first openly LGBT candidate for President, and the 2020 Democratic Presidential field includes one openly LGBT candidate.

The landmark 2015 Supreme Court decision making gay marriage legal in all 50 States means that a future President may have a spouse of the same sex.

Unfortunately, current Federal law is outdated and does not reflect the reality that we could have a female or gay President as soon as 2021.

Today's bill updates Federal law to reflect the possibility of a female or LGBT President by replacing gendered terms like ``wife'' and ``widow'' with ``spouse.'' It also replaces gender-specific pronouns when referring to the President and their spouse with gender-neutral terms.

Without this change, the law that makes it a crime to threaten to kill, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon the President or the President's family would fail to include a future female or gay President.

The words we use matter, and it is critically important that the law recognizes that soon we will have a President who is not a straight man.

I thank the chairman, the ranking member, and all the members of the committee for their support of this important bipartisan bill.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the 21st Century President Act.

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