Speak Out Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MASSIE. Madam Speaker, I want to be the first to admit, this is a difficult bill to debate. It sounds good. I believe the intentions of the other side of the aisle are good as well. Nobody should be subjected to sexual harassment.
But there is a problem. We are legislating outside of our domain. We are violating States' rights in doing this. The law that is being proposed to pass today here has already in some form or another been implemented in 15 different States. But guess what, those 15 different States don't all have the same solution. It is sort of arrogant for us to sit here and say that we are going to come up with a one-size-fits- all that is going to be better than anything those 15 States have done.
I say to my constituents at home, that there are three tests that I apply to any bill before voting for it.
The first test is, is it constitutional. This bill is questionable whether it is constitutional because it would regulate intrastate contracts, not just interstate contracts. We all know we have no business inside of the States.
The other test that I apply is, can we afford it. Well, ostensibly, this bill doesn't cost that much to impose a new thing on employers or on contracts.
But the third test that I always apply is, is this something we should solve at the Federal level or can States do it better? That is where this bill fails. The States can legislate on this. The States have legislated on this; 15 different States since 2018 have legislated on this.
In fact, as I read this bill and as we debated it, I wondered what is the definition of sexual harassment. Well, the bill itself refers to the State definitions of sexual harassment. It is tacitly acknowledging that contract law is the domain of the States. There was a concern expressed during the debate in committee on this that is this the camel putting its nose in the tent when we let Federal laws intervene in or override State laws, and that was a concern that was expressed.
But it wasn't a conspiracy theory that there would be more legislation after that. In fact, the ink is not even dry on this; the vote hasn't happened today. But 2 days ago, just recently, the Executive Office of the President, OMB, issued a Statement of Administration Policy about this bill.
They are giddy at overriding State laws and breaking State contracts. In fact, their statement says: ``The administration looks forward to continuing to work with the Congress to advance broader legislation that addresses the range of issues implicated in NDAs and nondisparagement clauses.'' They can't wait to do more of this. They can't wait to take over the State legislatures' roles in legislating these issues.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' against this. I know it is a tough vote. I know the other side has good intentions, but this is the wrong bill.
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