Speak Out Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, sexual misconduct is terrible and it is wrong. Those who engage in it should be held accountable. But this bill, while well intentioned, is misguided.
For starters, it is a massive Federal overreach. It regulates contract law that has been and should be handled at the State level. Some States have decided to regulate confidentiality clauses in contracts. Others have decided not to. That is how our system of government works. That is how our Constitution works, States experimenting to find out what, in fact, works best.
However, this bill creates a new Federal floor that undercuts the power of States in the process. This is just the beginning of a new push by Democrats to chip away at States' rights.
The White House said as much this week. In commenting on the bill, the Biden administration said it ``Looks forward to continuing to work with the Congress to advance broader legislation that addresses a range of issues implicated in NDAs and nondisparagement clauses.''
They are not hiding the ball here. Federalism is a serious issue, and Congress should not be taking power from the States just to impose its top-down approach.
Additionally, we should take a hard look at the findings included in the bill as passed by the Senate. House Democrats intentionally left these findings out of the version of the bill that the Committee on the Judiciary marked up. These findings include statistics about the percentage of men and women who have experienced some form of sexual harassment or sexual assault in their lifetime. It is not clear where these statistics and new findings come from, but they seem to rely on a study that uses a broad definition of sexual harassment, very broad, that included instances of ``misgendering'' as sexual harassment. That definition goes way beyond existing law.
A finding of Congress that effectively treats ``misgendering'' on its own as a form of sexual harassment will doubtlessly lead to future efforts to expand the law in other ways. If Democrats are going to include findings like this, they should at least have to debate it in the committee. We should think carefully about these findings before cementing them in Federal law.
Finally, this bill, as drafted, is too broad and will affect contractual matters completely unrelated to sexual misconduct. A confidentiality clause may cover a wide range of information. When the bill applies, it nullifies the entire confidentiality clause, with just a few poorly defined exceptions.
As such, it will give trial lawyers an incentive to add unsupported allegations in litigation so they can void a confidentiality clause and access and use confidential information unrelated to the sexual misconduct.
We all condemn sexual harassment and sexual assault, but this is a flawed bill, and it is going to create problems down the road.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Massie), my friend and a member of the Judiciary Committee.
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Bishop), a valued member of the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I thank the future chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from Ohio. I think whatever else voters said a week ago, they said, don't go too far. That is the reason the gentleman to my right will be the Judiciary Committee chairman and the gentleman far to my left will no longer be.
This goes too far. In the chairman's comments in support of the bill, he gave the pieces of information that help us to detect why that is. One, he made reference to a bill, H.R. 4445, Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, and he said, appropriately so, that that bill had bipartisan support, including mine. It made it so that women who suffer sexual harassment, anyone who suffers sexual harassment is no longer limited if they have entered into a contract forcing arbitration; for mandatory arbitration of a dispute of that nature, they can bring it to court. Court is public in the United States.
That bill was supported on a bipartisan basis because it is fair and equitable. The other thing the chairman said is that this bill, the one we are talking about now, will empower survivors of sexual harassment and sexual assault, but it also will empower nonsurvivors. That is to say, anyone who wishes to bring a nonmeritorious claim of sexual harassment forward in order to destroy someone's life also will be empowered by this to ignore any contract to do otherwise.
``A Rape on Campus'' is a retracted defamatory Rolling Stone magazine article written by Sabrina Erdely and originally published on November 19, 2014, that describes a purported group sexual assault at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Rolling Stone retracted the story in its entirety on April 5, 2015.
The article claimed that a UVA student, Jackie, had been taken to a party hosted by UVA's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity by a fellow student. At the party, Jackie alleged in the article, her date led her to a bedroom where she was gang-raped by several fraternity members as part of a fraternity initiation ritual.
Jackie's account generated much media attention, and UVA President Teresa Sullivan suspended all fraternities. After other journalists investigated the article's claims and found significant discrepancies, Rolling Stone issued multiple apologies for the story.
It has since been reported that Jackie may have invented portions of the story in an unsuccessful attempt to win the affections of a fellow student in whom she had a romantic interest. In a deposition given in 2016, Jackie stated that she believed her story at the time.
On January 12, 2015, Charlottesville police officials told UVA that an investigation had failed to find any evidence confirming the events in the Rolling Stone article. UVA President Teresa Sullivan acknowledged that the story was discredited.
Charlottesville police officially suspended their 4-month investigation on March 23, 2015, based on lack of credible evidence.
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism audited the editorial processes that culminated in the article being published. On April 5, 2015, Rolling Stone retracted the article and published the independent report on the publication's history, and so forth.
Everyone remembers the Duke lacrosse incident in Durham, North Carolina. Everyone remembers the lives destroyed by these and other false allegations. They do happen.
The balance that we brought to the law by ensuring that every victim of sexual assault or harassment could come forward and sue, and if it is a suit against a public figure or against someone notorious or against someone rich or powerful, I have got to tell you, that will get publicity.
But it also is a system that has balance. People are subjected to discovery as to their motives. You have tools to find out and test the veracity of each side's views, each side's story.
This bill gives the green light to the false accuser. This bill says resume speed. It is a resume speed sign to those who would make false accusations. We brought balance to the law with the participation of Republicans and Democrats.
I grant you that that was a great bill. I congratulate you on bringing forward that bill, which I joined and voted for. This one is unfair and unbalanced. It goes too far.
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Buck).
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I urge opposition, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 315, nays 109, not voting 8, as follows: [Roll No. 480] YEAS--315 Adams Aguilar Allred Amodei Armstrong Arrington Auchincloss Axne Bacon Balderson Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Buck Bucshon Burchett Burgess Bush Bustos Butterfield Calvert Cammack Carbajal Cardenas Carey Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chabot Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Cole Comer Connolly Conway Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crawford Crenshaw Crow Cuellar Curtis Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Demings DeSaulnier Diaz-Balart Dingell Doggett Ellzey Emmer Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Feenstra Fitzpatrick Fletcher Flood Flores Foster Frankel, Lois Gallagher Gallego Garamendi Garbarino Garcia (CA) Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gimenez Golden Gomez Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Gonzalez, Vicente Gooden (TX) Gottheimer Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green, Al (TX) Griffith Grijalva Guthrie Harder (CA) Hartzler Hayes Higgins (NY) Hill Himes Hinson Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Hudson Huffman Huizenga Issa Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jacobs (NY) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (TX) Jones Joyce (OH) Kahele Kaptur Katko Keating Keller Kelly (IL) Kelly (PA) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (CA) Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Kustoff Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta LaTurner Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Letlow Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Lucas Luetkemeyer Luria Lynch Mace Malinowski Malliotakis Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCarthy McCaul McCollum McEachin McGovern McHenry McKinley McNerney Meeks Meijer Meng Meuser Mfume Miller-Meeks Moore (UT) Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Murphy (NC) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newhouse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Owens Palazzo Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Peltola Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Posey Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Reschenthaler Rice (NY) Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (KY) Ross Rouzer Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (NY) Salazar Sanchez Sarbanes Scalise Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Schweikert Scott (VA) Scott, David Sempolinski Sewell Sherman Sherrill Simpson Sires Slotkin Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (WA) Smucker Soto Spanberger Spartz Speier Stansbury Stanton Steel Stefanik Stevens Stewart Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Upton Valadao Vargas Veasey Velazquez Wagner Waltz Wasserman Schultz Watson Coleman Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Wittman Womack Yarmuth NAYS--109 Aderholt Allen Babin Baird Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Brooks Buchanan Budd Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Cline Cloud Clyde Davidson DesJarlais Donalds Duncan Dunn Estes Fallon Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fleischmann Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gibbs Gohmert Good (VA) Gosar Green (TN) Greene (GA) Grothman Guest Harris Harshbarger Hern Herrell Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hollingsworth Jackson Johnson (LA) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (PA) Kelly (MS) LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Lesko Long Loudermilk Mann Massie Mast McClain McClintock Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Mullin Nehls Norman Obernolte Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Rogers (AL) Rose Rosendale Roy Rutherford Scott, Austin Sessions Stauber Steil Steube Taylor Tenney Tiffany Timmons Turner Van Drew Van Duyne Walberg Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Yakym Zeldin NOT VOTING--8 Cheney Davis, Rodney Doyle, Michael F. Herrera Beutler Kinzinger Ryan (OH) Waters Welch
Messrs. ARMSTRONG, LATTA, and GOODEN of Texas changed their votes from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
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