{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.britt.senate.gov/news/press-releases/u-s-senators-katie-britt-james-lankford-colleagues-introduce-legislation-protecting-military-chaplains/", "U.S. Senators Katie Britt, James Lankford, Colleagues Introduce Legislation Protecting Military Chaplains", "2026-08-12", "2026", "2026-08", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Katie Boyd Britt", "B001319", "www.britt.senate.gov", "britt", "https://www.britt.senate.gov/media/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) joined Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) and colleagues in introducing the Military Chaplains Modernization Act of 2026 (MCMA) to codify the purpose, role, duties, and professional qualifications of military chaplains and to protect chaplains from being forced to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.\n\n\u201cMilitary chaplains serve a unique and important role in our armed forces, providing spiritual guidance to our men and women in uniform. That is why it is imperative that their deeply held religious beliefs must be protected throughout their time in the military. I\u2019m proud to support this legislation and the faith leaders who serve in our armed forces,\u201d said Senator Britt.\n\n\u201cFor our country\u2019s 250-year history, military chaplains have walked alongside our service members through the hardest moments of their lives, offering prayer, counsel, and hope in isolated posts and combat zones alike,\u201d said Senator Lankford. \u201cChaplains serve because they are called to it. Congress has a responsibility to make sure they can carry out that calling faithfully, without being forced to violate the tenets of their faith and without fear of retaliation for holding to what they believe. This bill honors the men and women who minister to our heroes who defend our nation.\u201d\n\nJoining Senators Britt and Lankford in cosponsoring the legislation are Senators Mike Rounds (R-S. Dak.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Kevin Cramer (R-N. Dak.). The bill is also supported by the Armed Forces Chaplains Board, which provides advice and recommendations to Department of War (DOW) officials on matters of religious exercise.\n\nThe Military Chaplains Modernization Act codifies the purpose, role, duties, and professional qualifications of chaplains across the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force and guarantee that chaplains may conduct worship, provide counseling, teach, deliver sermons, minister, and offer prayer in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs and the tenets of their religious-endorsing organization, free from censorship, undue restriction, or fear of retribution. It would prohibit any member of the armed forces from requiring or assigning a chaplain to perform any rite, ritual, ceremony, sermon, speech, task, or action contrary to the chaplain\u2019s sincerely held religious beliefs and protects chaplains from retaliation or adverse personnel actions, including denial of promotion, letters of reprimand, and negative entries in the chaplain\u2019s record, for refusing to violate their beliefs.\n\nSenator Britt is a fierce advocate of religious freedom, previously introducing the Reaffirming Every Servicemember\u2019s Trust Over Religious Exemptions (RESTORE) Act, which would build upon the Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots (AMERICANS) Act of 2025, which would provide remedies to military servicemembers harmed by the DoD\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.\n\nYou can read the full text of the bill here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-13T06:17:16Z", "2026-08-13T06:18:13Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.britt.senate.gov/news/press-releases/u-s-senators-katie-britt-james-lankford-colleagues-introduce-legislation-protecting-military-chaplains/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.6027478743344545, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}