{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.daines.senate.gov/2024/10/21/daines-fights-back-against-biden-harris-administrations-woke-gender-identity-guidance/", "Daines Fights Back Against Biden-Harris\u00a0Administration\u2019s Woke \u201cGender Identity\u201d Guidance", "2024-10-21", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "Senate", "MT", "Steve Daines", "D000618", "www.daines.senate.gov", "daines", "https://www.daines.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "New Guidance Violates Religious Protections, Endangers Women in the Workplace\n\nU.S. SENATE \u2013 U.S. Senator Steve Daines and several of his colleagues sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra challenging new radical guidance that compels speech, threatens freedom of religion and endangers women by forcing federal employees to use \u201cpreferred pronouns\u201d and allow men in women\u2019s spaces or risk termination.\n\n\u201cWe write out of deep concern over Guidance you issued entitled \u2018Gender Identity Non- Discrimination and Inclusion Policy for Employees and Applicants.\u2019\u2026 According to the Guidance, failure to use the preferred names and pronouns an individual asks to be addressed with \u2018contribute[s] to an unlawful hostile work environment.\u2019 Notably, your Guidance states that the Department cannot \u2018require a legal change of name or gender marker, medical certification, or other documentation.\u2019 In other words, anyone can change their names and pronouns and compel coworkers to use that name or pronoun, or face disciplinary action,\u201d the Senators wrote.\n\n\u201cPerhaps more egregious than the Guidance\u2019s position on compelled speech related to pronoun usage is the policy on bathroom, locker room, and lactation room usage. According to the Guidance, HHS will \u2018ensure there are no barriers to equally accessing restrooms, locker rooms, lactation rooms, or other personal care spaces.\u2019\u2026Including lactation rooms in this same Guidance is blatantly offensive\u2014males cannot breastfeed their children, and claiming to be female does not change that reality. The only reason for including this in the Guidance is to continue to push a radical agenda in every facet of the federal workplace,\u201d the Senators continued.\n\nRead the full text of the letter HERE.\n\nDaines joined Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in sending the letter.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "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.daines.senate.gov/2024/10/21/daines-fights-back-against-biden-harris-administrations-woke-gender-identity-guidance/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.149445004761219, "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"}