Wed Nov 17, 2021 – 4:54 pm EST
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – The Biden administration is considering revoking a federal civil rights agency’s power to review alleged violations of religious liberty by the federal government, according to a draft memo to Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra obtained by Fox News.
Fox reported that the memo concerns a 2017 Trump administration decision that empowered HHS’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to review federal agencies’ compliance with the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and “initiate such other actions as may be necessary to facilitate and ensure compliance with RFRA.”
But the memo, signed by President Joe Biden’s OCR Director Lisa Pino, advocates a return to the pre-2017 status quo under which “no division was singularly responsible for the Department’s compliance with RFRA or the First Amendment.”
“That model recognized that all components of HHS had a responsibility for compliance and that OGC [Office of General Counsel] was a central partner in providing key legal advice on RFRA and defending the Department when RFRA claims were raised,” she claimed. “Rescinding the delegation to OCR does not lessen the commitment of the Department to compliance, but
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