74 Members of Congress Vote 100% in Line with Values of Faith, Family, and Freedom

Last week, Family Research Council’s legislative arm, FRC Action, released the annual Vote Scorecard that tracks where members of Congress stand in their commitment to supporting faith, family, and freedom. On the 2023 scorecard, FRC Action found that “69 U.S. representatives and five U.S. senators scored a perfect 100 percent for votes cast in 2023” in championing these values. As FRC President Tony Perkins emphasized in a statement, “Americans should be encouraged to know that they have so many members of Congress who, despite relentless attacks from the Left and the media, are standing strong for faith, family, and freedom.”

Jody Hice, former Congressman and president of FRC Action, also expressed hope, commenting: “This year’s One Hundred Percent Award winners have stood strong for all things faith, family, and freedom in the face of a determined Left. It is our honor to recognize these Members’ tireless efforts on Capitol Hill to ensure our voices continue to be heard.” As part of this recognition, it’s important to consider the specific actions some members of Congress have taken in protecting faith, family, and freedom. At FRC’s event awarding these congressmen, The Washington Stand asked what motivates their support.

Representative Michael Cloud (R-Texas) summarized why he works to protect the unborn: “We can talk about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness all we want, but all that begins with life.” Cloud added, “If you don’t have the right to life, if you don’t hold … God-given rights as valuable, then the rest of it all just crumbles.”

Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) also cares deeply about the unborn, and she’s especially vocal about supporting women in the realm of girls’ sports and pro-life issues. She recently introduced the Second Chance for Moms Act, which would require a warning label on the abortion drug mifepristone that includes information about its reversibility to help protect mothers from the dangerous side effects. “The Left says that they’re pro-choice,” she shared with TWS, “but they actually are withholding crucial information for women about the dangers of abortion.”

She continued, “Obviously, [mifepristone is] life-ending for the child, but for the moms, we want them to have all the information. This is a dangerous drug with serious side effects, and it should not even be legal.”

Beyond her passion for ending abortion, the controversy of women’s sports has flooded the headlines for some time now — particularly as the transgender movement ramped up its efforts to dominate the field. This is why Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) emphasized how “it’s important that our women that compete on the athletic field should be supported by Congress.”

He added, “Congress created Title IX specifically for women’s sports to give them a playing field to compete with one another.” But “the fact that this administration is trying to erase women’s sports by allowing biological men to compete — the American people don’t support that. The majority of moms don’t want men in their daughter’s locker rooms, and I think it’s a very important issue.” To push back, Steube introduced the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which has so far successfully passed through the House. “It’s going to be stalled in the Senate,” he explained, “but hopefully we flip the Senate next year, and that’ll be one of the first bills that likely will pass.”

As part of the common-sense effort to protect kids from gender ideology, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) has used his role in Congress to sound the alarm on how it is hurting children. He stated, “Vulnerable children are being pushed towards experimental procedures, such as receiving puberty-blocking hormones, cross-sex hormones, and even undergoing surgeries.” As a result, children are suffering from “irreversible consequences, including permanent sterility.”

LaMalfa pointed out the “disturbing” nature of how “the pressure for children to transition come[s] from teachers and school administrators — people who are supposed to be protecting our children when they are away from home and their parents.” He urged, “[I]t is essential to shield children from these nefarious influences that encourage them into making life-altering decisions when they cannot fully understand the implications and long-term effects of these procedures.” The California Republican has introduced three acts aimed at protecting children from LGBT ideology: the Protecting Children from Experimentation Act, the End Taxpayer Funding of Gender Experimentation Act, and the Prohibiting Parental Secrecy Policies in Schools Act.

As he explains, each act is designed “to protect children and taxpayers from bearing the high costs of these dangerous and experimental medical procedures.” Moving forward, he hopes they will finally “put a stop to this child endangerment and school bureaucrats going behind parent’s backs to transition children.”

But behind each issue — be it life, women’s sports, or gender politics — Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) made it clear it’s impossible to separate any of these matters from God Himself. Hern, who chairs the Republican Study Committee (RSC), explained, “I believe … this country was founded on the notion that there’s something bigger than all of us, and that’s God.” And “we keep pushing that every single meeting.”

He pointed out that we’re living “in a moment where we have … to influence members of Congress.” And for Hern, a lot of that happens in the RSC, where he believes they have “a responsibility to continue to remind people in Congress why it’s so important to follow God.” On this point, David Closson, who serves as FRC’s director of the Center for Biblical Worldview and attended the award ceremony, shared with TWS, “When most American Christians think about Washington, D.C., they are probably discouraged.”

“However,” he added, “the One Hundred Percent Award reception at FRC last week with dozens of lawmakers was a tremendously encouraging event.” Closson also explained how, in his personal conversations with many of the award recipients, he “was personally [grateful] to know that God has so many choice servants in the highest corridors of power fighting for biblical truth.”

Closson concluded, “My encouragement to fellow believers is what Paul said in Romans 11, which is that God always has a remnant. And the award reception last week reminded me that there is quite a large remnant of faithful believers that wake up every morning to fight for the issues that American Christians care deeply about.”