1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

Vote no on H.R. 7661. This bill strips parents, local communities, and trained educators of their authority to decide what children read and hands that power to politicians in Washington. Congress has no business micromanaging school curricula and library collections, yet this legislation does exactly that by threatening federal funding for schools that don't comply with arbitrary content restrictions. States have broad constitutional authority over education. H.R. 7661 tramples on that local control by imposing a rigid, outdated canon of acceptable materials defined by specific publications from decades ago. It excludes contemporary literature and forces schools to choose between comprehensive health education and federal funding. Educators and librarians, not members of Congress, are trained to select age-appropriate materials that meet the diverse needs of their students. This bill creates chaos without solving any real problem. It provides no enforcement mechanism, no compliance guidance, and no cost estimates for the administrative burden it imposes on schools. Worse, it marginalizes LGBTQ students by erasing relevant content and potentially blocks medically accurate health information. Instead of this federal overreach, support H.R. 6440, the Right to Read Act, which provides funding to ensure school libraries are well-resourced and well-staffed. That's how Congress should support education: with resources, not restrictions.