Respect for Marriage Act

Respect for Marriage Act - Amends the Defense of Marriage Act to repeal a provision that prohibited a state, territory, possession, or Indian tribe from being required to recognize any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other state, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a same sex marriage.

Amends the federal rules of construction added by such Act concerning the definitions of "marriage" and "spouse" to provide that, for purposes of any federal law in which marital status is a factor, an individual shall be considered married if that individual's marriage is valid in the state where the marriage was entered into or, in the case of a marriage entered into outside any state, if the marriage is valid in the place where entered into and the marriage could have been entered into in a state. Removes the definition of "spouse" (currently, a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife).

[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2523 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2523

  To repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and ensure respect for State 
                        regulation of marriage.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 26, 2013

   Mr. Nadler (for himself, Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. Clyburn, Mr. 
  Conyers, Mr. Polis, Mr. Cicilline, Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney of New 
 York, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Sinema, Mr. Takano, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Barber, Ms. 
    Bass, Mr. Becerra, Mr. Bishop of New York, Mr. Blumenauer, Ms. 
 Bonamici, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Mr. Braley of Iowa, Ms. Brownley 
 of California, Mrs. Capps, Mr. Capuano, Mr. Cardenas, Mr. Carney, Mr. 
     Cartwright, Ms. Castor of Florida, Mr. Castro of Texas, Mrs. 
Christensen, Ms. Chu, Ms. Clarke, Mr. Clay, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Cohen, Mr. 
 Connolly, Mr. Courtney, Mr. Crowley, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Danny K. Davis 
 of Illinois, Mrs. Davis of California, Mr. DeFazio, Ms. DeGette, Mr. 
    Delaney, Ms. DeLauro, Ms. DelBene, Mr. Deutch, Mr. Dingell, Mr. 
Doggett, Mr. Doyle, Ms. Edwards, Mr. Ellison, Mr. Engel, Ms. Eshoo, Ms. 
  Esty, Mr. Farr, Mr. Fattah, Mr. Foster, Ms. Fudge, Ms. Gabbard, Mr. 
   Garamendi, Mr. Grayson, Mr. Al Green of Texas, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. 
Gutierrez, Ms. Hahn, Ms. Hanabusa, Mr. Hanna, Mr. Hastings of Florida, 
 Mr. Heck of Washington, Mr. Higgins, Mr. Himes, Mr. Holt, Mr. Honda, 
  Mr. Horsford, Mr. Huffman, Mr. Israel, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of 
 Texas, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Keating, Mr. Kennedy, 
Mr. Kildee, Mr. Kilmer, Mrs. Kirkpatrick, Ms. Kuster, Mr. Langevin, Mr. 
Larsen of Washington, Mr. Larson of Connecticut, Ms. Lee of California, 
 Mr. Levin, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Loebsack, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Lowenthal, Mrs. 
  Lowey, Mr. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Maffei, Mrs. 
 Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, Mr. Markey, Ms. Matsui, Mrs. McCarthy 
of New York, Ms. McCollum, Mr. McDermott, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Meeks, Ms. 
  Meng, Mr. Michaud, Mr. George Miller of California, Ms. Moore, Mr. 
Moran, Mrs. Napolitano, Mrs. Negrete McLeod, Mr. Nolan, Ms. Norton, Mr. 
O'Rourke, Mr. Owens, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Pascrell, Mr. Pastor of Arizona, 
   Mr. Peters of Michigan, Ms. Pingree of Maine, Mr. Price of North 
Carolina, Mr. Quigley, Mr. Rangel, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Ms. Roybal-Allard, 
  Mr. Rush, Mr. Ryan of Ohio, Ms. Linda T. Sanchez of California, Ms. 
   Loretta Sanchez of California, Mr. Sarbanes, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. 
    Schiff, Mr. Schneider, Ms. Schwartz, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. 
 Serrano, Ms. Shea-Porter, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Sires, Ms. Slaughter, Mr. 
   Smith of Washington, Ms. Speier, Mr. Swalwell of California, Mr. 
Thompson of California, Mr. Tierney, Ms. Titus, Mr. Tonko, Ms. Tsongas, 
 Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Veasey, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. Walz, Ms. 
   Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Watt, Mr. Waxman, Mr. Welch, Ms. Wilson of 
  Florida, and Mr. Yarmuth) introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and ensure respect for State 
                        regulation of marriage.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Respect for Marriage Act''.

SEC. 2. REPEAL OF SECTION ADDED TO TITLE 28, UNITED STATES CODE, BY 
              SECTION 2 OF THE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT.

    Section 1738C of title 28, United States Code, is repealed, and the 
table of sections at the beginning of chapter 115 of title 28, United 
States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to that section.

SEC. 3. MARRIAGE RECOGNITION.

    Section 7 of title 1, United States Code, is amended to read as 
follows:
``Sec. 7. Marriage
    ``(a) For the purposes of any Federal law in which marital status 
is a factor, an individual shall be considered married if that 
individual's marriage is valid in the State where the marriage was 
entered into or, in the case of a marriage entered into outside any 
State, if the marriage is valid in the place where entered into and the 
marriage could have been entered into in a State.
    ``(b) In this section, the term `State' means a State, the District 
of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or 
possession of the United States.''.
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