Books book bans What to Know About the National Book Ban Bill House Resolution 7661 is a potentially significant piece of book ban legislation. Here’s what you need to know about it. By Matthew Byrd | Published on April 1, 2026 Photo by Michael Dziedzic [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Michael Dziedzic [via Unsplash] On March 19, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce advanced H.R. 7661. There is no word regarding when the bill will be voted on, but the vote is expected to occur sometime in the coming weeks. While that bill number may not sound familiar, there’s a good chance you have recently heard it referred to as the National Book Ban Bill. Though that title is not formally associated with the proposed resolution, it does speak to the concerns many have regarding the bill’s language, intentions, and potential long-term impact. While it can understandably feel overwhelming to keep up with every potentially impactful piece of legislation in the modern United States government, the details of H. R. 7661 (including those not printed, which only exist between the lines) make it worth knowing about for anyone who opposes the growing trend of book bans and public education funding. What is H. R. 7661, or the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act? Formally, what is sometimes referred to as the National Book Ban Bill is being presented as H.R. 7661 or the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act.” You can read that act here. It has also been referred to as the “National Don’t Say Gay bill,” a reference to a 2022 statute that triggered significant school policy changes, including legislation that restricted public schools from introducing material in kindergarten through 3rd-grade classrooms that was deemed to be related to matters of sexual orientation and gender identity. The law also included requirements specific to students in higher grades and age ranges. A sweeping initiative, the Don’t Say Gay bill (formally referred to as the “Parental Rights in Education” bill) established several education restrictions regarding both curricula and school policies that could be enforced via various means (including potential legal action). It required schools to inform parents if their children received any mental health services at school, it allowed parents to have greater access to formerly private documents related to their kids, and it enacted a series of moderation policies that effectively enabled legislators to have greater control over what is (and isn’t) taught to students in those age ranges via funding decisions and similar policies. Said policies included book bans, which are also at the heart of H.R. 7661’s many potential effects. The Main Provisions of H. R. 7661 The primary purpose of H. R. 7661 is to enable the U.S. government to deny federal funding to schools that use those funds for programs and materials the bill deems to be inappropriate. The bill is effectively an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The act was designed to provide expanded federal funding to public schools to ensure that their students (more specifically, public school students in lower-income areas) didn’t continue to fall far behind students at schools with access to more resources. It was a milestone piece of legislation that remains one of the cornerstones for federal public school funding in the United States to this day. While H. R. 7661 would not eliminate that act, it would, in the bill’s own language, “prohibit the use of funds provided under such Act to develop, implement, facilitate, host, or promote any program or activity for, or to provide or promote literature or other materials to, children under the age of 18 that includes sexually oriented material, and for other purposes.” The broad nature of that language is one of the more controversial aspects of the bill. For instance, it would deny schools the ability to use federal funding for programs, literature, and related texts that include “sexually oriented material” and “material that exposes such children to nude adults, individuals who are stripping, or lewd or lascivious dancing.” H. R. 7661 also includes exemptions for scientific texts, works related to major religions, as well as “classic works of literature” and “classic works of art” (more on those in a bit) that may naturally include references to the content it intends to restrict. Furthermore, the authors of the bill note that “sexually oriented material” includes “any depiction, description, or simulation of sexually explicit conduct (as defined in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of section 2256(2) of title 18, United States Code).” You can read those United States Code subparagraphs here. They largely reference material such as “bestiality” and “sadistic or masochistic abuse” but also include the far more general idea of “sexual intercourse… whether between persons of the same or opposite sex” as sexually explicit content. It is a rather large collection of topics which could potentially fall under that umbrella definition. However, H. R. 7661 would expand the definition of “sexually oriented material” to include material that “involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism.” Along with suggesting that matters of identity should be considered a sexually obscene topic, the inclusion of that language has significant legal implications. That choice of wording makes it clear that this bill will most directly and immediately affect transgender students, transgender-related materials, and it could be argued, gender non-conformity topics in general, which may include discussions of specifically prohibited subjects in affected schools.  What’s important to remember is that the bill specifies works that will be excluded, but it is more vague regarding what, exactly, could be impacted. It could, for instance, be determined that a variety of LGBTQIA+ books that make passing reference (or even perceived passing references) to such materials could also be effectively banned from federally funded schools. The policies for such determinations and review procedures are not set. It should also be noted that the use of “sexually oriented material” and similar pieces of broad language have often been contested as the basis for similar pieces of legislation (more on those below).  There are undoubtedly concerns regarding the direct targeting of students and materials that would be most obviously impacted by the “gender dysphoria or transgenderism” language. The reason that this is being referred to as a “National Book Ban Bill,” though, is due to both the bill’s relationship with current federal funding policies (and thus its potential reach) and the ways that its language could be used to legally justify a variety of bans or create a precedent for similarly sweeping bills.  What Would Happen If H. R. 7661 Passes? Due to the potentially expansive nature of this bill and the ways its language could ultimately be interpreted, its full potential effects are difficult to predict. However, there are a few figures that capture the potential scope of this act and its effects.  The National Center for Educational Statistics states that 63 percent of traditional public schools and 62 percent of public charter schools were eligible for Title I funding as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act during the 2021-2022 school year. The exact number of schools that received said funding and how much funding they received can be difficult to track from year to year, given the scope of the program and the sometimes inconsistent reporting on a state-by-state level. Some estimates suggest that we’re looking at around 50,000 schools that regularly benefit from the program. The National Center for Educational Statistics estimates that there were 99,200 public schools in the United States as of the 2021-2022 school year. While some of those schools rely on more Title I funding than others, federal funding remains a vital part of many public schools’ operating budgets. And as other recent reports regarding Title I funding in public schools suggest, qualifying schools remain especially dependent on any level of federal funding at a time when other funding resources are drying up, and public schools are making cutbacks to essentials while battling a variety of state and local laws that impact their funding and operations.  All of this is to say that H. R. 7661 could potentially require nearly half of U.S. public schools to comply with these new laws or risk losing vital federal funds. To put it another way, this bill would not repeal the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but it would play a significant role in determining whether the tens of thousands of schools and millions of students that the act was intended to help will continue to receive its intended benefits. What exactly compliance with H. R. 7661 will ultimately look like is very much up for debate. There is quite a bit of room for interpretation regarding the potential extent of its effects. But at a time when public schools are increasingly dependent on federal funding for not just closing the education gap but remaining operational, those schools would be heavily incentivized to comply by removing whatever is ultimately considered to be offensive programs and texts. In the future, the nature of their curricula and available materials would also be strongly dictated by compliance with this act. The Exemptions For “Art” and “Classics” in H. R. 7661 and Who Determines Them The aforementioned exemptions mentioned in H. R. 7661 reveal not only the specific works deemed to be “art” or “classics,” but the nature of the organization that would determine those exemptions.  The bill notes that exemptions to this policy will be determined by works featured in the Smarthistory guide to AP Art History, volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (2019–2020), the Great Books of the Western World published by Encyclopaedia Britannica, and lists of classic books published by Compass Classroom. While Encyclopaedia Britannica and AP Art History are more historically entrenched names, this might be the first time you’re hearing about Compass Classroom. Compass Classroom produces online homeschool curricula that the company says are designed to teach and promote a “Christian worldview.” Founded in 2010 as Visual Latin, they have expanded their program across various educational fields and subjects. However, it is not clear how many users they currently have or why Compass Classroom’s “Classics Every Middle Schooler Should Read” and “Classics Every High Schooler Should Read” lists are cited as exemption references in this bill. Regardless of opinions regarding the specific works included on those lists (which contain everything from Common Sense by Thomas Paine and The Lord of the Rings trilogy), critics of this bill have raised questions about why a Christian-focused homeschool curriculum company is potentially legally defining arts and classics, as well as why this particular company was chosen to make those distinctions.  The Biggest Supporters of H. R. 7661 The full list of representatives who introduced H. R. 7661 can be found at the top of the bill itself. However, the bill’s biggest proponent is Illinois Representative Mary Miller. Since being elected to the House of Representatives in 2020, Mary Miller has been a vocal adversary of the transgender community. In 2021, she introduced the Safety and Opportunity for Girls Act, which would have determined, among other things, which bathrooms transgender students are allowed to use in schools. In 2025, she called for a federal investigation of Illinois’ decision to allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports. That same year, she misgendered Representative Sarah McBride while introducing her.  However, Mary Miller’s most notable controversy in regards to this bill occurred in 2021 when she was filmed during a speech saying, “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’” Miller was criticized for her statements by members of the Republican and Democratic parties as well as various advocacy organizations. Mary apologized for her statement a few days later, but noted that “This dark history should never be repeated and parents should be proactive to instill what is good, true, right, and noble into their children’s hearts and minds.” That statement is being reexamined in light of the nature of H. R. 7661. What Precedent Is There For H. R. 7661 to Pass? On a federal level, there is little historical precedent that suggests H. R. 7661 will pass. In fact, a bill with a similar name and slightly different language (H.R. 9197, also referred to as the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act”) ultimately never made it out of Congress. H.R. 2616 (the PROTECT Kids Act) may be a closer comparison. It also included provisions related to removing federal funding for schools that made “sex-based accommodations” for students and was similarly compared to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. That bill also did not pass Congress. The Parental Bill of Rights Act (which featured some overlapping provisions and somewhat similar ideas) passed through the house but was not taken up by the Senate.  Since H. R. 7661 was introduced, some critics of the bill have treated it as something that will almost certainly never become a law in its current form. While there are numerous precedents that support that viewpoint, recent laws passed at the state and local levels have some concerned that we may no longer be able to comfortably rely on federal precedents. If it feels like you have been reading more and more stories about books being banned in schools and libraries in recent years than you ever heard before, it’s because you probably have. Since 2021, there has been a noted rise in state laws that enable communities to have greater control over what books are allowed in K-12 schools. As PEN America reports, the majority of those bans in recent years have been led by advocacy groups, though a growing number are more directly associated with elected officials.  During the same period, there has been a well-documented rise in laws that target transgender people: the group most directly targeted by H. R. 7661. Translegislation.com has identified 747 introduced laws since 2021 that would negatively impact the rights of transgender and non-conforming people in some way. 308 of those laws have been passed, with recent years seeing a substantial increase in laws introduced and passed (2025 was a record year for both). 23 bills considered to be anti-trans in some way have been passed in 2026 so far.  And though this has been referenced throughout this article, it is worth mentioning again that 2022 was the year that Florida passed the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The implementation of that law sparked a new era of state and federal government officials either introducing laws that utilize book bans as part of a “sexual content”-driven agenda or working to implement laws that will prevent such bans from occurring. During that same time, we have seen a rise in teachers effectively self-censoring their lessons out of fear of punishment or simple confusion over how, exactly, they can be in compliance with existing laws.  While the validity of the popular idea that we are living in unprecedented times depends on a number of technicalities and interpretations that often interfere with the spirit of the statement, those numbers support the idea that we are living in an era of book bans being used to enforce certain ideologies and suppress others that we have not seen in the United States for quite some time.  What Can You Do If You Oppose H. R. 7661? If you oppose H. R. 7661, there are a few practical actions you can take to help prevent it from being passed.  You can contact your representatives to let them know that you are a constituent who opposes this act. 5Calls has a page dedicated to this act that will help tell you what to say to your representative’s office, as well as find their contact information.  Similarly, you may consider supporting H.R. 6440 (aka the “Right to Read Act of 2025”). This act would expand the funding that many community libraries receive as well as help protect library staff against legal actions associated with book bans. As always, please be sure to study the bill’s exact intended effects and provisions before contacting your representatives.  Unite Against Book Bans, the Office for Intellectual Freedom, PEN America, and the International Literacy Association remain some of the most popular and trusted groups for resources and information related to stopping book bans such as H. R. 7661. There are numerous similar organizations and communities at local, state, and federal levels that offer and accept similar support. You can find some of them here. And though these sometimes feel like minor acts of civil reform, it is always worth saying that some of the best things you can do is support your local libraries and librarians, support the individuals and groups most commonly affected by similar laws, and help spread the joy and importance of reading by donating books, donating your time, and simply continuing to read. [end-mark] The post What to Know About the National Book Ban Bill appeared first on Reactor.