The House on Wednesday passed legislation that would require all bathrooms in public buildings to be equipped with baby changing tables.
The Bathrooms Accessible in Every Situation Act, or the BABIES Act, was introduced by Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., in May, in an apparent attempt to make sure that both men and women have an equal chance at changing their kids’ diapers.
The House passed an amended version of Cicilline’s bill on Wednesday afternoon, in a 389-34 vote. That version still implies that all bathrooms must be equipped with baby changing table, but it also creates some exceptions that creates some flexibility.
For example, public buildings don’t have to be equipped with baby changing tables if one is available somewhere else on the same floor.
“Federal public buildings belong to the people of this country, and they should be welcoming and appropriately accommodating,” Cicilline said on the House floor during Tuesday night debate on the bill.
He said that in his own House office building, “there are no baby-changing tables at all. That means that Rhode Islanders that come to visit my office have to try to find a changing station in another public building, or they’ll have to decide to change their baby on the bathroom floor, which is a terrible option, unsanitary for both the parents and the children.”
Under the bill, all restrooms in a public building “shall be equipped with baby changing facilities.” It defines “public building” as any building controlled by the General Services Administration. Cicilline’s original bill covered a broader range of buildings.
It defines “baby changing facility” as a “table or other device suitable for changing the diaper of a child age 3 or under.”
