What the Respect for Marriage Act does and doesn't do

What the bill does: Ensure federal recognition of marriage regardless of sex, race, ethnicity or national origin and require all states to recognize valid marriages conducted in places where they are legal.

• The legislation notably repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, which established a federal definition of marriage as a "legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife."

What the bill doesn't do: Require all 50 states to allow same-sex marriage as is held under the 2015 Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges.

• It also does not prohibit states from taking steps to ban or restrict same-sex marriage if Obergefell were overturned.

Worth noting: Under the religious freedoms amendment, nonprofit religious organizations — including churches, faith-based social agencies and religious educational institutions — would not be required to "provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges for the solemnization or celebration of a marriage," the text of the bill states.

• Any such refusal "shall not create any civil claim or cause of action."