On Tuesday, Sen. Al Franken introduced the Student Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would adress bullying and discrimination in public schools.

“Kids need to feel safe in their schools in order to learn,” Sen. Franken said in a statement. “Right now, our civil rights laws explicitly protect children from bullying due to race, sex, disability, and national origin. But they don’t stop discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Our legislation fixes this injustice and extends essential protections to LGBT youth in Minnesota and across the country. No student should have to dread going to school because they fear being bullied.”

Specifically, the bill would:

“establish a comprehensive federal prohibition of discrimination in public schools based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity”; “provide protections for LGBT students and ensure that all students have access to public education in a safe environment free from discrimination, including harassment, bullying, intimidation and violence;” and “provide meaningful and effective remedies (loss of federal funding and legal cause of action for victims) for discrimination in public schools based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, modeled after Title IX.”

The bill has 17 sponsors in the U.S. Senate, including Minnesota’s Sen. Amy Klobuchar. The bill was introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, a Democrat from Florida, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida.

Franken has been advancing a version of the bill since 2010, but the bill has stalled in a gridlocked Congress.