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Congress is looking to prevent women's rights from going down the toilet -- literally.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold hearings Wednesday on the "Potty Parity Act," a bill that seeks to address the shoddy restroom facilities for women in federal buildings.

The bill would require any federal building constructed for public use to have similar toilets in women's and men's restrooms.

Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the committee, authored the legislation, which is being cosponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the ranking member on the panel.

Towns has said he is concerned that "exasperating lines" and overall restroom facilities for women were "an inconvenience seen in almost every type of public building."

"Our nation's history shows that the structure and accessibility of American public restrooms have served as manifestations of more deeply rooted problems of discrimination, among race, physical ability and gender," Towns said in a written statement last month.

"In 2010, we must move the clock forward by finally addressing an overdue problem of unequal, inadequate and inaccessible public restrooms for women," he said.