Date: 2004-02-04
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. I rise in strong support of the Woolsey amendment. and I want to begin by making it clear what this amendment is not about. It is not about the value of the Community Services Block Grant. That block grant is extremely important to millions of Americans in thousands of communities around this land. From Meals on Wheels to child care. to job training. to early education. community action partnerships provide critical support to the communities they serve. Nor is this a debate about those provisions in the underlying bill that strengthen the accountability and local control in the program. Finally. .this amendment is not about whether faithbased organizations should be able and allowed to participate in Federal programs designed to help those in need. They should and they do. And those who seek to confuse this conversation and suggest that those organizations will no longer receive Federal support are misleading the American people in this debate today. So what is this all about? What this amendment does is affirm the critical role of faithbased organizations in providing services in the fight against poverty while at the same time preserving the principles of religious tolerance that are enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Woolsey amendment is identical to the underlying bill in all respects except one. What this amendment does is prohibits taxpayerfunded job discrimination based on religion. Period. It is that simple. Should applicants for federally funded jobs be evaluated based on their credentials. their experience. their performance and merit. or should they be fired and hired based on their religion or some religious test? Imagine someone opening their local newspaper. seeing an ad there for a federally funded job. someone who has devoted their lifes work to trying to teach young children in early education. and they are excited about it. they open it up and they say. heres the description. help young children. but. by goodness. only Christians need apply. or. within Christianity. only Catholics or only Baptists need apply.. This provides a green light for that kind of discrimination. How can we ask individuals. individuals who may be listening to this debate around the country. who pay their fair share of taxes to support this community effort. to support the programs that we are talking about to help the poor? How can we ask them who have paid those taxes to the Federal Government to not be allowed to take a job with an organization that helps in that regard because of their religion? That is what the other side asks us to do. In fact. the arguments put forth by the Republicans on this issue today should be troubling to every American. They say that faithbased organizations that take Federal dollars must be able to hire only their own members of their own faith in order to do a good job of providing secular services under this Federal program. It is in their committee report. They have said it on the floor today. Think about what they are saying. These Federal funds in this legislation provide services to help those in poverty. The mission is to provide housing for those without housing. To provide food and nutrition for those who have none. What they are saying is that in order for a faithbased organization to effectively use those funds for those purposes. you have to shut the door on employees of other faiths. I find it very ironic. Mr. Chairman. that today we are asking the peoples in Iraq and Afghanistan. the Sunnis. the Shia. the Turkmen. the Christians. to come together for the common. gQ94. while at the same time here we. .re saying that in order to fulfill the common good. we have to divide people based on religion. What a terrible message.