mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time . 
i urge the body to adopt this rule and to pass the bill . 
i will be addressing just one particular topic which has been controversial in committee discussions and will be the subject of an amendment later on , and that is turning the clock back on the civil rights act of 1964 and changing what it says . 
those who are opposed to this bill on that ground believe that somehow it is wrong to allow religious institutions to receive federal funds for programs that benefit the public at large , are not restricted to people of particular faith but are operated by organizations that are religiously based . 
i have listened carefully to the debate in the committee . 
we have had this same debate several times in committee . 
i have yet to understand precisely what the objections are , but it seems that opponents are afraid of two things : one , that this provision in the bill somehow will allow these organizations to discriminate on other grounds in their hiring , which is , first , contrary to the civil rights act , and second , i would say religious organizations are the least likely to discriminate on the basis of race or any of the other forbidden categories . 
the other objection appears to be that somehow these churches are going to use this federal money to try to proselytize , to get people in these programs and then they will say , okay , now is n't this wonderful , you should join this church . 
i would like to say , that is also not true . 
it just does not happen . 
i can speak from my personal experience . 
when my wife and i moved to grand rapids , michigan , in 1966 to take on a new position , we looked for a church . 
in fact , we spent 3 months trying out different churches , looking , trying to find a certain something : we wanted a church in the inner city because we wanted to be able to contribute to solving the problems of the city of grand rapids , particularly in the inner city . 
and so we joined eastern avenue christian reformed church because of its location and because of the attitude of its people . 
they worked very hard in the community . 
as an example , they established a community center . 
there was none at that time either federally funded , state funded , or city funded . 
the church stepped in and started it . 
it was on the top story of a ramshackle building which housed a small convenience store in the lower floor . 
it grew slowly at first , but then took off . 
today it is a large community center , one of the best , if not the best , in the city . 
they purchased a school which was being abandoned , filled up that school , and they now have just successfully completed a $ 2.5 million capital drive to add on to their facilities and improve them . 
our church started that . 
we did have and still largely do have religious restrictions on the hiring of individuals , but the facility serves all people in that community . 
it has brought in medical care workers of all faiths to work and provide medical care and dental care for the recipients in that community . 
we started a housing program which turned into the inner city christian federation , and we spun off this organization as well as baxter community center , but they are still largely faith-based organizations . 
iccf , the inner city christian federation , developed housing programs , and they had built many houses before habitat for humanity started in our community ; but iccf has built and remodeled more houses than almost any organization within the city that i am aware of . 
again , it is faith-based . 
the employees are hired partially on the basis of their faith and their commitment to serving in the inner city and often work for less pay than they could get elsewhere . 
our church , not our individual congregation , but our denomination started a mental health institution , pine rest , years ago because the people of our church and of our community were not getting adequate mental care . 
today it is one of the largest mental health hospitals in our nation . 
it serves many people of different faiths and of no faith , but it is a faith-based institution because their treatment modalities are based , to a large extent , on our beliefs about the nature of people and their interaction with each other . 
it has been very successful . 
it has received millions upon millions of dollars of aid from the federal government , from the state through community mental health funds and from the local community . 
no one has ever said a word about this , that using federal money for this is improper . 
the reason is simply that pine rest provides services that really are unequaled anywhere else . 
and so they have received federal dollars through medicaid and through medicare , and state dollars through community mental health . 
it is an outstanding operation . 
then , finally , something we have ongoing in our church right now . 
every saturday , i wish you could visit our church ; you would see people of all races , all colors , all faiths walking in the church basement which we have stocked with food that we have collected from different stores , warehouses and so forth : produce , baked goods , and many different types of perishable food . 
we have purchased a truck to go around and collect this on fridays . 
and saturday morning anyone from that city can walk in with no test of their faith , no means test , they can just walk in and say , i need some groceries , and they go through the line . 
we charge them roughly 10 cents on the dollar because we think it is a good thing for them to feel they have bought something ; but a family of four can buy a week 's worth of groceries for about $ 10 . 
that is a good deal . 
it is staffed by people from our church and from other churches , and it is a very successful operation . 
if we adopt the scott amendment , which we will be discussing later , we simply could not do that . 
there is one other factor here as well , and that is every church that i am aware of does not have a surplus of money . 
the people that they hire have to do many different jobs . 
that is true in our church as well . 
we have hired individuals who work in the church . 
those individuals not only operate programs such as the food program , or getting community centers started , but they also have duties within the church and by necessity , and clearly within the intent of the civil rights act , they are performing religious duties . 
a church can not go out and afford to hire a different person to run each different program . 
you have to be multifaceted to be on the staff of a church , and that is precisely what we have in our church . 
for these reasons , and many others i could enumerate , i urge the congress to pass this rule and this bill , and to defeat the scott amendment , so that churches and faith-based organizations of other sorts can continue to do their good work for the people of this country without fear of their programs being damaged because they would have to hire additional personnel who do not have a faith compatible with the organization . 
i believe the system as we have it now , and have had it since the 1964 civil rights act , has worked , it has worked well , and i urge that we keep it that way and not adopt the scott amendment . 
