Matteo Renzi: “our nation's faith-based institutions have significant track records in meeting the training and counseling needs of…”

“our nation's faith-based institutions have significant track records in meeting the training and counseling needs of citizens seeking employment. The services provided by faith-based institutions will be a vital component to help our nation's workforce, increasing the ability of job seekers to get needed training, counseling, and prevocational services. Unfortunately, liberal special interest groups have joined forces behind an effort to bar religious and faith-based organizations from being involved with efforts to help workers find jobs and job training. This is disgraceful. Congress should actively encourage any effort to provide unemployed men and women with new jobs, and not look for excuses as to why qualified and proven job counseling advisors should be excluded from helping our nation. During the 1990s, President Bill Clinton supported four laws that explicitly allow religious organizations to retain their right to staff on a religious basis when they receive federal funds--just as Republicans are proposing today. I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, why are you standing now? When you sat silently in support of your past president. This bill simply reiterates the existing exemption religious organizations have had for more than three decades under civil rights law, applying it to the Workforce Investment Act so that every available resource is being tapped to help Americans find jobs.”