Frank Riggs: “the headline says ``The Salvation Army has decided to end its contracts with San Francisco and shrink programs serving…”

“the headline says ``The Salvation Army has decided to end its contracts with San Francisco and shrink programs serving the homeless, drug addicts and the elderly because of a dispute over the city's domestic partners law. Some, if not most, or even all of this funding originated with Federal taxpayers and was appropriated by this body, in this annual spending bill, as well as other annual spending bills. What I want my colleagues to know is that the city law provides for a specific exemption, a sole provider exemption, otherwise known as a waiver, and that the city and county of San Francisco, upon the recommendation of the city's Human Rights Commission, has granted a number of waivers to private contractors doing business with the city of San Francisco, including Blue Cross, Encyclopedia Britannica, the U.S. Tennis Association, Lawrence Hall, Paramount, the large corporation that operates two amusement parks in the San Francisco Bay area so that 9,000 underprivileged kids living in San Francisco could go to those amusement parks this summer; yet it refused to grant a waiver to the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities. So, Mr. Chairman, I think this is an appropriate debate to take. I think we should take a stand.…”