Frank Riggs: “I do not want people, our colleagues who might be following this debate, to labor under a false impression. Of course…”

“I do not want people, our colleagues who might be following this debate, to labor under a false impression. Of course the Conference of Mayors, of course local officials, are going to go on record as opposing the amendment. They want as few strings attached as possible. We recognize that. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) is right when she says that generally speaking it is the Republican philosophy to decentralize funding and to maximize local control. The problem here is that we are talking about Federal taxpayer funding, not just State and local government funding, but Federal taxpayer funding. My amendment does not jeopardize, as some have attempted to portray, receipt of these funds. The city and county of San Francisco would still get their full allocation of funding under the bill. They just could not use the funding to require that private organizations accept this policy against their fiscal and/or moral objections.”