Cliff Stearns: “Mr. Speaker, let me address two points. I do not know if my colleague from Massachusetts is still in the Chamber, but…”

“Mr. Speaker, let me address two points. I do not know if my colleague from Massachusetts is still in the Chamber, but this Charitable Choice exists in Federal programs already. In addition, the House has provided passage of Charitable Choice in child support, the Home Ownership Act, Fathers Count Act of 11/10/99, and also the Juvenile Justice bill. So we have four cases where Charitable Choice is already in place. So for folks to come on the House floor and say vote against the rule because this is not fair, this is a great constitutional question, that is not true. However, President Clinton already signed into law four of these Charitable Choice pieces of legislation. Mr. Speaker, I am here because contained in the base bill, I have a bill that was incorporated, and I want to thank the gentleman from California (Chairman Thomas) and the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) for giving consideration to my bill, which repeals the excise tax on the net investment income for private foundations. I would also like to thank my colleagues who have cosponsored this legislation. Though, of course, full repeal of the 2 percent excise tax on private foundations would have been preferable, I want to thank my friends on the Committee on Ways and Means for eliminating the two-tier system and simplifying the tax to a flat 1 percent.”