Cliff Stearns: “I have this amendment, and it took quite a bit of expertise on myself and staff to get this so it would be germane, and…”

“I have this amendment, and it took quite a bit of expertise on myself and staff to get this so it would be germane, and I sort of feel that that is one of my accomplishments. I intend to offer this, but then I am going to ask unanimous consent to withdraw it out of great deference to the chairman. The second is to bring it on the House floor and to discuss it so we can put it in the Record so that the Armed Forces, particularly the Air Force, when they talk about the revised interim guidelines concerning free exercise of religion in the Air Force, have an understanding what we in the House believe is appropriate. The amendment is basically saying that none of the funds made available in this act may be used to interpret voluntary religious discussion as official, because within this interim guidelines concerning free exercise of religion the word ``official'' is in the paragraph where we are talking about voluntary worship. Let me read this portion to you: ``Voluntary participation in worship, prayer, study, and discussion is integral to the free exercise of religion.'' Now, that we all agree upon. And then they go on to talk about this voluntary discussion of religion.…”