Kendrick Meek: “this is an outrage. I got religion in a lean-to many years ago, so there is very little my colleagues can tell me about…”

“this is an outrage. I got religion in a lean-to many years ago, so there is very little my colleagues can tell me about faith based. But they can say to me that they want to discriminate, and I can hear that in whatever language they speak it in. Mr. Speaker, the other side of the aisle is giving a set-aside. That is what my colleagues are doing. It is a set-aside with Federal funds for religious organizations, and it is a subterfuge. It is a set-aside on civil rights. It is well-intended. There are some good people behind this bill, and there were some good people behind slavery. We do not want that to happen again. We have to watch this. There is no one in this Congress that is more faith based than I am, so I should have every reason to support H.R. 7. But, Mr. Speaker, I am afraid of this bill. Some of the little churches in my community are going to be misguided and misrepresented; and, before we know it, they will be in Federal court because of some of my colleagues' foolishness trying to spread out and do something. Mr. Speaker, why are my colleagues doing this bill? There is only one reason. It is a subterfuge.”