Mark Souder: “Earlier this week, President George Bush announced his faith-based initiatives office and different proposals that he…”

“Earlier this week, President George Bush announced his faith-based initiatives office and different proposals that he will be sending down to Congress. Earlier today, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts), who has been a leader in this effort, and Senator Rick Santorum, along with the gentlewoman from Kentucky (Mrs. Northup) and myself, and Senators Tim Hutchinson and Sam Brownback held a press conference with a number of leaders from Michigan, Florida, and other places around the United States to highlight some of these initiatives. There are a number of questions that I wanted to address here as we prepare to analyze and hopefully report the President's package and add different things we have considered here in the House and Senate to it as well. First and foremost, this is not a new idea. Former Congressman and Senator Dan Coats, when he was in the House, had a number of these initiatives. In the Senate, the Agenda for American Renewal. Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp had a number of faith-based initiatives there because a lot of people would not reach out and care for those with AIDS.”