Mark Souder

H.R. 1651, introduced by the gentleman from California (Mr. Radanovich), provides for the exchange of lands within the Sierra National Forest, California, and for other purposes. The bill would exchange 160 acres of Forest Service…

I thank all the sponsors of the bill that went into this historic omnibus. It is very important that we preserve the natural sites but also the tremendous history of our country, the oil, the National Aviation Heritage out of Dayton…

I share the gentleman from New Jersey's concerns about the permitting process with guides and outfitters. I think we have reached a compromise that will enable this bill to move forward, but I do trust that the Fish and Wildlife Service…

We do not know the way this is going. People in my hometown who have worked all their career building furniture, all of a sudden are put out from somebody from Federal Prison Industries. It shows graphically, if one visualizes it, what if…

We are about to mark up in the Committee on Government Reform a new defense procurement act, as is Armed Services; and I am trying to understand, again, as the Department of Defense came and talked with those of us on the committee last…

Or they would like to bid for, say, military training base equipment at a housing unit, tables, sofas, other things, file cabinets, whatever it is; and they go in, and because of the points that are in effect given to prison industries…

I know the gentleman is a little more liberal than I am in some of this. I do not believe they should be competing at all. It is particularly absurd to say that they are going to get a price advantage, and they get the regulations relaxed…

You are far more informed on this because I clearly got involved because I had a company that got immediately impacted and was outraged by the injustice. Do they have any criteria and does the Justice Department have any response when you…

Let me take a guess. Let me take a wild guess. When a company closes and jobs are laid off in an individual's district and they say, why are they laid off? And they say it is competition from Prison Industries?

I think the first fundamental question here is do we have a compelling national interest. When we look at an issue like this, if we do not have a compelling national interest in Colombia, where would we have a compelling national interest…

House Resolution 202 expresses the sense of Congress that the President should establish a Summer Emergency Blood Donor Month to encourage eligible donors in the United States to donate blood. Although we just celebrated Labor Day, which…

It is critical, not because of what is happening in Colombia, but because 67 to 80 percent of all the crime in every Member's district is drug-related. We should not cut back our efforts when we know where the coca is being grown; we know…

In doing so we hope to recapture some of the vision and excitement of the space program for Americans as we enter the 21st century. It is by no means an exaggeration to say that the landing was one of the most significant events in human…

I am aware that we have directly banned abortion funding, but the question and what we have tried to address and what this language tries to address is fungible funding. The argument of many of us is that in an organization that on the one…

Amendment No. 75 offered by Mr. Souder: Page 107, after line 21, insert the following: TITLE VIII--ADDITIONAL GENERAL PROVISIONS Sec. 801. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be made available for…

It is very easy to feel guilty in this job, unless you are a very kind of hard-skinned person. Many of us tend to blame any problems we have with our kids on the fact that we are separated at times, when, in fact, we might still have those…

I accepted an amendment that in my opinion was already covered by the bill under the establishment clause, but this clarified that. Obviously the gentleman's concern is the guts of my bill, which would allow faith-based organizations to…

I would agree to such an amendment and believe it is consistent with what we have been doing all the way along and consistent with court decisions that we cannot discriminate among recipients.

Nonprofit organizations are already covered under the Tax Code, because under religious freedom in the United States, one is allowed to exercise freedom of religion. What this does would leave the discretion to the Department of HUD, as…

The gentleman is aware, as we debated a number of times, that there are multiple rulings if it is used to teach primarily sectarian doctrine. In other words, if you teach religious doctrine, the courts clearly ruled. However, if one is…

My understanding of this, and there are only a couple of exceptions which we could get into if we wanted to, but in this grant, there would not be an exception, and that is that one cannot discriminate on who one covers, nor can one force…

We believe that CHARACTER COUNTS! in personal relationships, in school, at the workplace, and in life.

The CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition hopes to combat violence, irresponsibility and dishonesty while strengthening the character of the next generation.

We need to encourage efforts to implement such programs.

It is important that we continue to encourage such creative flexibility.