Bobby Jindal: “I rise in opposition to the offered amendment. It seems to me in our country right now we have an all-out assault on…”

“I rise in opposition to the offered amendment. It seems to me in our country right now we have an all-out assault on faith-based groups. Just this week, a court in my home State of Louisiana ruled that school boards were prohibited from having voluntary school board member-led prayers to begin their meetings. Now, this very Chamber, the Supreme Court, and many government entities begin their proceedings with a prayer; and along that line I see nothing wrong with us inviting faith-based groups to be partners with the government in training tomorrow's workforce. To me, this debate should be about one and only one thing, and that is how do we provide the most effective training for our future workers? Nobody here is arguing that we should have an unlevel playing field. Nobody here is arguing for favoritism for faith-based groups. Rather, we are simply saying, let us level the playing field. Let us invite those who are motivated by faith to help us to train displaced workers, to train tomorrow's workforce. In my home State of Louisiana, faith-based groups have done a wonderful thing. They have provided health care to those who needed it; they have provided education, housing and shelter to those whose needed it the most. What is next? If you extend the logic of this amendment, what might be next might be those Catholic hospitals not being able to accept Medicare patients.”