Political Quotes

“it is a fundamental American principle that no citizen should have to pass someone else's religious test to qualify for a tax-funded job. The vast majority of American citizens agree with that principle, and yet this bill would violate that principle, that constitutional provision in the first amendment. In my 12 years in the House, I have never been more deeply offended by the action of the Committee on Rules than with this rule. To deny the Members of the House of Representatives to debate the issue of religious freedom, to be able to apply for a federally funded job without having a religious test given to you by another citizen, to deny us even the right to debate that principle, an issue that Madison and Jefferson thought important enough to embed into the first 16 words of the first amendment of the Bill of Rights, I find deeply offensive, not only to the Members of this House and this institution, but to the American people who agree with the principle that you should not be able to discriminate against people based on religion in order to obtain a federally funded job. I think we lose our moral authority in preaching to the Iraqi citizens about religious freedom and democracy if we, this week, this day in this House of Representatives, in America, vote to say an American citizen can be denied a job for which they are fully qualified, a job funded by their taxes, simply because they were Christian or they were Muslim or they were Jewish.”