John Danforth: “The amendment that has been offered by the Senator from North Carolina would be a Federal mandate to the State and local…”

“The amendment that has been offered by the Senator from North Carolina would be a Federal mandate to the State and local governments relating to prayer in school. It would say that local governments and local school boards must permit voluntary prayer in school or else they lose Federal money. This amendment by contrast is not a mandate. It is a statement of position by Members of the Senate, a sense-of-the-Senate amendment. But it does not mandate how local school districts must act. It does not offer money or withhold the money depending on what is done by a local school district. It allows local school districts to make their own decisions about whether in that school district voluntary prayer should be allowed or not. It also allows flexibility for those school districts to tailor whatever they are doing according to what the law is. Furthermore, it does not fall into the trap of the Helms amendment which is the trap that is in the very last sentence of the Helms amendment which says, in effect, that local school districts cannot have any control over the form of prayer in their schools which would mean presumably that any student could arise from his seat any time of day and do anything that he or she wanted to do in the name of prayer, out loud, in a belligerent way, whatever. This is, therefore, much less directive. It is not directive.”