Jerry Nadler: “I simply wanted to make a number of observations on this bill. One, this bill does afford to religious institutions and…”

“I simply wanted to make a number of observations on this bill. One, this bill does afford to religious institutions and to nonreligious charitable institutions the same protection. If someone in good faith gives a charitable contribution, whether to a church or the American Cancer Society, the trustee in bankruptcy, if the person subsequently declares bankruptcy, should not go into the church or to the Cancer Society or the Lung Society, whatever it may be, and try to get them to repay the money. That is what this bill does. It sets up those protections. The second thing I want to say, in light of what I said earlier about the history of this bill, the religious liberty protections, is that some of us in this House are very strong advocates of separation of church and State. I will be opposing the so-called Istook amendment on the floor later in the week. We do believe very strongly in the separation of church and State, but we also believe that government should not be hostile to religion and government should be accommodating to people with religious beliefs and also to people with charitable intentions, and this legislation is very much in that direction.”