Ernest Istook: “Mr. Chairman, this bill at the same time represents some of the best things and some of the worst things in this…”

“Mr. Chairman, this bill at the same time represents some of the best things and some of the worst things in this Congress. I appreciate the bipartisan cooperation working with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) on a couple of things that are in this bill. To say that when the Federal Government is purchasing computers that go in public schools and we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars for that, that we want to make sure that filters are on that so that they are not being exposed to Internet pornography through a computer paid for by taxpayers, that is a bipartisan effort. That is in here. That is good. We also have in here an expansion of the Federal programs trying to promote abstinence among teenagers. If you want to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies and births, tell kids that they ought to be waiting until marriage. We have had hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars in Federal money teaching a so-called safe sex message.”