Luis Fortuno: “the Civil Rights Act of 1964 explicitly protects the rights of faith-based organizations to exercise their civil…”

“the Civil Rights Act of 1964 explicitly protects the rights of faith-based organizations to exercise their civil liberties and take religion into account in their hiring practices. Actually, when faith-based groups hire employees on a religious basis, they are actually exercising their civil liberties. Faith-based organizations cannot be expected to sustain their religion mission without the ability to employ individuals who share the tenets and practices of their faith, because it is that faith that motivates them to serve their neighbors in trouble. {time} 1115 I can tell the Members about this. In my home district of Puerto Rico, I see this all the time. Actually, on the Head Start program in the San Juan metropolitan area, it has been run for years by the Catholic Church. Are we going to tell the Catholic Church whom they can hire and not hire for the good job they are doing? That is exactly what we are trying to do here. Actually, it will make it very difficult, make them liable for hiring practices when, in fact, what they are doing is that they are giving back to society in the way that no government entity can actually give back in the way that these religious organizations are giving back. So essentially going back to my basic argument, since 1964 we have recognized this right of the religious organizations that are involved in these faith-based activities.…”