David Obey: “what this perfecting amendment does is to restore with some minor changes the basic thrust of the committee language.…”

“what this perfecting amendment does is to restore with some minor changes the basic thrust of the committee language. Let me explain why I do this. Two weeks ago, I appointed a young man to the Air Force Academy. One week later, he was killed by a drunken driver. Now, if that young man had been fortunate enough to live so that he could have gone to the Academy, I would want his parents, his family and his community, to know that the Academy that he was going to is one which will allow him to practice whatever religion he believed, without any kind of coercion, either from other cadets or from anyone in the chain of command at the Academy. I do not think that is too much to expect. I understand the gentleman from California is unhappy because he considers this to be an authorizing issue. Well, the fact is the authorizing committee had an opportunity to deal with similar language, not identical but similar language, when they considered the authorization bill, and they declined to do so.…”