[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 29, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND STATE, THE JUDICIARY, AND RELATED 
  AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1995, AND SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS, 
                                  1994

                                 ______


                               speech of

                           HON. GLENN POSHARD

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 27, 1994

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4603) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and 
     State, the Judiciary, and related agencies programs for the 
     fiscal year ending September 30, 1995, and making 
     supplemental appropriations for these departments and 
     agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1994, and 
     for other purposes:

  Mr. POSHARD. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment offered 
by my colleagues which will prohibit funding appropriated for the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission to implement, administer, or enforce 
proposed guidelines that prohibit religious harassment in the 
workplace. I have heard from hundreds of my constituents who fear 
intolerable infringement on their rights under the first amendment 
should the guidelines, as proposed, be finalized, and I agree.
  The proposed guidelines in fact promote a ``religion free'' workplace 
where companies, in order to avoid liability, may arbitrarily prohibit 
any display of a person's religion. In our country, where a primary 
purpose of its Founders was to seek a place of escape from religious 
persecution and harassment, the actions proposed by the EEOC are truly 
ironic and yes, even frightening. Unless the proposed guidelines can be 
revised to demonstrate no possibility of misguidance regarding 
religious harassment in the workplace, I believe the Taylor-Wolf 
amendment is imperative, and I urge Members to support this effort to 
assure every American the right to witness as a Christian or to have 
religious literature or symbols in the workplace.

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