The bill has 64 co-sponsors, including several Democrats. But the Democratic minority on the House Judiciary Committee inserted this dissenting language into the committee report on the bill:

Today we face the highest budget deficit in our Nation’s history, a national unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and an ongoing mortgage foreclosure crisis. American forces are deployed in combat on several fronts, while our children who–by the very circumstances of their birth–are placed into a cradle-to-prison pipeline. We are also in the midst of reacting to a natural disaster of unimaginable proportions that recently occurred in Japan and the resulting nuclear disaster, which may have worldwide import. Yet, instead of addressing any of these critical issues, and instead of working to help American families keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables, we are debating whether or not to affirm and proliferate a motto that was adopted in 1956 and that is not imperiled in any respect.

Without question, the Judiciary Committee has many important and time-sensitive matters within its purview. The Majority, however, seems intent on diverting the Committee’s time, resources, and attention to a measure that has no force of law, only reaffirms existing law, and further injects the hand of government into the private religious lives of the American people.

By aggressively pursuing a vehicle that places the government in the position of making an affirmatively religious statement, the Majority has transgressed the clear line between government and religion in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. We regret that the Judiciary Committee has needlessly wandered into these dangerous waters, and we respectfully dissent.