Mike Farris:
My guest is Representative Pete Hoekstra from Michigan, who is the chief sponsor of H.R. 97, which is a proposed constitutional amendment to protect parental rights. Pete, welcome to the program.

Congressman Pete Hoekstra:
Hey, Mike. It’s good to be with you.

Mike:
Why is that you’ve decided to introduce this constitutional amendment?

Congressman Hoekstra:
Well, Mike, we’ve both taken a look at some of the rulings that have gone out in our courts and then the recent court case in California that really undermined parental rights. You and I and many others are very committed to making sure that our parents are the primary individuals responsible for educating our kids and setting the direction for our kids and values and those types of things. That’s why this constitutional amendment is necessary now—to preserve that right into the future.

Mike:
What do you think the timing of this amendment will be? We’re coming up on a presidential election. Is your desire to build momentum now and try to move it later, or where are we going?

Congressman Hoekstra:
What we really want to do is we want to build awareness of the problem right now; get people aware of this issue, get them thinking about it so we can really build momentum in the next Congress, the 111th Congress, introducing it with hopefully 120 co-sponsors, both Republicans and Democrats.

Mike:
Thanks so much. I’m Mike Farris.