Faith-based Initiative

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News

Committee Votes Down Faith-Based Hiring Amendment to Head Start Bill 03/20/2007
On March 14, the House Education and Labor Committee approved the Improving Head Start Act of 2007 (H.R.1429) after defeating an amendment that would have allowed faith-based organizations to hire teachers for the Head Start program based on religion. Attempts to insert such language into Head Start were unsuccessful in the past. This is the first time the issue has come up in the 110th Congress. The controversial provision was defeated 26-19 on a party line vote, and the overall bill passed 42-1. However, the amendment could be brought up again when the bill is considered on the House floor, which may occur before Congress' April recess. Read More

Federal Court Allows Salvation Army to Consider Employees' Faith 10/18/2005
A federal court opinion permitting the Salvation Army to consider the faith of employees hired for government- funded projects is being touted as a victory by proponents of President Bush's faith-based initiative, claiming it legitimizes the administration's stance. Yet, opponents of the Bush faith-based initiative are not entirely sure the court decision is a loss. Read More

Early Reports of FEMA Reimbursement Policy Misleading 10/04/2005
Early reports about the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursements to faith-based groups for their hurricane relief services were misleading and lacked essential details. At a press conference last week, FEMA announced that it will reimburse churches and faith-based groups; however, this is simply an extension of its Public Assistance Program that currently provides funding to private nonprofit groups that have provided food, shelter and supplies to victims of Hurricane Katrina at the agency's request. A Sept. 27 Washington Post story gave the impression that only faith-based groups would receive such reimbursements, prompting some protest.

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Debate Over Grants Rules Heats Up as Groups Lose Funds, Challenge Policy 09/06/2005
DKT International, a Washington-based charitable organization, has filed suit against the U.S. government over a grant condition that dictates organizations adopt a specific policy statement, while a second organization has lost federal funding as a result of a suit brought for noncompliance with grants rules for faith-based organizations. Both developments point to important issues in federal grants rules, the first challenging the degree to which government may dictate privately funded speech, the other demonstrating the practical problem of separating privately funded religious content from publicly funded programming. Read More

Study Finds Little Oversight of Religious Content or Client Choice in Gov't-Funded Programs 08/08/2005
An Urban Institute study of the Bush administration's Faith Based Initiative, found that, while many faith-based organizations (FBOs) are integral service providers, they often lack established benchmarks and have little oversight at the state, local and federal levels, regarding religious content and the ability of clients to choose an alternative provider. Read More

Bill Would Make Faith-Based Offices Permanent 05/18/2005
Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives on March 2 would make the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (H.R. 1054) and ten similar federal agency offices a permanent part of the federal government. The Tools for Community Initiatives Act, sponsored by Rep. Mark Green (R-WI), establishes the offices and outlines their responsibilities. It does not include portions of current regulations that address how religious groups handle federal grants. Instead, these issues are included in a non-binding “Sense of Congress” section, which does not address the issue of hiring on the basis of religion for federally funded jobs. Read More

Court Says AmeriCorps Teachers in Catholic Schools Allowed to Receive Subsidies 03/21/2005
On March 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that taxpayer funds can subsidize volunteer instructors that teach in religious schools. The ruling reversed a July 2, 2004 decision by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, who admonished the government for failing to monitor programs sufficiently to ensure compliance with the law and called the line between secular and religious activities "completely blurred." The American Jewish Congress (AJC) may appeal the decision. Read More

Faith-Based Roundup 03/07/2005

House Vote on Jobs Act Would Codify Religious Discrimination, Opponents Await Senate Vote

On March 3, the House approved H.R. 27, the Job Training Improvement Act, which would allow publicly funded religious agencies to hire and fire workers based on their religious beliefs. A coalition of organizations had urged the House to reject the bill unless it was amended to ensure that workers could not be discriminated against on religious grounds in federally supported social service programs. Read More

Court Rules on Key Issues on Funding Faith-Based Groups 01/24/2005
A Jan. 11 ruling by a federal district court judge in Wisconsin in a complex case challenging the federal faith-based initiative has blocked funding to a program that incorporated religious content into government funded activities, but dismissed a claim that another program discriminated against secular nonprofits in awarding subgrants. Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Towey may be appealed by both sides. Read More

Congress Faces First Faith-Based Issues of 2005 01/24/2005

A Quarter of HUDÕs Budget Slashed in BushÕs Budget

The Bush administration, in a drastic reversal of election promises, plans to cut $8 billion in funding at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in programs often administered by faith-based organizations, resulting in a reduction of the agencyÕs $31 billion budget by almost a quarter. Read More

Administration Will Step Up Faith-Based Efforts 01/10/2005
Despite budget cuts for social service programs, Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives told a recent Pew Charitable Trusts conference on religion and social policy that the administration will push its faith-based agenda in the 109th Congress. Read More

AU Sues to Block Funding for California Missions 12/13/2004
On Dec. 2, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) filed a lawsuit in federal court to block taxpayer funding for restoration of mission churches in California. The suit charges that the recently passed “California Missions Preservation Act” is tantamount to taxpayer-supported religion. Read More

Court Narrows Faith-Based Suit 11/30/2004
A law suit claiming sweeping constitutional problems with the Bush administration's faith-based initiative has been largely defanged by a court's decision that the plaintiff does not have standing to file the suit. The dismissal of all but a small portion of a lawsuit means the merits of the case remain undecided in the courts. Read More

New Rules, Empty Pockets: Funding Faith-Based Services in a Time of Fiscal Uncertainty 11/02/2004
Three executive orders have created centers for the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in many federal agencies. Booklets have been published which provide guidance to faith-based groups on how to get federal funding, and the government has held a series of educational conferences and a catalog of grant opportunities. Recently, both USAID and HUD published final rules implementing a policy ensuring that faith-based organizations are able to compete on equal footing with other organizations for funding. So why has funding for faith-based organizations in the social service system at the state and local levels deteriorated recently? A new report by the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy details the funding problems of the "Faith-Based Initiative." Read More

Bush Expands Faith-Based Initiative to Vouchers, State Control 09/21/2004
In an effort to further weaken the wall separating church and state, President Bush is seeking to expand his faith-based initiative to the state and local levels. He is pushing state and local governments to adopt rules and policies similar to federal regulations that favor faith-based groups in government-funded programs. Read More

Bush Pushes Faith-Based Initiative Without New Authority 08/23/2004
The absence of new legislative authority has not deterred the Bush administration from using its executive powers to widely implement its Faith-Based Initiative throughout the federal government. That is the finding of a new report by the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy documents. Read More

AmeriCorps Programs Violate Separation of Church and State 07/12/2004
On July 6, a federal court judge ruled that AmeriCorps must stop funding programs that place volunteers in Catholic schools. Read More

Politics-and-Religion Issue Surfaces in Congress, Campaign 06/15/2004
The House Ways and Means Committee rejected a provision inserted into the jobs bill by House Republican leadership on June 14. It would have allowed religious organizations to violate the ban on partisan election activity without losing their tax-exempt status and was introduced shortly after the Bush campaign was criticized for e-mailing messages to supporters seeking help with re-election campaigns by recruiting "friendly congregations." Those messages were sent the same day the President announced expansion of his faith-based initiative, including $1.1 billion in grant funds. As a result of press attention to the pending legislation, the IRS took the unprecedented step of sending a letter to all political parties reminding them that current law prohibits partisan activity by charities, including religious organizations.
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Church Electioneering Provision Added to Jobs Bill 06/07/2004
The House Ways and Means Committee will vote Monday June 14 on a bill that would give religious organizations a huge margin of error when they "unintentionally" engage in illegal partisan election activity. Section 692 of the bill, American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (HR 4520), reduces penalties for "unintentional violations" of the IRS ban on partisan activity by religious groups. Religious groups with no more than three violations in one calendar year will be shielded from revocation of their tax-exempt status and instead be charged minor fines.
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Welfare Re-Authorization Fails in the Senate 04/05/2004
The Senate failed to pass the reauthorization of the 1996 Welfare Reform bill last week. Regardless of the bill’s noted importance, members of the Senate could not agree on many issues within the bill. Read More

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