Sen. Kennedy Condemns Restrictions on Legal Services - Nonprofit Issues

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Published: 06/02/2003

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Sen. Kennedy Condemns Restrictions on Legal Services

Every year the federal appropriations for legal services carries a rider imposing a host of restrictions on legal services grantees, including an extension of these restrictions to funds from other sources. On May 19, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) made a statement in the Congressional Record condemning the restrictions, noting that the “results have been devastating.” (See 149 Cong. Rec. S6598-03).

Legal aid programs that wish to spend private dollars on class action lawsuits, lobby, comment on proposed regulations or represent certain types of clients, such as prisoners or certain immigrants, must set up physically separate offices with separate staff. Senator Kennedy called this practice inconsistent with the President’s faith-based initiative, since regulations and Executive Orders issued by the administration allow religious organizations to carry on federally funded programs in the same facility and staff used for their private religious activities.

The Bush administration is defending the legal services restrictions in a lawsuit (Dobbins v. Legal Services Corporation) brought by the Brennan Center for Justice, which is representing legal services programs in New York City that claim the extra expense of physically separate facilities is resulting in wasted resources and services for fewer clients. The rationale given by the administration for the restrictions is that allowing private dollar activities to take place in the same facility as government funded activity would amount to an indirect subsidy of the private effort. However, in the faith-based initiative the administration has argued the exact opposite, claiming that grants to religious organizations do not constitute a subsidy for religion if government funded services are offered at a separate time and place from religious services, even within the same facility.

For more information on the Dobbins case see OMB Watch’s Court Hears Arguments in Challenge to Legal Aid Restrictions.