With a vote of 365-48, the House passed the Head Start reauthorization bill, and importantly without a religious hiring preference provision that would have allowed providers to hire employees based on religion. As expected, Republicans offered a motion to recommit with instructions to include the faith-based provision. According to CQ ($$), "Republicans defended the hiring amendment as "principled," calling it both a civil rights and civil liberties issue. The Democrats had another word for it: discrimination." Fortunately the motion to recommit failed with a vote of 195-222. However, the bill was amended to add language stating that;

"the history and importance of allowing faith-based and community-based organizations to participate in Head Start programs and, explicitly, that they will continue to be eligible to participate on the same basis as other organizations."

Republicans felt that this was a "fake" faith-based amendment and simply an attempt to gain political cover for the support of religious organizations. In the Senate, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) has introduced the Head Start for School Readiness Act, S.556, without any such religious preference measure.

According to CQ, ($$) the White House expressed strong opposition to the Head Start reauthorization bill (HR 1429) that the House is expected to vote on today. The administration issued a statement that urges Congress to preserve Head Start's National Reporting System and to amend the bill to give hiring exemptions to faith-based groups. "The Administration strongly encourages the House to amend H.R. 1429 to ensure that faith-based organizations are not asked to forfeit their religious hiring autonomy as a condition of receiving Head Start grants." OMB Watch opposes this discriminatory measure.