Federal agencies rewriting rules to boost religious charities

[Derek Gaubatz]

Federal agencies rewriting rules to boost religious charities


http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=16906


WASHINGTON - Congress has yet to approve President Bush's faith-based
initiative, but the administration is preparing to rewrite federal
regulations and hand out millions of dollars for social services to
religious groups.

At the Department of Health and Human Services, a new pot of money is aimed
at helping small churches and other religious groups break into government
grants. Officials say there's no problem using tax dollars for a program in
which prayer is central, a point that Congress has refused to endorse.

The administration takes a broad view of the constitutional separation
between church and state. If tax dollars are used for secular elements of
the program - like a computer or a van - the rest can have a religious base,
said Robert Polito, director of the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives.

"We wouldn't be called the faith-based office if we weren't trying to see
how we can partner with the faith community," he said. "We don't have to
take the temperature of the religiosity of the program."

At the same time, the director of the White House faith-based office, Jim
Towey, said no decisions have been made about the guidelines. No matter
what, the government will not pay for prayer, he said.

*   *   *

Congressional action on Bush's effort is stalled over these questions: How
much religion is too much when government money is involved? Can government
pay for secular elements of a program that also includes religion? Should
government-funded religious groups be able to consider religion in hiring?

The House approved a bill with most of what Bush wanted. In the Senate,
however, supporters have failed to get a vote on even the watered-down
version of the bill they introduced.

In the meantime, HHS is writing rules on its own, and other agencies are
preparing to do the same.


*  *  *

"The administration seems to say, 'We couldn't get the votes in Congress, so
we're going to hijack every dollar we can and move it into faith-based
ministries,' " said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for
the Separation of Church and State.

At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, officials are set to
rewrite regulations governing eight grant programs that now bar religious
groups if they are unwilling to hire people of all faiths. "That creates an
impediment to faith-based organizations that's unnecessary," said Steven
Wagner, director of HUD's "faith-based" office.

Education Department officials say a new federal law on after-school
programs allows groups to use religion in their hiring decisions. That
prompted protests from Democrats who say they specifically barred this
discrimination under a carefully negotiated compromise.

"Unfortunately, the department's draft guidance interpretation ...
effectively nullifies this compromise language," [said] Sen. Edward Kennedy.

* *  *

Initiatives also are advancing at the Justice and Labor departments.
However, the effort is moving most dramatically at HHS, where there is new
money to spend.

Last year, Congress allocated $30 million for technical assistance to help
religious groups learn how to apply for government money.

HHS added a twist when it invited applications for the money. The groups
that win large grants can pass unlimited amounts of them to small religious
groups, which may use the money for startup costs and "operations" - in
essence, running programs to address a wide range of social problems with no
congressional guidance on the church vs. state issue.

Even the House bill, which included much of what Bush wanted, would require
that programs separate their religious elements, so those who wish to
participate in the secular part alone can do so.

HHS is making no such requirement, said Polito, who ran an urban ministry in
New York before coming to the agency. Polito also set up Faith Works in
Milwaukee, a program partly struck down by a federal court for failing to
separate religious and secular parts of its programming.

Polito said that without congressional permission, HHS may not have the
power to require a separation.

Further, Polito said, programs need not open their work force to people of
all faiths and they need not set up separate corporations to handle the
government money, although the department recommends it.

He said HHS plans to award 25 grants out of 562 applicants by the end of
September.

It all makes for a "giant faith-based slush fund," Lynn said. The program
was never supposed to be funding individual churches, he said. "I think
that's a real scandal."