Draft Recommendations on the Faith-Based Initiative
Made Today to the Advisory Council~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The "Reform of the Office" task force made draft
recommendations today to President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood
Partnerships, advocating clarification and some modifications of the
church-state rules that currently govern the use of federal funds by
faith-based and secular organizations. Although
these rules are sometimes said to have been created by the Bush faith-based
initiative, other important sources are the Clinton-era "Charitable Choice
laws," the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and various U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
The question of restricting religious hiring when federal
funds are involved is reserved to the President and was not discussed.
The Reform of the Office task force is one of six task forces. At today's Council meeting, all of the task forces reported their draft recommendations, which were discussed by the Council members. The task forces next will reformulate the recommendations in light of the discussions. Over the
next few months, after receiving the final recommendations, the Council will decide whether to accept, reject, or modify
the proposals from each task force, and then, early in the new year, will
report its recommendations to the President.
The draft statement from the Reform of the Office task force:
- Recommended new terminology and examples to explain that
federal funds awarded directly to faith-based groups cannot be used for
"explicitly religious activities," although such activities can be offered on a
voluntary basis, separately from the federally funded program.
- Advocates broad adoption of the principles of a Bush
administration document, "Safeguards Required."
The document stems from a court case in which a faith-based organization
was found to have violated the requirement of the Bush administration
regulations that inherently religious activities be kept separate from the
services directly supported by federal funds.
- Did not agree with some task force members, who proposed
that religious symbols should have to be removed or hidden if a room is used to
provide federally funded services. No
such recommendation was made.
- Recommended that government should make it easier for
groups to obtain 501(c)(3) status. Task
force members favor encouraging churches and other houses of worship to
consider how to create the appropriate church-state separation if they seek
government funds to provide services.
But there was no agreement that there is only one way to fulfill the
constitutional requirements and to safeguard the autonomy of the houses of
worship.
- Proposed that beneficiaries should be able to ask for an
alternative service provider if they object to a faith-based provider-expanding
to all federally funded social services a protection that currently is in
programs with Charitable Choice language.
- Advocated action to reassure the public and grant
applicants that officials of the faith-based initiative do not make, and do not
influence, funding decisions. Another
recommendation seeks to remove even the appearance that the faith-based
initiative might be misused for partisan ends.
- Recommended that federal officials should make it clear
that the initiative is concerned about more than federal funding and is
intended also to promote nonfinancial governmental encouragement of and
partnerships with community groups.
- Recommended that federal officials should emphasize that
most federal funding is awarded to private groups by state or local officials,
not out of Washington DC, and that the federal church-state rules accompany the
federal money.
- Advocated that there should be better monitoring of
private groups that receive federal funds to make sure that all the rules, both
church-state and other standards, are respected.
- Advocated that it should be easier to find the rules and
guidance that apply to federally funded services, and to discover which
organizations won the awards.
- Recommended, in order to help faith-based organizations
decide which programs might be suitable, that officials should make it clear up
front which programs are funded "directly" by government and which are funded
"indirectly" and thus permit religious activities to be offered as part of the
government-funded service.
The draft recommendations will be posted on the soon-to-be unveiled website of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Members of the public are invited to submit comments on the
recommendations.
Five other task forces also reported recommendations to the
Advisory Council. The other task forces
are these: Fatherhood and healthy families; Global poverty and development;
Inter-religious cooperation; Environmental and climate change; Economic
recovery and domestic poverty. Their
draft recommendations also will be posted later.
