December 12 2002, 10:35 AM PST
PHILADELPHIA -- President Bush signed executive orders today he said will "stop unfair treatment of religious charities by the federal government" by making it easier for them to seek federal money.
Hoping to involve churches and religious organizations more deeply in government efforts to address social ills, Bush signed executive orders aimed at giving those groups a leg up in the competition for federal money. He announced the changes in a speech to religious and charitable leaders meeting here.
"If a charity is helping the needy, it should not matter if there is a rabbi on the board or a cross or a crescent on the wall or a religious commitment in the charter," he said. "The days of discriminating against religious groups just because they are religious are coming to an end."
Bush was interrupted repeatedly by applause and "amens."
The president began pushing the issue on Capitol Hill in his second week in office but ran into a fierce debate over how religious groups could get government money without running afoul of the constitutional separation of church and state.
He was successful in the House but the Senate wouldn't give him even a watered-down version that mainly increased tax breaks for charitable giving.
Though he faces a more friendly Republican-controlled Congress next year, Bush decided to forge ahead on his own.
By far the most contentious of the changes is Bush's executive order informing federal agencies that religious organizations refusing to hire people of different faiths can still win contracts. He did not have the authority, however, to make that policy clear in the federal grant-making process.
Additionally, new regulations being unveiled today from the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Housing and Urban Development also preserve the right of religious groups providing certain government-financed services to hire based on religion.
Bush's directive tells federal agencies to make sure religious groups are treated equally with others in all respects, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Federal contractors also can no longer be denied federal money for displaying religious icons, such as a cross or a menorah.
"The president believes that people in America who have been left behind deserve every shot at making it in America and believes that these barriers serve as an impediment to people making it," Fleischer said.
The hiring issue was one of the central disputes as lawmakers considered Bush's proposals before, and it prompted criticism today. Civil rights law bars discrimination on the basis of religion, but constitutional problems arise when government money is involved.
"It is simply wrong for federal contractors to discard the resumes of people with names that sound 'too Jewish' or 'too Muslim' when hiring substance abuse counselors and other professionals with government money," National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Ira N. Forman said.
"Bush is giving his official blessing to publicly funded religious discrimination," said The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Bush's aim is to give religious groups as fair a shake as any others, and similar regulations governing private groups providing government-funded welfare-to-work services have functioned without problems since 1996, responded Jim Towey, the director of the White House office of faith-based and community initiatives.
Also, the executive order restates that organizations cannot use federal funds to preach a particular faith, worship or provide religious instruction, Towey noted.
"The wall he wants to tear down is the wall that separates the poor from effective programs," Towey said. "He opposes the funding of religion-- always has. This initiative is about better care for the poor."
For his Philadelphia announcement, Bush chose a presidential-election battleground state with the fifth-largest cache of electoral votes. The visit will be Bush's 17th to Pennsylvania-- the most to any state.
Behind the president's push to expand the role of churches in addressing poverty, hunger, homelessness and drug abuse is his belief that they can be more effective than other groups in helping the needy.
His administration--fueled by religious conservatives who form Bush's political base--contends that religious groups face unfair barriers.
White House officials cited as an example Iowa's Victory Center Rescue Mission, which was threatened with losing $100,000 in federal money because its governing board wasn't secular enough. The officials also pointed to the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in New York, which was told it could not apply for a federal grant because the word "Jewish" was part of its name.