dditions to the "Community Solutions Act" passed recently by congress that went unnoticed even during debate on the House floor would give Cabinet secretaries the power to convert up to $47 billion in funds into vouchers which participants could use for religion-based social services.

   "They got this one right by us," one Capitol Hill aide told AANEWS earlier today. "This provision went in during the mark-up session, and they circulated copies just 24-hours before the debate on HR 7, and we didn't see it coming."

   A spokesperson in the office of Rep. C. Bobby Scott (D-West Virginia) said that while lawmakers were focusing on the wider issues of faith-based funding, "This provision was totally overlooked."

   Word of the new addition broke in stories carried by Associated Press. It fulfills a White House pledge to increase the number of key government departments that would open not only "faith" liaison offices to encourage the involvement of religion-based groups in social programs, but their budgets as well.

   Laura Meckler of AP noted that the measure was added, "in response to conservatives angry that the House bill does not allow direct funding to groups that include religion in their programs... All sides agree that this 'indirect funding' of religious groups is more constitutionally sound than direct funding, since it keeps government one step removed from the church."

   "They alienated a lot of people who should have been enthusiastic supporters of the bill," said Michael Schwartz, a lobbyist with the Concerned Women for America, a group that promotes a "Biblical agenda" in politics. In lieu of more directing government funding of religious groups, the new arrangement of expanded "vouchers" was "a very strong plus," Schwartz added.

   Under the scheme, federal department heads could convert tens of billions of dollars in social spending into "vouchers," which are then given to participants for use in either religious or secular programs. A similar strategy has been used in the effort to fund Parochial and other religious schools, where vouchers and "scholarships" are given to parents, who then presumably "choose" how to spend the money. Under this argument, the social service client -- not a church or other faith-based group -- becomes the beneficiary.

   Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention gushed, "Voucherization really does, almost like a magic wand, make most of the church-state issues that are so thorny disappear."

   "There has been no thought given to this voucher authority," warned Rep. Scott. "It was just stuck in there. They figure they can get money passed around through the back door if they couldn't get it in the front door."

   Scott is one of the leading opponents in the House of both education voucher schemes and President Bush's new faith-based initiative. In challenging the new amendments to H.R. 7, he raised concerns about which private groups would be eligible to receive the vouchers, and how their performance would be evaluated.

   The voucher provision would not have passed the House without being buried inside the re-written HR 7, said Capitol Hill supporters of faith-based funding, including Kansas Republican Rep. Todd Riahrt. "It would not have stood alone," he admitted to AP.

   Originally, H.R. 7 provided for funding somewhere in the $10 billion to $16 billion range. The measure encourages sectarian-groups to compete for government money in order to operate faith-based social programs, and without having to "compromise their religious character." Critics say that this amounts to a government entitlement program on behalf of churches and other houses of worship. Thanks to the "voucherization" clause, though, money -- $47 billion of it -- could come flooding into faith-based outreaches through "clients." During debate over HR 7, lawmakers raised concerns that the funding could jeopardize the independence of groups which accept government money. Social and religious conservatives fretted that by still requiring those groups to use the funds only for the "secular" component of a program, religious faith and teaching about God would be left out.

   Vouchers are the back-door effort to solve that dilemma.

   Thought HR 7, dubbed the "Community Solutions Act" passed the House, is faces tough opposition in the Senate. One sticking point has been whether faith-based groups receiving government money should have the right to discriminate in hiring policies on the basis of religion. Sen. Joseph Lieberman is reportedly at work on a revised faith-based funding bill that would require houses of worship to observe state and local anti-discrimination ordinances if they participate in government programs; and President Bush has signaled his willingness to compromise on this point. The voucher component of the faith-based funding bill, though, may elicit more criticism and hopefully jeopardize the legislation's chances of passage.

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