Johnson warns that new bill "can't sneak past the First Amendment."

he White House and Senate conferees today unveiled a "compromise" version of President Bush's controversial faith-based initiative which calls for indirect funding of religious programs, and a series of tax incentives to encourage private giving.

   The measure follows a series of meetings between administration officials, the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, along with Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut Democrat.

   "We've reached an agreement," gushed Dan Gerstein, a spokesman for Lieberman's office.

   "We have a bill that we feel very good about and that we believe will have overwhelming support and that has stayed away from some flash point issues," declared Sen. Santorum.

   The measure is known as CARE, the "Charity Aid, Recovery and Empowerment Act of 2002." Explicitly, it claims to avoid the constitutional pitfalls of Bush's original faith-based initiative that called for direct government funding of religious groups involved in the operation of social services. CARE would use tax incentives to encourage private and corporate giving to charitable agencies and establish new programs to promote savings for low-income families.

   Less talked about, though, are parts of the measure for "back door funding" of religion-based social programs, warned American Atheists President Ellen Johnson. She pointed to sections of the act which would fund government "technical assistance" for service providers that "do more good works," efforts to "remove unfair barriers facing faith-based groups in competing fairly for federal aid," and vague references to "additional federal funding for essential social service programs."

   "This legislation promises one thing, but does another," said Johnson. "It doesn't rely exclusively on 'voluntary' private or corporate contributions, but includes ways for government to provide indirect support and second-party funding of religious programs."

   The CARE bill is littered with objectionable and unconstitutional provisions, said Johnson.

   ¶       Title III of the bill reinforces parts of the "charitable choice" provision crafted in the 1996 welfare reform act, and permits groups receiving public money to blatantly display religious art, icons, symbols and other materials. A summary of the measure from Sen. Lieberman's office notes that CARE "states that an applicant may not be disqualified from competing for government grants and contracts simply because the applicant imposes religious criteria for membership on its governing board, because the applicant's chartering provision contain religious language, because the applicant has a religious name, or because the applicant uses facilities containing religious art, icons, scriptures of other symbols."

   "This puts the taxpayer, including America's millions of Atheists, Freethinkers and Humanists, back in the role of funding discriminatory, religious organizations," warned Johnson.

   Title III also provides for indirect funding mechanisms to help establish religion-based programs. One section authorizes pass-through funding whereby grants are made to "larger and more experienced organizations," who then can subcontract to churches and other houses of worship.

   ¶    CARE establishes a 501(c)(3) "EZ Pass" which makes it faster and more convenient for small service providers to by-pass earlier guidelines in establishing themselves as potential grant recipients. The Internal Revenue Service would waive application fees for groups whose annual revenues are under $50,000.

   "We're inviting potential abuse here," said Johnson. "These are precisely the groups that may not want or be able to afford the rigorous accounting that taxpayers are entitled to."

   She added that these and other parts of CARE "fail to establish oversight and accountability procedures for this proliferating number of small, religion-based service providers."

   ¶    Title V of the CARE program establishes a "Compassion Capital Fund" as another pass-through mechanism to fund houses of worship. Departments such as Health & Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice and the Corporation for National and Community Service "will collectively have over $150 million to offer technical assistance" in areas such as grant writing, incorporating and gaining tax-exempt status and "research."

   ¶    The most deceptive and insidious part of CARE is found in Title VI, the disingenuous "Social Services Block Grants." The bill would activate nearly $2 billion in entitlements for fiscal 2003, rising to $2.8 billion in 2004.

   The summary from Lieberman's office does not say how SSBG works. In practice, this program allows federal funds to trickle down to state and even local agencies who then "launder" the money by handing it over to faith-based groups. Traditionally, there have been few if any controls over what happens to the money at that point.

   "There's usually a perfunctory review by officials who 'sign off' on any constitutional concerns," warned Johnson. "It's the 'honor system' from the on, as far as how religious groups set up their programs and spend the money."

   Johnson warned that the "trickle down" system of funding has been in place for nearly twenty years, and that there is no active oversight or monitoring in place to police recipients.

   Incredibly, Santorum and Lieberman are proposing their compromise legislation even while admitting, "There are no official estimates yet on the total cost" of the bill ... But it is expected to come out in the neighborhood of $11 billion to $13 billion."

   Somewhere in the figures are the $1.1 billion inflation of the Block Grant programs, and the "Compassion Capital Fund" at $150 million.

   The statement from Lieberman's office grumbles: "The war and the recession have put severe constraints on the Federal budget, leaving little room for major new initiatives..."

   CARE is already being touted as a "compromise" with earlier legislation to fund President Bush's faith-based initiate. H.R. 7, the "Community Solutions Act" passed last year by the House of Representatives, would have taken a more aggressive approach to funding religious charities and social programs, and made available nearly $47 billion in federal departmental budgets for bidding by houses of worship. This bill, however, is more modest in scope -- especially with the budget surplus now turning into a fiscal deficit.

   Problems remain, however. The CARE bill permits faith-based groups to blatantly display their religious icons and engage in other promotion of their sectarian messages. It also seeks to circumvent concerns about funding of religion-based programs through "trickle down" mechanisms like the SSBG.

   "We can't trust this legislation," warned Ellen Johnson. "It continues funding through SSBG and other 'block grant' schemes that launder federal tax money and then have it distributed to religious service providers -- and that's unacceptable."

   Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Oklahoma), author of the "Community Solutions Act" told Reuters news service this morning that he wants to see more details of the bill before making any judgment on whether to support the measure.

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