President Bush Talks Up Faith Based Initiative at Jericho

As we reported yesterday, the President’s state of the union address contained a plea to Congress that it formally enact provisions of law allowing exempt religious organizations to receive direct grants from the federal government in support of their secular social welfare activities.  Today, the President continued to talk about his proposed “Faith Based and Community Initiative Act” at a religiously sponsored social welfare program known as Jericho.   The White House issued a fact sheet on the topic, in which it touted the successes attributable to government funding of religious organizations pursuing secular social welfare goals:

FBCI Has Led A Quiet Revolution In The Way Government Addresses Human Need

The FBCI works to place locally-rooted solutions at the center of Federal efforts to help those in need. The Initiative has:

• Removed barriers and launched innovative programs to enable the government to partner with small, community-based nonprofits as never before.
• Established a level playing field for faith-based organizations, and set clear, Constitutional guidelines for their use of public funds.
• Delivered in-person training to more than 100,000 social entrepreneurs, by teaching them how to better track their outcomes, write grants, and develop other key skills that help their organizations maximize impact for the people they serve.

Federal competitive awards are expanding the good work of both faith-based and community organizations across America and beyond.

• In 2006 alone, the Federal government provided more than 18,000 direct, competitive awards to America’s nonprofit organizations to aid the homeless, at-risk youth, recovering addicts, returning offenders, AIDS victims, and others.
• These grants totaled more than $14.7 billion to boost services to people in need. Faith-based organizations were welcomed as a central part of this work, winning more than 3,000 grants in 2006 totaling nearly $2.2 billion.

To see a video replay of the President’s entire comments regarding the “Faith Based and Community Initiative” at a function in Baltimore earlier today, click here. 

dkj