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| FAITH-BASED DEBATE | |
 July 19, 2001  |
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The House votes to give faith-based charities a larger role in social programs. Kwame Holman reports.
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KWAME HOLMAN: President Bush has called his "faith-based initiative" the cornerstone of his agenda of "compassionate conservatism." The president's idea is to encourage contributions to religious organizations and, at the same time, encourage those groups to take on a wider range of social services using funding from the federal government.
CONGRESSMAN: May we have order. KWAME HOLMAN: This morning Republican leaders brought the president's faith based initiative to the floor of the House of Representatives. Ohio Republican Deborah Pryce.
KWAME HOLMAN: Ohio Democrat Tony Hall signed on as a bill co-sponsor.
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| Allowing for more deductions | ||||||||||||||||||||
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KWAME HOLMAN: The Republican leadership's faith-based bill would allow taxpayers who don't itemize to deduct up to $25 in charitable donations annually, rising to $100 in ten years. The expected cost to the Treasury would be more than $13 billion over ten years. Texas Republican Sam Johnson.
KWAME HOLMAN: However Charles Rangel, the top Democrat on the tax-writing ways and means committee, ridiculed the size of the benefits taxpayers would get.
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| Addressing hiring discrimination | ||||||||||||||||||||
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KWAME HOLMAN: The debate and vote on this bill were scheduled for yesterday. But the broad support it had started to slip, forcing Republican leaders to postpone floor action. Democrats and some Republican moderates were concerned the bill would allow participating religious organizations to evade state and local laws that prohibit hiring discrimination. Those concerns carried over into today's debate. California Democrat Barbara Lee.
KWAME HOLMAN: Florida Democrat Peter Deutsch.
KWAME HOLMAN: Still, in an effort to reassure wavering moderates from his own party, Oklahoma 's J.C. Watts, the bill's Republican cosponsor, agreed to clarify the language on employment discrimination when the bill is brought to a conference with the Senate.
KWAME HOLMAN: But Watts' scripted assurance did not persuade Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank. REP. BARNEY FRANK (D-Mass.): It's funny. When I heard this was the faith-based bill, I thought they were talking about faith in God, not faith in the Senate |
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KWAME HOLMAN: And other Democrats, Washington's Jim McDermott among them, argued the new rules for faith-based groups aren't needed.
KWAME HOLMAN: But Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan claimed the purpose of the bill is to make federal funds available to a new range of charitable groups.
CONGRESSMAN: The bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. KWAME HOLMAN: The president's faith-based initiative now faces a tougher challenge in the Senate, where Majority Leader Tom Daschle has yet to commit to bringing it to a vote. |
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PRESIDENT
GEORGE W. BUSH: These soldiers and the armies of compassion deserve
our support. They often need our support. And by taking their side,
we act in the best interests and tradition of our country. 
REP.
DEBORAH PRYCE (R-Ohio): This is common sense legislation that encourages
charitable giving and enlists the strongest of our allies in our effort
to provide desperately needed social services. 
REP.
TONY HALL (D-Ohio): Problems in our country are real and many are getting
worse and none of them are going away without some response and if faith-based
groups can respond effectively I think we should encourage them to do
so. 
REP.
SAM JOHNSON (R-Texas): When this bill becomes law, a $100 YMCA contribution
will be a $100 contribution, not $85 because the IRS is not going to
take their chunk out. Charities do remarkable things for our country.
They change the lives and our hearts of so many for the better. They
feed the hungry, clothe the homeless and assist the needy. Now is the
time to help charities care for those most in need. Let's help charities
keep more of their well-deserved dollars. It's the right thing to do.
REP.
CHARLES RANGEL (D-N.Y.): Now, listen to this because if you're a charity,
you're in trouble. They cap on the amount of money that a taxpayer who
doesn't itemize can give is $25. Of course, if it's a married couple,
it increases dramatically to $50. And if you're in the 15 percent bracket
you will able to get a return up to $3.75 -- so much for a realistic
incentive.
REP.
BARBARA LEE (D-Calif.): For example, it would allow organizations to
refuse to hire Jews, or Catholics, or African-American Baptists, depending
on their religious policies and practices of their denomination and
it would use taxpayer funds to fund that discrimination. 
REP.
PETER DEUTSCH (D-Fla.): The person serving the soup, literally with
the ladle, would be allowed to be only of a certain faith -- whatever
that faith may be -- with federal funds and that is a very scary concept,
I think, for many Americans. 
REP.
ROB PORTMAN (R-Ohio): You've heard opponents say that this bill discriminates
in employment. Not true. This legislation strictly protects the exemption
for religious organizations first established in the Civil Rights Act
of 1964. This exemption allows religious organizations to maintain their
character and mission by hiring staff that share their beliefs. That's
all. That exemptions continues. Organizations must still comply with
every single federal law regarding discrimination. 
REP.
J.C. WATTS (R-Okla.): As a sponsor of the bill, Mr. Hall and I am willing
to make a commitment that we will more clearly address this issue in
conference and with the gentleman as this conference moves along. 
REP.
JIM McDERMOTT (D-Wash.): Any religious organization can accept money.
In the present situation you don't need this bill. Catholic Charities
gets 62 percent. That equates to $1.4 billion a year from the federal
government. The Salvation Army gets $400 million a year. United Jewish
Communities, their nursing homes, get 76 percent of their money from
the federal government. Lutheran Services gets 30 percent of their $6.9
billion from the federal government. That's $2.6 billion. Now, you tell
me that faith- based organizations need this bill to get this money.
That's clearly not what we're doing here. We want to give the ability
of religious organizations to break laws that are there today and mix
church and state. 
REP.
PAUL RYAN (R-Wisc.): You hear this comment repeated over and over. Catholic
Social Services, Lutheran Social Services getting all this government
money. You know, that's true. The large high-financed, well-established
churches, do get federal funding. They can afford the attorneys. They
can afford the accountants. They can afford the largess to afford the
complicated tax structures to get this money. That's not what this bill
is about. This bill is about the little guy. This bill is about the
people who have those small faith-based organizations in our inner cities,
in our rural areas, who know the names, who know the faces of those
who are in need. 
KWAME
HOLMAN: An overwhelming number of Republicans agreed with Paul Ryan
on the need for more faith-based social services. Most Democrats maintained
their concerns about separation church and state. And so the bill passed
on a largely party-line vote.