White House sets new rules for faith-based grants

Paul Singer | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The White House is trying to make it easier for religious organizations to participate in federal social service programs, rolling out new rules Wednesday to clarify the requirements to separate the social services from religious practices.

The rules clarify that "if a faith-based provider offers a Bible study as well as a federally supported job training program, the Bible study must be privately funded and separated in time or location from the job training program," the White House explained Wednesday in a blog post written by Melissa Rogers, director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

In addition, the new rules state that faith-based groups cannot discriminate against beneficiaries based on the basis of religion, and that anyone receiving services from a faith-based group must have a right to request another provider if they object to the group's "religious character."

The new proposed rules — from nine different federal agencies, each governing its own grant programs — are part of the evolution of a faith-based grant program first started by President George W. Bush in 2002. The idea all along has been to ensure that faith-based groups can apply for some of the billions of dollars that federal agencies distribute each year for social service grant programs, such as feeding the hungry or housing the homeless. President Obama authorized an advisory council to help clarify the rules, and published revisions to the Bush program in 2010. The new rules are designed to implement the revisions Obama ordered.

One of the common provisions in the proposed rules is a small but significant change in the wording of what activities cannot be paid for with federal money. The current rules have generally prohibited faith-based groups from using federal dollars for any "inherently religious activity."

Such language has been confusing, because, as the proposed Department of Agriculture rule change explains, "some might consider their provision of a hot meal to a needy person to be an 'inherently religious' act when it is undertaken from a sense of religious motivation or obligation, even though it has no overt religious content."

The agencies are therefore proposing to change the language of the prohibition to instead bar "explicitly religious activities" such as worship services or religious instruction.

The rules also include new language prohibiting any "political interference" in the issuance of government grants. Government agencies must "refrain from taking religious affiliations or non-religious affiliations into account in this process," reads the new rule from the Department of Homeland Security. "An organization should not receive favorable or unfavorable marks merely because it is affiliated or unaffiliated with a religious body, or related or unrelated to a specific religion," the new rule said.

"The value of the regulations is that they create a level playing field for faith-based and secular organizations that wish to provide federally funded services," said Galen Carey, vice president of government relations at the National Association of Evangelicals, which has been helping developing the new rules. "The rules show how the government can partner with faith-based organizations without violating any constitutional prohibitions on establishment of religion. We will study the new regulations and may submit official comments based on our review."

All of the agencies will accept public comments of the draft rules for the next 60 days, and it may take months after that before any of the rules are final. The agencies issuing new rules are the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Agency for International Development.