Reply #14: Not quite:

[Hannah Bell]

Executive Order 11246, signed by President Johnson in 1965, expanded the prohibitions against employment discrimination to all government contractors...

Over time, various civil rights laws were passed that contained similar prohibitions against discrimination and employment based on race, religion, color, national origin or sex. None of these Executive Orders affected the religious exemption set forth in Title VII, but they drew the separation between Church and State so that federal taxpayer money was not used to fund religious activity and discrimination based on religion was not permitted while using taxpayer dollars.

In the 1990s, then-Senator John Ashcroft created the concept known as ‘Charitable Choice’ during the drafting of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. The concept altered existing law to permit taxpayer-financed social service funding of houses of worship in a few welfare programs.

This approach represented a radical change. In the past, government sometimes contracted with organizations such as Catholic Charities or United Jewish Communities to provide services, but safeguards were kept in place to protect the integrity of the groups and the interests of taxpayers.

Houses of worship did not contract directly with the government; rather, religious institutions created separate entities (usually 501(c)(3)s) to handle public funds and did not incorporate religion into the publicly funded program.

Further, Johnson’s Executive Order had maintained safeguards against employment discrimination in these programs receiving taxpayer dollars.

President Clinton signed these Charitable Choice provisions into law but issued signing statements indicating that his Administration would not “permit governmental funding of religious organizations that do not or cannot separate their religious activities from activities” because such funding would violate the Constitution.

In short, the Clinton Administration interpreted the provisions as being constrained by the constitutional mandates that prohibit the direct funding of houses of worship and government-funded employment discrimination.

No federal money went to organizations that were pervasively sectarian, no money went to any organization with the Title VII exemption, and therefore no one could exercise discrimination using these funds while Clinton was President.

Under the Bush Administration, Charitable Choice was vastly expanded through a series of Executive Orders.

In 2001, Executive Orders 13198 and 13199 created and set out organizational guidelines for a White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives. Executive Orders 13280 (2002), 13342 (2004), and 13397 (2006) mandated that the departments of Justice, Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Commerce, Veteran Affairs, and Homeland Security, the Agency for International Development and the Small Business Administration all establish a Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

In 2002, the most controversial Executive Order was issued – Executive Order 13279 – which made it easier for churches and other faith-based organizations to receive federal money by letting them circumvent certain anti-discrimination laws. Under the umbrella of the Faith-Based Initiative, the Bush administration began allowing discrimination with federal money for the first time since the 1960s.

For decades, religious organizations have been providing social services, including in some cases with the use of government funds, without the Faith-Based Initiative.

The fundamental differences between the Faith-Based Initiative and the long-standing legal provisions regarding faith-based organizations’ participation are:

(1) allowing proselytization during a secular, government-funded program; and

(2) permitting employment discrimination with federal funds.

Any program that could be federally funded under the Faith-Based Initiative could have been funded before it if the sponsoring organization agreed not to discriminate in employment and not to proselytize.

During the 2008 campaign, President Obama said that he would not allow discrimination with federal money, unlike the Bush Administration. However, on February 5th 2009, when the Obama Administration unveiled its new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, reversals of Bush’s controversial policies were notably absent. Joshua DuBois, who has been appointed to lead the Office, stated that claims of discrimination will be investigated "on a case-by-case basis.”

http://www.bobbyscott.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=295:charitable-choice&catid=37:on-the-issues