Press Releases

For Immediate Release
3/8/2005
Contact: Jeff Krehely or Naomi Tacuyan
(202) 387-9177, ext. 26 / ext. 17
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The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy Exhorts Nonprofit Sector to Speak out on Dangers of Bush's Faith-Based Agenda
WASHINGTON-The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) today exhorts the nonprofit sector to protest Congress's use of the nonprofit sector to carry out the Bush Administration's faith-based agenda. This agenda consists of the recently rolled-out Republican poverty alleviation plan and budget proposals that decimate government funding of long-standing social service programs. It is a strategic effort to increase the flow of government and charitable spending to religious organizations and service providers-to the detriment of secular organizations-and to win favor with a block of voters that Republicans need to maintain their control of the federal government.

The President's FY 2006 budget, for example, slashes and eliminates over 154 programs, but increases funding for the Administration's Compassion Capital Fund initiatives, not only in the Department of Health and Human Services, but expanding them to other departments as well. Even at HHS, the $100 million slated for the Fund hardly offsets the tens of billions of dollars in program cuts targeted at disadvantaged and disenfranchised communities.

"It's time for the nonprofit leadership to step up to the plate and call this agenda for what it is-assaults on fundamental civil rights protections in federal programs and a manipulation of cash-strapped nonprofit service providers to go along with the Administration if they want to maintain their foothold on the ever-shrinking pot of government funding," said Rick Cohen, executive director of NCRP.

NCRP is specifically referring to recent actions rolled out by the White House and Congress:

  • Just last week, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) announced the Senate Republican Poverty Alleviation Agenda, the main premise of which increases the role of faith-based charities as service providers, and a top item of which is the CARE Act, designed to generate infinitesimal amounts of charitable giving through the nonitemizer tax deduction and the IRA rollover-the bulk of which will go to faith-based organizations, to take the place of program slashes in the Administration's FY2006 budget.
  • Just last week, the House passed H.R. 27, the "Job Training Improvement Act of 2005," and referred the bill to the Senate. Section 129, while reaffirming a strict anti-discrimination hiring policy, simultaneously exempts any religious organization from adhering to this policy.

  • "While there is a coalition of groups, including civil rights organizations, opposing H.R. 27 and other parts of the faith-based agenda, the nonprofit sector's leadership has been unfortunately all too silent. They are complicit supporters of this dangerous agenda, which turns its back on the nation's most disadvantaged citizens and rolls back hard-fought civil rights protections," Cohen said.

  • In January, Representative Walter Jones (R-NC) introduced H.R. 235, the "Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act of 2005," which allows "churches and other houses of worship" to keep their tax-exempt status even if they engage in electioneering on church property or through church programming

NCRP is a national watchdog, research and advocacy organization that promotes public accountability and accessibility among foundations, corporate grantmakers, individual donors and workplace giving programs. For more information on NCRP or to join, please visit www.ncrp.org or call (202) 387-9177.

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