Despite budget cuts for social service programs, Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives told a recent Pew Charitable Trusts conference on religion and social policy that the administration will push its faith-based agenda in the 109th Congress. Towey said that the administration will push for legislation allowing religious grantees to based hiring decisions for federally funded positions on religion and promote faith-based programs at the state and local levels. He also cited use of vouchers in a drug treatment program as a mechanism that allows service providers to incorporate religion into their federally funded service because the funds come from the client, not through a direct grant. Expansion of the faith-based initiative is drawing more attention to continuing declines in federal funding for social service programs. A report Funding Faith-Based Services in a Time of Fiscal Pressures by the Rockefeller Institute of Government examines how long-term fiscal trends affect faith-based social services. The report found:

• During the 1990s funding for faith-based services expanded
• The surplus of state resources compared to social needs Òhas largely vanishedÓ
• Federal funding for faith-based organizations is small and has not grown.

A summary of conference presentations is online.