A late June conference sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) featured a speech by President Bush praising the faith-based initiative as "one of the most important initiatives of this Administration." On July 1, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama announced his plan to restructure the program, criticizing lack of funds for the current effort and promising to bar religious hiring discrimination for federally funded positions. The next day, Republican presidential candidate John McCain issued a statement disagreeing with Obama on the hiring issue. The OFBCI conference theme, "Innovations in Effective Compassion," drew about 1,500 attendees to Washington, DC, where two days of presentations listed accomplishments and raised some questions for research. OFBCI released a report, The President's Faith-Based and Community Initiative in 50 States and a fact sheet summarizing the results. These include:

• Issuing 15 regulations mandating equal treatment of faith-based and secular grant applicants
• Creating new charitable deductions in the tax code to encourage private giving
• Working with 35 governors and 70 mayors with established state and local faith-based offices
• Funding a variety of programs ranging from public health to prisoner re-entry assistance

OFBCI Director Jay Hein told the conference that $15.3 billion in federal grants was awarded to nonprofits in 2007, a 3.9 percent increase over 2006. However, a 2006 study by the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy (Roundtable) found that total federal spending on social services declined between 2002 and 2004, as well as total dollars granted to faith-based groups. However, the number of grants awarded increased during that same period.

The faith-based initiative has been controversial since its inception in 2001. Studies by the Roundtable have pointed to lack of oversight, implementation of new rules through Executive Orders and regulations without new legislative authority, and funding cuts for programs open to grant competition. In addition, there is ongoing debate about whether faith-based grantees should be able to take religion into account when hiring for publicly funded positions.

The initiative has generated vigorous litigation, resulting in some clarification and changes in constitutional law defining separation of church and state. The Roundtable provides a helpful summary in an interview with law professors Chip Lupu and Bob Tuttle on "Changes in Rules Governing the Faith-Based and Community Initiative," posted July 1. They note basic constitutional law principles that govern federal funding of faith-based organizations:

• The courts have moved from a ban on government funding for religious organizations to a ban on government funding of religious activities
• Religious content in programs can only be paid for with government funds when a person in need of service has meaningful choices of providers, including secular providers, and
• The government has an obligation to monitor use of government funds when grants are given to faith-based groups. They cite the Department of Health and Human Services guidance for healthy marriage programs as an example of clear rules. It is based on settlement of litigation brought by the American Civil Liberties Union

Obama Proposal

On July 1, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) announced that if he is elected president, he will restructure OFBCI into a President's Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Obama made his announcement at East Side Community Ministry in Zanesville, OH, and criticized the Bush administration's efforts for being "consistently underfunded." The fact sheet noted that Bush has proposed "elimination of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program which benefits an average of 433,000 low-income seniors every month." In addition, Obama said Bush has used the faith-based initiative for partisan purposes, quoting a former OFBCI deputy director who said the office held conferences in battleground states ten days before the 2004 election.

The fact sheet accompanying Obama's proposal spelled out his guiding principles for faith-based organizations to receive federal grants:

• Only secular programs, not proselytization or sectarian religious instruction, can be paid for with federal funds
• Religious discrimination in providing services or hiring for government-funded positions would be banned
• Programs must prove their effectiveness and demonstrate results

Early press reports incorrectly reported that Obama was endorsing religious criteria for hiring in government-funded positions, creating some confusion and mixed reactions. Later news stories corrected the error, and a New York Times article described "heated reactions" to the hiring issue.

McCain Critical of Obama Plan

On July 2, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) issued a statement, which said, "John McCain supports faith based initiatives, and recognizes their important role in our communities…. He also believes that it is important for faith-based groups to be able to hire people who share their faith, and he disagrees with Senator Obama that hiring at faith-based groups should be subject to government oversight."