OMB Watch joined with civil rights and religious organizations to support Rep. Bobby Scott's (D-VA) proposed legislation overturning a December 2002 Executive Order of President Bush authorizing religious discrimination by faith-based organizations in hiring for federally funded positions. Here is our statement: OMB Watch, a national nonprofit organization that promotes government accountability and civic participation, fully supports legislative efforts by Representative Bobby Scott to reinstate President Franklin Roosevelt’s historic Executive Order barring discrimination in hiring for government funded positions. More specifically, we do not believe that federal grants or contracts to secular or non-secular charities should be used to support discrimination in hiring. Representative Scott’s bill should not be necessary. However, after two years of trying and failing to win congressional approval of its faith-based plan, the Bush Administration took matters into its own hands in December 2002 and issued Executive Order 13279: Equal Protection of the Laws for Faith-based and Community Organizations. Section 4 of the order allows federal agencies to award grants or contracts to religious organizations that discriminate in hiring for publicly funded positions on the basis of religion. According to The Washington Post, the Bush Administration released a policy paper yesterday aggressively pursuing the policy articulated in the Executive Order. The policy paper suggests that federally funded religious organizations can discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion and sexual orientation. The issue has also surfaced in proposed grant rules and legislation, such as reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act and Head Start. The Bush Executive Order repeals longstanding civil rights protections designed to protect people from employment discrimination in federally funded programs. For example, the Executive Order conflicts with statutory prohibitions on employment discrimination in federally funded job training programs. Executive Order 13279 is a dramatic expansion of an existing discrimination exemption in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that allows houses of worship to limit their hiring to persons of their own faith when using their private dollars. This exemption recognizes that leaders and staff of a congregation must subscribe to its creed and practices in carrying out their religious mission and has been in place for more than 30 years. The Bush administration expansion permits federal funds to support such hiring discrimination. While the public mission supported with federal grant dollars may be consistent with a congregation’s religious mission, when public dollars are involved a program cannot take on a religious character without violation of the establishment clause. As a result, the justification for the Title VII exemption fails in the context of publicly funded programs like job training programs. Many faith-based organizations already receive federal funds while maintaining Constitutional and civil rights standards. There is no reason to change this and open the door to publicly sanctioned religious discrimination. The effect on society can only be divisive and negative. We believe the Executive Order and the new White House policy paper represent an unjustified assault on civil rights protections in federally funded programs and should be rejected. That is why OMB Watch supports Representative Scott’s bill. For more information, contact: Kay Guinane, Counsel and Manager, Community Education Center