House Vote on Jobs Act Would Codify Religious Discrimination, Opponents Await Senate Vote On March 3, the House approved H.R. 27, the Job Training Improvement Act, which would allow publicly funded religious agencies to hire and fire workers based on their religious beliefs. A coalition of organizations had urged the House to reject the bill unless it was amended to ensure that workers could not be discriminated against on religious grounds in federally supported social service programs.

On March 2, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) formally introduced the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act (H.R. 235). The bill would amend the Internal Revenue Code to allow religious organizations to endorse or oppose candidates and engage in partisan activity as long as it is part of a religious event. Currently, all 501(c)(3) organizations, including houses of worship, are prohibited from intervening in elections. Supporters of the bill claim religious leaders are afraid to speak out on political issues.

On Feb. 25, the U.S. Department of Justice joined the rail company CSX in litigation to derail a new Washington, DC, law which bans hazardous cargo shipments through the district. In a brief filed with the Federal District Court, DOJ asserts that hazardous chemical shipments are part of interstate commerce and therefore may only be regulated by federal law.

The National Security Council (NSC) had an entire chapter on Iraq’s economy deleted from the “Economic Report of the President” simply because it would interfere with the positive tone of the rest of the report. The report is produced annually by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), a supposedly independent advisory entity. The unprecedented move is yet another example of the Bush administration’s willingness to manipulate expert and scientific information for political reasons.