Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, at the appropriate time I will offer an amendment to recommit H.R. 5129 and ask to have my amendment to restore current law protections for faith-based organizations included in the Record.

Madam Speaker, religious liberty is foundational to America. It is enshrined as the First Amendment to our Constitution. Given this Nation's dedication to religious liberty, it is so appalling that H.R. 5129 strikes current law protections for faith-based organizations that participate in the CSBG program.

Faith-based providers have a history of leading America's fight to help those in need. From the Salvation Army to Catholic Charities, religious organizations formed the front line in assisting people in poverty. They did so not out of a desire for selfish gain or recognition but because they truly believe it is a calling.

That faith allows them to help those in need in unique ways that the government cannot. But instead of honoring these organizations for their long history of service, this bill suggests that religious organizations should leave their faith behind when they want to serve those in need.

This is ridiculous. More than that, it is un-American. I would also argue it directly contradicts our Constitution.

Madam Speaker, we must give faith-based organizations and providers the same opportunity to serve low-income Americans through the CSBG program that we would give any other organization. We must also guarantee faith-based providers' rights to live out and express their faith through their work.

I include in the Record a letter from a coalition of religious providers, led by the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, which discusses the importance of maintaining current law protections for faith-based organizations--protections, I might add, that President Biden himself supported when he was a Member of the Senate. May 10, 2022. House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Representative: As leaders of faith-based service organizations, religious freedom advocates, and people of faith, we strongly implore you and your colleagues to retain the Charitable Choice provisions when reauthorizing the Community Services Block Grant [CSBG]. The current language of H.R. 5129, the Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act of 2021, would replace the detailed Charitable Choice provisions with a bare sentence. This would be a negative change that creates a harmful precedent. We ask the House instead to reaffirm Charitable Choice in the CSBG program by retaining the Charitable Choice provisions currently in the CSBG statute.

The Charitable Choice provisions (42 U.S. Code 9920) give faith-based organizations an equal opportunity to compete for CSBG funding and safeguard their religious character while also protecting beneficiary rights by prohibiting the use of CSBG grant funds for explicitly religious activities. The presence of this detailed language in the statute is a billboard announcing a welcome for faith-based organizations to compete for funding.

The provisions were added to the CSBG program in 1998 in a reauthorization bill co-sponsored by Republican Senators Dan Coats (IN) and Jim Jeffords (VT) and Democratic Senators Ted Kennedy (MA) and Christopher Dodd (CT). They sought to improve the effectiveness of CSBG spending by prohibiting local governments and Community Action Agencies [CAAs] from marginalizing faith-based organizations. Protecting participation in CSBG funding by faith-based providers and houses of worship ensures that the procurement process is competitive and that CAAs utilize the most effective and accountable service providers.

The Charitable Choice provisions extend to faith-based organizations no novel or unconstitutional rights. Its principles are codified in the Equal Treatment regulations that apply to Department of Health and Human Services funding programs (45 CFR 87), but only partially to CSBG. CSBG has its own regulations, similar but distinct. If Charitable Choice is taken out of the CSBG statute, CAAs would have no guarantee that they will be afforded the same rights and protections due to other faith-based organizations under the Equal Treatment regulations. It would be better to retain the CSBG statutory language and the accompanying regulations. Statutory language provides more certainty over time to Community Action Agencies and to faith-based organizations interested in partnering with them in service.

Some in the CAA movement claim that the Charitable Choice language is dispensable because, despite its presence, few faith-based organizations receive CSBG funding. If participation is truly low, then the remedy is action by Congress and the Office of Community Services in HHS to remove the non-statutory barriers that inhibit more extensive partnerships, not to remove the protections that enable the participation of those few.

The addition of Charitable Choice in 1998 to the CSBG program was the second time that Congress and the Clinton administration added such language to a federal program (Charitable Choice was first added to the TANF program in 1996). These actions launched the faith-based or partnership initiative. The four succeeding administrations of both parties (Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden) have worked with energy to ensure that federal social programs are maximally effective because they partner with the best non-government organizations, including faith-based organizations, with full protection for the religious freedom of the ultimate beneficiaries.

Senators Coats, Jeffords, Kennedy, and Dodd were right to add Charitable Choice to the CSBG program. Removing it will be detrimental to the participation of faith-based organizations, when it is their greater involvement that will most benefit the communities that CSBG funding is intended to serve. Removing it will create a terrible precedent by signaling that Congress is no longer as boldly committed to equal opportunity for service organizations of every faith or none.

We ask the House to reaffirm Charitable Choice in the CSBG program by amending H.R. 5129 to restore this language before the reauthorization moves forward.

Thank you for your consideration of this important matter. Signed,

[University professors sign in their personal capacities only. Their employing universities take no position on this bill, and are listed only to help identify the individual signers.]

Stanley Carlson-Thies, Senior Director, Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, Washington, DC; Stephanie Summers, CEO, Center for Public Justice, Washington, DC; His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, Chairman, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for Religious Liberty, Washington, DC; Rev. Dr. Galen Carey, Vice President of Government Relations, National Association of Evangelicals, Columbia, MD; Rabbi Abba Cohen, Vice President for Government Affairs and Washington Director, Agudath Israel of America, Washington, DC; Melissa Reid, Director of Government Affairs, Seventh-day Adventist Church--North American Division, Columbia, MD; Rev. Dr. Jo Anne Lyon, General Superintendent Emerita, The Wesleyan Church, Fishers, IN; Yaakov Menken, Managing Director, Coalition for Jewish Values, Baltimore, MD.

Shirley V. Hoogstra, President, CCCU--Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, Washington, DC; Robert C. Andringa, Ph.D. President Emeritus, CCCU, Washington, DC; P. George Tryfiates, Vice President for Public Policy & Legal Affairs, Association of Christian Schools International, Washington, DC; Jedd Medefind, President, Christian Alliance for Orphans, Falls Church, VA; Ronald L. Sider, Founder, Christians for Social Action, Lansdale, PA; Gary W. Blackard, President & CEO, Adult & Teen Challenge USA, Ozark, MO; Ryan Jay VerWys, CEO, ICCF Community Homes, Grand Rapids, MI; Jonathan Bradford, President and CEO Emeritus, ICCF Community Homes, Grand Rapids, MI; Douglas Laycock, Professor of Law, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

Carl H. Esbeck, R.B. Price Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO; Phillip L. McIntosh, Professor of Law, Mississippi College School of Law, Jackson, MS; Paul Marshall, Professor, Baylor University, Washington, DC; Robert Osburn, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Wilberforce International Institute, Roseville, MN; Joseph M. Knippenberg, Professor of Politics, Oglethorpe University, Brookhaven, GA; Abby M. Foreman, Professor, Dordt University, Sioux Center, IA; Ryan T. Anderson, President, The Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, DC; Charles Leslie Glenn Jr., Professor emeritus of Educational Policy, Boston University, Boston, MA; Gail Frances Jansen, Retired Attorney, Former Trustee Center for Public Justice, Tucson, AZ; James W. Skillen, President (retired), Center for Public Justice, Birmingham, AL; Marc Andreas, Professor, Kuyper College, Grand Rapids, MI; Michelle C. Kirtley, Fellow, Center for Public Justice, Chapel Hill, NC; Chelsea Langston Bombino, Fellow, Center for Public Justice, Catonsville, MD; Bruce Rowell, Chief Clinical Officer, Lawndale Christian Health Center, Chicago, IL; Rev. Girien R. Salazar, Minister, Ciudad de Esperanza, Farmers Branch, TX; Rev. Marian Edmonds- Allen, Executive Director, Parity, New York, NY; Mr. Roger Metcalf, Chairman Board of Trustee, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, Gresham, OR; Michael Kozlarek, City Director, The Navigators, San Diego, CA; Mark Rodgers, Principal, Clapham Group, Burke, VA; James B. Bolds, Lead Pastor, Victory Church, Yorktown, VA; Joyce Campbell, Concerned community member, Christian Reformed Church, Greenbelt, MD; Randall Kroll, Executive Consultant, Platinum Group, Minneapolis, MN; Kathryn Vaselkiv, Not for profit board member, St Moses Church, Baltimore, MD.

Deanna Stacy, Former Associate Director, HHS Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Alexandria, VA; Ashley Weiss, Staff, Youth with A Mission, Lakeside, MT; Greg Enas, Venture Catalyst, Innovatov LLC, Indianapolis, IN; Jerry S. Herbert, Elder, Washington Community Fellowship, Washington, DC; Karyl Savageau, Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, Washington, DC; Clarke Cochran, Deacon, St. Peter Catholic Church, Charlotte, NC; Carol Veldman Rudie, Board member, Association for Public Justice, Minneapolis, MN; Dr. Paul Wrobbel, Head of School, Trinity Oaks Christian Academy, Cary, IL; Bethany Schuttinga, Ph.D., President, Avail Academy, Minneapolis, MN; Steven Groen, Principal, Avail Academy, Edina, MN; Andrew Ryskamp, Christian Reformed Church in North America, Grand Rapids, MI; Perry Recker, Librarian emeritus and Ruling Elder, Eastminster Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, PA; Rev. Dr. Steven J. Koster, Pastor of Congregational Life, Grace Church, Grand Rapids, MI; David E. Campbell, Christian Reformed Church of Washington, DC., Washington, DC; Henry G. Gunnink, Regional Pastor, Classis Lake Superior of the Christian Reformed Church of North America, Inver Grove Heights, MN; Randall Hedman, Donor Relations, World Renew, Bloomington, MN.

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Mr. WALBERG. Madam Speaker, I offered an amendment during a markup that would have protected faith-based providers, making sure they don't have to leave their faith at the door when they work to serve America's families in need. This is not only good for the religious organizations serving these families but also for the neediest among us.

Unfortunately, my Democrat colleagues rejected this commonsense amendment. I was further disappointed when they did not make my amendment in order for floor consideration. This is a forthright attack on religious liberty by the Democrats, and we cannot stand for it.

Madam Speaker, if we adopt this motion to recommit, we will instruct the Committee on Education and Labor to reconsider my amendment to restore these current law provisions.

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