Bush seeks to expand role of faith-based groups, Feb. 7, 2002
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/07/bush-faith-based-groups-2002-1145617
Speaking at a National Prayer Breakfast on this day in 2002, President George W. Bush called for faith-based groups to play a larger role in providing social service programs. Later that day, Bush sought approval from congressional leaders to funnel federal funds to religious organizations that would conduct programs on a par with secular nonprofit entities.
The new policy received bipartisan support, including from Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), an Orthodox Jew, and Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who maintained ties to the evangelical community.
To implement his goals, Bush set up an Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House. Under President Barack Obama, it was renamed the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
In a Rose Garden ceremony on May 3, 2018, the National Day of Prayer, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that, according to a White House document, “ensure[s] that the faith-based and community organizations that form the bedrock of our society have strong advocates in the White House and throughout the federal government.”
A White House spokesperson said those working on the initiative would provide policy recommendations from faith-based and community programs on “more effective solutions to poverty,” and inform the administration of “any failures of the executive branch to comply with religious liberty protections under law.”
Johnnie Moore, a minister and public relations consultant who serves as an unofficial spokesman for a group of evangelicals that advises Trump, said the new initiative’s approach is different from previous ones under Bush and Obama.
“Ordering every department of the federal government to work on faith-based partnerships — not just those with faith offices — represents a widespread expansion of a program that has historically done very effective work and now can do even greater work,” he said.
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