Changes Made to Proposed Charitable Choice Legislation

July 5, 2001

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

On July 5, 2001, The Christian Science Monitor reported that "the [Bush] administration and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives made some changes last week to the Community Solutions Act (HR 7) that deal directly with a central issue of concern to critics [of Bush's faith-based initiative]: the separation of church and state." Under the changes, "religious groups that receive grants would now be required to keep any religious activity or instruction separate from the government-funded programming... Participation in the religious activity by social-service recipients would be strictly voluntary. The bill also requires that groups receiving grants set up a separate account for the government-funded program."