WASHINGTON (ABP) — Once again, the House of Representatives has voted to allow religious social-service providers using federal money to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion.
The Sept. 22 move was the latest in a long series of House floor fights over expanding government grants to religious social-service providers.
House members voted 220-196 to add an amendment to a bill that would explicitly allow employment discrimination by religious providers in the Head Start early childhood education program. The vote came largely along party lines, with most Democrats opposed to the amendment, and most Republicans in favor.
“This is a blatant attack on civil rights, and this sanctions discrimination….discrimination paid for by U.S. tax dollars,” said Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.).
But Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.) said religious providers wanting to participate in Head Start “should not have to surrender their religious character merely because they choose to try to help out…. The government should not say to them, 'If you want to help out, I'm sorry, you're going to have to deny much of your religious character.'”
The program — initially established in 1965 as a way to provide additional educational opportunities to poor children — has always been open to faith-based providers.
Since 1972, federal law has barred Head Start providers from discriminating in their hiring practices on the basis of religion. Supporters of President Bush's “faith-based initiative” to expand government support for religious charities have asserted such language in the Head Start authorizing documents discriminates against churches and other potential providers who hire people only of their own faith.
The House Education Committee approved the bill, known as the “School Readiness Act of 2005,” on a bipartisan vote of 48-0 in May. It included no alteration of the 1972 employment-discrimination ban.
But two Republican congressmen — Rep. John Boehner (Ohio) and Rep. Charles Boustany (La.) — responded to pressure from the White House by offering the amendment on the House floor.
The philosophy behind the amendment is a central part of President Bush's so-called “faith-based initiative” push to expand the government's ability to provide social services through religious and other providers. As supporters of the initiative see it, religious groups should not be excluded from federal funding just because they choose to hire their own co-religionists, even if it is to provide secular services.
“The issue here is a simple one. In the 1964 Civil Rights Act, religious groups were granted exemptions…so they can hire people only of their own faith,” said Boehner.
Opponents said the amendment stirred needless controversy — and its aim is simply unfair. “It destroys the bipartisan goodwill of the negotiated bill that was voted unanimously out of committee, and it does it by adding the most contentious part of the faith-based initiative,” said Holly Hollman, general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. “No one should be denied a federally-funded job because of their religion.”
The final bill passed on a 231-184 vote. It is H.R. 2123. It now goes to the Senate, where its employment-discrimination provision is likely to face stiff opposition.