President Bush told a group of religious leaders that his administration allocated $2 billion to faith-based organizations last year to assist in their work of showing compassion toward Americans in need.
“No matter what your faith is, we're united in the conviction that to whom much is given, much is expected,” Bush said at the White House Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Leadership Conference.
The Bush administration reported that $2 billion in competitive grants across seven federal agencies was awarded to faith-based organizations in 2004, amounting to 10.3 percent of the total funding awarded. In 2003, just $1.17 billion was awarded in grants to faith-based groups across five agencies.
The number of first-time faith-based grantees totaled 331 in 2004, representing a 20 percent increase over the previous year, the White House said. The Department of Housing and Human Services alone saw an 88 percent increase in the number of awards to faith-based organizations since 2002-from 483 to 908.
Baptist Press