Bipartisan Report Recommends Ways to Expand Role of Faith-Based Groups

A bipartisan committee — which included leaders of civil liberties and religious organizations that have frequently fought with each other over church-state matters — has released a report that lists 29 steps the government and other institutions should take to help “faith-based” and community organizations expand their efforts.

The committee, called the Working Group on Human Needs and Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, was formed last summer by former Sen. Harris Wofford, Democrat of Pennsylvania, at the request of Sen. Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican.

Senator Santorum and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, are working with President Bush to develop a bill on the role of religious and local charities in providing social-welfare services.

Mr. Wofford said he hoped that some of his committee’s recommendations would form the basis of new bipartisan provisions in such legislation. Other recommendations in the report could be carried out by federal or state executive actions or by private organizations.

Among the recommendations:

• Change federal law to allow people who do not itemize on their federal income tax returns to deduct charitable contributions.
• Congress should eliminate tax penalties on donations to charities made from individual retirement accounts.
• Government agencies, when they award grants and contracts, should not set limitations or conditions that apply “to the benefit or detriment of faith-based organizations as compared to more secular groups, unless they understand them to be constitutionally or legally required.”
• Government agencies should increase “technical assistance” to smaller organizations and individuals “working at the grassroots level, and make it available to all, consistent with constitutional standards.”

The Working Group urged congregations, churches, and houses of worship that operate social-service programs for which they seek government funds to create separate nonprofit groups, under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or to enter into partnerships with existing charities.

What’s more, Congress and the Internal Revenue Service should create an “EZ application form” for charity status, waive existing filing fees, “and take other steps to help smaller organizations form separate 501(c)(3) organizations,” the Wofford committee said.

The Working Group also urged foundations, other philanthropic institutions, and corporations to create a greater number of programs that give small community-based and faith-based groups access to grants.

“Institutional funders should review blanket restrictions on applications from faith-based organizations that are working to address human needs in their communities,” the report said.

Of his committee’s work, Mr. Wofford said, “Naturally, there were issues on which we were too far apart to reach consensus.”

But, “we have come a lot further than even many of us expected,” he continued. “I hope the spirit of cooperation that enabled this constructive outcome will spread and reveal the common ground that lies beneath the partisan rancor and maneuvering that is all too prevalent in this country’s public life.”

The Wofford committee was assisted in its deliberations by Search for Common Ground, a Washington-based conflict-resolution organization.

A copy of the 54-page report issued by the Working Group on Human Needs and Faith-Based and Community Initiatives may be obtained by visiting the Search for Common Ground’s Web site at http://sfcg.org, or by calling Anne Burson of Search for Common Ground at (202) 777-2231.