Director of President’s Faith-Based Office Resigns to Take Helm of Catholic College

H. James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, has

announced his resignation, saying that despite his departure, the Bush administration’s effort to allow religious organizations greater access to social-service grants will affect the nonprofit world even after the president’s second term ends.

“The wall between church and state is still standing, faith-based groups have been welcomed into the public square, and the poor have benefited from having access to their effective programs,” Mr. Towey said.

Efforts to channel aid to religious groups are “established and will continue to bear fruit for years and years to come,” he said.

Mr. Towey, a Catholic who formerly was the lawyer for the late Mother Teresa, said his decision was “bittersweet” and was effusive in his praise for the president. He said he will leave the government by June 2 to become president of St. Vincent College, a Catholic institution in Latrobe, Pa.

The move came after President Bush’s new chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, made several changes in the White House staff.

Mr. Towey, however, said his decision was unrelated to the changes. “This has been in the works for months, and I am leaving with President Bush’s blessing,” he said.

The White House is searching for a person to fill his position, Mr. Towey said.

Opinion Polls

He said his departure comes as popular opinion of religious charities is improving because of their response to Hurricane Katrina. The disaster has persuaded many Americans that such groups should play a larger role in helping impoverished people, he said.

“The poor were streaming out of New Orleans, not because they just simply needed social services, they wanted a place that would welcome them,” such as churches and synagogues, he said.

While civil-liberties advocates and politicians in Washington may debate government support for sectarian organizations, Mr. Towey said, “out in the heartland they’ve already reached a conclusion: They want faith-based groups in the public square helping the poor.”

During his tenure Mr. Towey pushed the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and other federal agencies to allow more religious groups to tap social-service funds.

In December 2002, in a move widely said to have been proposed by Mr. Towey, President Bush signed an executive order that required the agencies to loosen restraints on religious charities.

The White House says that simple stroke of the pen has changed how the government doles out grants.

According to a survey released by the administration last month, seven federal agencies in the 2005 fiscal year awarded religious groups 2,760 grants — 22 percent more than in 2004.

Those grants were worth more than $2.1-billion.

What’s more, Mr. Towey has asked state and local authorities to do more to get religious charities involved in providing government-financed social service.

So far, 32 governors and 115 mayors have either established offices or appointed a liaison to work with churches and other sectarian organizations, according to the White House.

“Jim has been very effective administratively,” said John Bridgeland, former director of the White House’s USA Freedom Corps, who is now a consultant to nonprofit groups. Mr. Towey made a “quiet transformation of government.”

But in one arena, Mr. Towey has been unsuccessful: persuading Congress to approve legislation that aims to increase charitable giving.

The proposal, which includes a tax break for people who do not itemize deductions on their federal tax returns, has languished on Capitol Hill.

Even Mr. Towey said he was disappointed that it has not reached the president’s desk yet.

“The returns from Congress are kind of a mixed bag,” he said, though he expected the president to continue to push for passage of the legislation.

A Democrat

A self-described “pro-life Democrat,” Mr. Towey has often attacked those who oppose the president’s efforts to help religious groups, calling them “secular extremists.”

Speaking to reporters after he announced his decision to resign, Mr. Towey said, “Many of the so-called protectors of the poor have never bothered to ask whether the programs they force [impoverished people] to enter are effective or not.”

One of the faith-based office’s harshest critics, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in Washington, applauded Mr. Towey’s departure.

“Jim Towey has waged an unrelenting war against church-state separation,” he said in a statement.

“With Towey’s resignation in hand,” he added, “the president should do the American people a favor and close the misguided faith-based office.”

Mr. Lynn added that the “faith-based initiative has always been about funneling public funds to favored political constituencies, not helping the poor.”

In response to Mr. Lynn’s statement, Mr. Towey provided a parting shot: “Barry ought to be sending us flowers for all the fund raising we’ve done for him.”

H. JAMES TOWEY

Following are excerpts from an interview The Chronicle conducted with H. James Towey, after he announced that he is leaving the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

Why do you think the president’s ‘faith-based’ effort will continue after he leaves office?

Because you’ve got hundreds and hundreds of group who have received their first grants and they’ve grown their capacity to serve, so all that will bear fruit in every community in which these groups operate. The debate has also been changed. President Bush has branded faith-based in the public square; those groups are now welcomed back. And corporations and foundations have followed past governmental edict that said, Gee, if you have a religious name or a board of directors of one faith, or a denominational mission statement, well, you’ll have to secularize to get our funds because that’s how the government does it. And now these corporations and foundations see that they don’t have to operate that way.

But the next president could reverse changes in regulations that allow religious groups more access to federal grants?

Theoretically. Of course President Bush is probably going to seek to codify those before he leaves. He’s already called for that, and there’ll be a time when he’ll have to put more attention to that. But I think it would be very hard for a new president to come in and turn the screws on faith-based charities and say, We’re going to make you secularize again. We’re going to discriminate against you again.

What has been your biggest accomplishment?

Surviving.

The December 12 executive order was a really revolutionary call. It had the president of the United States breaking the chains and fetters that had bound faith-based groups under hostile regulations. I’m also thrilled that I leave this office after four years and two months with no constitutional challenge that succeeded.

But there are lawsuits pending against specific government grants to religious groups.

Believe me, if the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] or Barry Lynn [ executive director of United for Separation of Church and State] could have sued us, they would have. What they’ve been reduced to is chasing down an errant grant or two. And the reality is, they only needed to call me if they had a problem with a grant because if I saw any group using government money for religious purposes, I would’ve pulled the grant.

You’ve lambasted groups you’ve called “the so-called protectors of the poor.” Who do you mean?

It’s the Head Start associations; it’s the groups that have a stranglehold on annual appropriations; it’s a lot of the Democratic leadership that just measures compassion by how big a block grant is and never asks whether any of the programs are helping the poor. You’ll see every time the president’s budget comes out they all scream. It’s a fair game to challenge the president on the budget, but it’s just hypocrisy to simply say, Oh, I love the poor, and then never bother to ask whether the schools work, whether the drug-treatment program works.

How close is the White House to appointing a replacement for your job?

The president’s going to be briefed by Josh [Bolten] after Josh has reviewed some candidates. But they’re still at that stage of finding the best person for the job.

Would you recommend they hire a Democrat like yourself?

I’m not going to look at a partisan label or what their faith is. I want to see someone who can be effective. But ultimately it’s not my decision.