Public Aid and Faith-Based Organizations (Charitable Choice): An Overview

• NCJ Number: 190930
• Author(s): David M. Ackerman; Vee Burke
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 6 pages
• Corporate Author: Library of Congress
• Sale Source: Library of Congress
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: CRS Report for Congress.

Annotation

This report provides an overview of the issues involved in the provision of public aid for the work of faith-based organizations (charitable choice).

Abstract

The report uses a question-and-answer format to review the issues. In answering a question about the nature of "charitable choice," the report notes that it is "a set of provisions in law intended to allow religious organizations to provide federally funded services from specifically named programs on the same basis as any other nongovernmental provider without impairing the religious character of the organizations or the religious freedom of recipients. In answering another question, the report advises that government has long provided public aid to social services programs operated by faith-based organizations, but as the result of interpretations of the establishment-of-religion clause of the First Amendment, such programs have generally been required to be secular in nature. In reviewing legislation pertinent to "charitable choice," one of the answers notes that the U.S. Congress has enacted four measures into law, and President Bush has undertaken an initiative "to rally America's armies of compassion" as a centerpiece of his domestic agenda. Regarding a question about the relative effectiveness of faith-based social services, the report states that no rigorous studies have examined the impact of faith-based programs compared with secular programs. In answering a question about the constitutionality of "charitable choice," the report advises that factors which affect the issue include the form in which the public aid is received by the participating religious organizations, the manner in which the programs are implemented, and the changing nature of the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of the establishment clause. The report also briefly profiles three court cases that involve "charitable choice" issues. They all relate to the injection of religious doctrine and practice into the operation of government-funded, faith-based social service programs.