For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 12, 2002
Executive Order: Equal Protection of the Laws for Faith-based and Community Organizations
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and
the laws of the United States of America, including section 121(a) of
title 40, United States Code, and section 301 of title 3, United States
Code, and in order to guide Federal agencies in formulating and
developing policies with implications for faith-based organizations and
other community organizations, to ensure equal protection of the laws
for faith-based and community organizations, to further the national
effort to expand opportunities for, and strengthen the capacity of,
faith-based and other community organizations so that they may better
meet social needs in America's commu-nities, and to ensure the
economical and efficient administration and completion of Government
contracts, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Definitions. For purposes of this order:
(a) "Federal financial assistance" means assistance that
non-Federal entities receive or administer in the form of grants,
contracts, loans, loan guarantees, property, cooperative agreements,
food commodities, direct appropriations, or other assistance, but does
not include a tax credit, deduction, or exemption.
(b) "Social service program" means a program that is administered
by the Federal Government, or by a State or local government using
Federal financial assistance, and that provides services directed at
reducing poverty, improving opportunities for low-income children,
revitalizing low-income communities, empowering low-income families and
low-income individuals to become self-sufficient, or otherwise helping
people in need. Such programs include, but are not limited to, the
following:
(i) child care services, protective services for children and
adults, services for children and adults in foster care,
adoption services, services related to the management and
maintenance of the home, day care services for adults, and
services to meet the special needs of children, older
individuals, and individuals with disabilities (including
physical, mental, or emotional disabilities);
(ii) transportation services;
(iii) job training and related services, and employment services;
(iv) information, referral, and counseling services;
(v) the preparation and delivery of meals and services related to
soup kitchens or food banks;
(vi) health support services;
(vii) literacy and mentoring programs;
(viii) services for the prevention and treatment of
juvenile delinquency and substance abuse, services for the
prevention of crime and the provision of assistance to the
victims and the families of criminal offenders, and services
related to intervention in, and prevention of, domestic
violence; and
(ix) services related to the provision of assistance for housing
under Federal law.
(c) "Policies that have implications for faith-based and community
organizations" refers to all policies, programs, and regulations,
including official guidance and internal agency procedures, that have
significant effects on faith-based organizations participating in or
seeking to participate in social service programs supported with
Federal financial assistance.
(d) "Agency" means a department or agency in the executive
branch.
(e) "Specified agency heads" mean the Attorney General, the
Secretaries of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services,
Housing and Urban Development, and Labor, and the Administrator of the
Agency for International Development.
Sec. 2. Fundamental Principles and Policymaking Criteria.
In formulating and implementing policies that have implications for
faith-based and community organizations, agencies that administer
social service programs supported with Federal financial assistance
shall, to the extent permitted by law, be guided by the following
fundamental principles:
(a) Federal financial assistance for social service programs
should be distributed in the most effective and efficient manner
possible;
(b) The Nation's social service capacity will benefit if all
eligible organizations, including faith-based and other community
organizations, are able to compete on an equal footing for Federal
financial assistance used to support social service programs;
(c) No organization should be discriminated against on the basis
of religion or religious belief in the administration or distribution
of Federal financial assistance under social service programs;
(d) All organizations that receive Federal financial assistance
under social services programs should be prohibited from discriminating
against beneficiaries or potential bene-ficiaries of the social
services programs on the basis of religion or religious belief.
Accordingly, organizations, in providing services supported in whole or
in part with Federal financial assistance, and in their outreach
activities related to such services, should not be allowed to
discriminate against current or prospective program beneficiaries on
the basis of religion, a religious belief, a refusal to hold a
religious belief, or a refusal to actively participate in a religious
practice;
(e) The Federal Government must implement Federal programs in
accordance with the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause
of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Therefore, organizations
that engage in inherently religious activities, such as worship,
religious instruction, and proselytization, must offer those services
separately in time or location from any programs or services supported
with direct Federal financial assistance, and participation in any such
inherently religious activities must be voluntary for the beneficiaries
of the social service program supported with such Federal financial
assistance; and
(f) Consistent with the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Speech
Clause of the Constitution, faith-based organizations should be
eligible to compete for Federal financial assistance used to support
social service programs and to participate fully in the social service
programs supported with Federal financial assistance without impairing
their independence, autonomy, expression, or religious character.
Accordingly, a faith-based organization that applies for or
participates in a social service program supported with Federal
financial assistance may retain its independence and may continue to
carry out its mission, including the definition, development, practice,
and expression of its religious beliefs, provided that it does not use
direct Federal financial assistance to support any inherently religious
activities, such as worship, religious instruction, or
proselyti-zation. Among other things, faith-based organizations that
receive Federal financial assistance may use their facilities to
provide social services supported with Federal financial assistance,
without removing or altering religious art, icons, scriptures, or other
symbols from these facilities. In addition, a faith-based organization
that applies for or participates in a social service program supported
with Federal financial assistance may retain religious terms in its
organization's name, select its board members on a religious basis, and
include religious references in its organization's mission statements
and other chartering or governing documents.
Sec. 3. Agency Implementation.
(a) Specified agency heads shall, in coordination with the White
House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (White House
OFBCI), review and evaluate existing policies that have implications
for faith-based and community organizations in order to assess the
consistency of such policies with the fundamental principles and
policymaking criteria articulated in section 2 of this order.
(b) Specified agency heads shall ensure that all policies that
have implications for faith-based and community organi-zations are
consistent with the fundamental principles and policymaking criteria
articulated in section 2 of this order. Therefore, specified agency
heads shall, to the extent permitted by law:
(i) amend all such existing policies of their respective agencies
to ensure that they are consistent with the fundamental
principles and policymaking criteria articulated in section 2
of this order;
(ii) where appropriate, implement new policies for their
respective
agencies that are consistent with and necessary to further the fundamental principles and policymaking criteria set forth in
section 2 of this order; and
(iii) implement new policies that are necessary to ensure
that their respective agencies collect data regarding the
participation of faith-based and community organizations in
social service programs that receive Federal financial
assistance.
(c) Within 90 days after the date of this order, each specified
agency head shall report to the President, through the Director of the
White House OFBCI, the actions it proposes to undertake to accomplish
the activities set forth in sections 3(a) and (b) of this order.
Sec. 4. Amendment of Executive Order 11246.
Pursuant to section 121(a) of title 40, United States Code, and
section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and in order to further the
strong Federal interest in ensuring that the cost and progress of
Federal procurement contracts are not adversely affected by an
artificial restriction of the labor pool caused by the unwarranted
exclusion of faith-based organizations from such contracts, section 204
of Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965, as amended, is hereby
further amended to read as follows:
"SEC. 204 (a) The Secretary of Labor may, when the Secretary
deems that special circumstances in the national interest so require,
exempt a contracting agency from the requirement of including any or
all of the provisions of Section 202 of this Order in any specific
contract, subcontract, or purchase order.
(b) The Secretary of Labor may, by rule or regulation, exempt
certain classes of contracts, subcontracts, or purchase orders (1)
whenever work is to be or has been performed outside the United States
and no recruitment of workers within the limits of the United States is
involved; (2) for standard commercial supplies or raw materials; (3)
involving less than specified amounts of money or specified numbers of
workers; or (4) to the extent that they involve subcontracts below a
specified tier.
(c) Section 202 of this Order shall not apply to a Government
contractor or subcontractor that is a religious corporation,
association, educational institution, or society, with respect to the
employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work
connected with the carrying on by such corporation, association,
educational institution, or society of its activities. Such
contractors and subcontractors are not exempted or excused from
complying with the other requirements contained in this Order.
(d) The Secretary of Labor may also provide, by rule, regulation,
or order, for the exemption of facilities of a contractor that are in
all respects separate and distinct from activities of the contractor
related to the performance of the contract: provided, that such an
exemption will not interfere with or impede the effectuation of the
purposes of this Order: and provided further, that in the absence of
such an exemption all facilities shall be covered by the provisions of
this Order."
Sec. 5. General Provisions.
(a) This order supplements but does not supersede the requirements
contained in Executive Orders 13198 and 13199 of January 29, 2001.
(b) The agencies shall coordinate with the White House OFBCI
concerning the implementation of this order.
(c) Nothing in this order shall be construed to require an agency
to take any action that would impair the conduct of foreign affairs or
the national security.
Sec. 6. Responsibilities of Executive Departments and Agencies.
All executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall:
(a) designate an agency employee to serve as the liaison and point
of contact with the White House OFBCI; and
(b) cooperate with the White House OFBCI and provide such
information, support, and assistance to the White House OFBCI as it may
request, to the extent permitted by law.
Sec. 7. Judicial Review.
This order is intended only to improve the internal management of
the executive branch, and it is not intended to, and does not, create
any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or
in equity by a party against the United States, its agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees or agents, or any person.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 12, 2002.
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