COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 19, 2005

 Faith-Based Organizations Should Be Allowed to Serve Our Nation’s Head Start Participants without Forfeiting their Civil Rights

Support the Boustany Amendment to the School Readiness Act (H.R. 2123)

 Dear Colleague:

The 1964 Civil Rights Act makes clear that faith-based groups have a federally protected right to maintain their religious nature and character through those they hire.  These organizations are willing to serve their communities by participating in federal programs, and they should not be forced to give up that right.

We will offer an amendment to the School Readiness Act (H.R. 2123) later this week that is in the same spirit of the monumental 1964 law.  Our amendment would simply allow faith-based providers who are willing to serve our nation’s young people who participate in Head Start to do so without being forced to compromise their civil liberties.

Faith-based providers cannot be expected to sustain their religious mission without the ability to employ individuals who share the tenets and practices of their faith or who are dedicated to upholding the values of the organization.  These groups should not be forced to give up who they are because they want to help assist the community; the faith and values that motivate them to serve their neighbors should not be held against them.  

Such practices were upheld by a unanimous United States Supreme Court decision (Corporation of the Presiding Bishop v. Amos) in 1987.  In that decision, the Court stated, quite clearly, “A law is not unconstitutional simply because it allows churches to advance religion, which is their very purpose.  For a law to have forbidden ‘effect’ … it must be fair to say that the government itself has advanced religion through its own activities and influence.”

The Supreme Court is not the only federal authority to have weighed-in on this important concern.  The executive branch has done so as well.  President Bill Clinton signed FOUR laws that explicitly allow religious organizations to retain their right to staff on a religious basis when they receive federal funds.  The 1996 welfare reform law (the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (through the Children’s Health Act of 2000), the Community Services Block Grant Act of 1998, and the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 each has language crafted in the tradition both of the Civil Rights Act and of the amendment we will offer later this week.

We urge you to join us in supporting our amendment to H.R. 2123 that will make clear that faith-based organizations are not required to surrender their religious identities as a condition of participating in Head Start.  For further information on this issue, please contact the Education and the Workforce Committee majority staff at 5-4527.

Sincerely,