President Bush has signed an executive order directing
the Department of Homeland Security to establish a
Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives as
part of the department’s Preparedness Directorate by
April 20.
According to the order, the purpose of the Center is
“to coordinate agency efforts to eliminate regulatory,
contracting, and other programmatic obstacles to the
participation of faith-based and other community
organizations in the provision of social and community
services.”
To that end it directs the center to conduct a
department-wide audit to identify barriers to
incorporating civilian faith-based organizations and
other community organizations into DHS’s programs and
activities, and to propose ways to remove the barriers.
That could mean channeling Katrina relief funds directly
to churches and other groups, and building them into the
emergency response network. Churches helped Katrina
victims and are already eligible for some federal
reimbursement for their relief work, but the executive
order expands on that significantly.
While being able to mobilize local charitable groups
and others in the event of a crisis makes sense,
federal funding for religious organizations is rife
with controversy.
