[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 124 (Thursday, September 29, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10711-S10712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REIMBURSING CHARITABLE WORK
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, earlier this week the Washington Post
reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was making plans
to ``reimburse churches and other organizations that have opened their
doors to provide shelter, food and supplies to survivors of hurricanes
Katrina and Rita.''
I understand FEMA's good intentions here, but we need to be very
careful. There may be extraordinary circumstances when FEMA may need to
rent buildings that might happen to belong to a church or mosque or
synagogue. And I understand that under both Presidents George W. Bush
and Bill Clinton, there have been appropriate ways to provide
charitable choice and to fund faith-based organizations. I support
that. I am currently working with Senators on both sides of the aisle
on our Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on legislation
to help all of Katrina's 372,000 displaced schoolchildren, including
some who are enrolled in private and even religious schools. But the
kind of reimbursement described in the Washington Post article makes me
want to waive three yellow flags and two red ones.
One obvious concern is constitutional. The first amendment says that
``Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'' Paying churches for work
they choose to undertake as churches raises obvious questions. That is
not my major concern. My major concern is making sure that we honor
what it has always meant in America to be a volunteer, to be
charitable, and to respect our religious traditions.
When Jesus fed the loaves and the fishes to the multitude of 5,000,
he didn't send the bill to Caesar. As Americans with a strong religious
tradition, we believe in helping our neighbors. In the book of Mark,
Jesus tells us to ``love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength'' and to
``love their neighbor as thyself.'' This idea of loving and caring for
our neighbors is not limited to Christianity. Jesus himself drew the
commands to love God and love our neighbor from the Old Testament in
Deuteronomy and Leviticus. I don't ever remember reading: ``Love God,
love your neighbor, and send the bill to Washington for the expenses.''
From pioneer days, volunteering and helping our neighbors has been an
essential part of the American character. No other country in the world
has anything similar to what we have in their traditions. They do not
give as we give. They do not have that same spirit. It is one of the
things that makes this a unique country. Our forefathers would be
dumbfounded to think that if a neighbor's barn burned down and the
community joined together to rebuild it, that they would expect a check
from Washington, DC to pay them back.
In that same Washington Post article, Reverend Robert E. Reccord of
the Southern Baptist Convention helped put this in balance when he
said:
Volunteer labor is just that: volunteer. We would never ask
the government to pay for it.
At my church in Nashville, Westminster Presbyterian, where I am an
elder, we took up a collection for the victims of Katrina and raised
about $80,000 in cash. We then filled up the parlor in the church with
other things that we were told they needed in southern Mississippi. We
loaded up a truck with diapers and Clorox and other necessities, and
our associate pastor went down there with that truck for a few weeks to
help people in need. Are we now supposed to send the Federal Government
a bill for the food and the supplies and three weeks of the pastor's
salary? Of course not. No one in our church expects that, nor should
they.
So churches and synagogues and mosques and religious organizations
that are being good neighbors aren't looking for a Government handout.
They are looking to lend a hand. We should respect them. We should
thank them. We should honor them. They are performing an invaluable
service. We encourage them by providing tax incentives for charitable
giving. But we should also remember that virtue is often its own reward
and that some rewards are in heaven, and we should be very careful
before we start reimbursing churches for their charity.
I ask unanimous consent that the article from the Washington Post to
which I referred be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[[Page S10712]]
[From the Washington Post, September 27, 2005]
FEMA Plans To Reimburse Faith Groups for Aid--As Civil Libertarians
Object, Religious Organizations Weigh Whether To Apply
(By Alan Cooperman and Elizabeth Williamson)
After weeks of prodding by Republican lawmakers and the
American Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency
said yesterday that it will use taxpayer money to reimburse
churches and other religious organizations that have opened
their doors to provide shelter, food and supplies to
survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
FEMA officials said it would mark the first time that the
government has made large-scale payments to religious groups
for helping to cope with a domestic natural disaster.
``I believe it's appropriate for the federal government to
assist the faith community because of the scale and scope of
the effort of how long it's lasting,'' said Joe Becker,
senior vice president for preparedness and response with the
Red Cross.
Civil liberties groups called the decision a violation of
the traditional boundary between church and state, accusing
FEMA of trying to restore its battered reputation by playing
to religious conservatives.
``What really frosts me about all this is, here is an
administration that didn't do its job and now is trying to
dig itself out by making right-wing groups happy,'' said the
Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United
for Separation of Church and State.
FEMA officials said religious organizations would be
eligible for payments only if they operated emergency
shelters, food distribution centers for medical facilities at
the request of state or local governments in the three states
that have declared emergencies--Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama. In those cases, ``a wide range of costs would be
available for reimbursement, including labor costs incurred
in excess of normal operations, rent for the facility and
delivery of essential needs like food and water,'' FEMA
spokesman Eugene Kinerney said in an e-mail.
For churches, synagogues and mosques that have taken in
hurricane survivors, FEMA's decision presents a quandary.
Some said they were eager to get the money and had begun
tallying their costs, from electric bills to worn carpets.
Others said they probably would not apply for the funds,
fearing donations would dry up if the public came to believe
they were receiving government handouts.
``Volunteer labor is just that: volunteer,'' said the Rev.
Robert E. Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist
Convention's North American Mission Board. ``We would never
ask the government to pay for it.''
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf
Coast, religious charities rushed in to provide emergency
services, often acting more quickly and efficiently than the
government. Relief workers in the stricken states estimate
that 500,000 people have taken refuge in facilities run by
religious groups.
In the days after the disaster, house Majority Leader Tom
DeLay (R-Tex.) and other Republicans complained that FEMA
seemed reluctant to pay church groups. ``There are tons of
questions about what is reimbursable, what is not
reimbursable,'' DeLay said Sept. 13, noting that Houston
alone had ``500 or 600 churches that took in evacuees, and
they would get no reimbursement.''
Becker said he and his staff at the Red Cross also urged
FEMA to allow reimbursement of religious groups. Ordinarily,
Becker said, churches provide shelter for the first days
after a disaster, then the Red Cross takes over. But in a
storm season that has stretched every Red Cross shelter to
the breaking point, church buildings must for the first time
house evacuees indefinitely.
Even so, Lynn, of Americans United for Separation of Church
and State, said that federal reimbursement is inappropriate.
``The good news is that this work is being done now, but I
don't think a lot of people realize that a lot of these
organizations are actively working to obtain federal funds.
That's a strange definition of charity,'' he said.
Lynn added that he accepts the need for the government to
coordinate with religious groups in a major disaster, but not
to ``pay for their good works.''
``We've never complained about using a religious
organization as a distribution point for food or clothing or
anything else,'' Lynn said. But ``direct cash reimbursements
would be unprecedented.''
FEMA outlined the policy in a Sept. 9 internal memorandum
on ``Eligible Costs for Emergency Sheltering Declarations.''
Religious groups, like secular nonprofit groups, will have to
document their costs and file for reimbursement from state
and local emergency management agencies, which in turn will
seek funds from FEMA.
David Fukitomi, infrastructure coordinator for FEMA in
Louisiana, said that the organization has begun briefings for
potential applicants in the disaster area but that it is too
early to know how many will take advantage of the program.
``The need was so overwhelming that the faith-based groups
stepped up, and we're trying to find a way to help them
shoulder some of the burden for doing the right thing,'' he
said, adding that ``the churches are interested'' but that
``part of our effort is getting the local governments to be
interested in being their sponsor.''
A spokeswoman for the Salvation Amy said it has been in
talks with state and federal officials about reimbursement
for the 76,000 nights of shelter it has provided to Katrina
survivors so far. But it is still unclear whether the
Salvation Army will qualify, she said.
The Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Save America,
an antiabortion group formerly known as Operation Rescue,
said, ``Separation of church and state means nothing in time
of disaster; you see immediately what a farce it is.''
Benham said that his group has been dispensing food and
clothing and that ``Bibles and tracts go out with everything
we put out.'' In Mendenhall, Miss., he said, he preached to
evacuees while the mayor directed traffic and the sheriff put
inmates from the county jail to work handing out supplies.
Yet Benham said he would never accept a dime from the
federal government. ``The people have been so generous to
give that for us to ask for reimbursement would be like
gouging for gas,'' he said. ``That would be a crime against
heaven.''
For some individual churches, however, reimbursement is
very appealing. At Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean
Springs, Miss., as many as 200 evacuees and volunteer workers
have been sleeping each night in the sanctuary and Sunday
School classrooms. The church's entrance hall is a Red Cross
reception area and medical clinic. As many as 400 people a
day are eating in the fellowship hall.
Suzie Harvey, the parish administrator, said the church was
asked by the Red Cross and local officials to serve as a
shelter. The church's leadership agreed immediately, without
anticipating that nearly a quarter of its 650 members would
be rendered homeless and in no position to contribute funds.
``This was just something we had to do,'' she said. ``Later
we realized we have no income coming in.''
Harvy said the electric bill has skyrocketed, water is
being used round-the-clock and there has been ``20 years of
wear on the carpet in one month.' When FEMA makes money
available, she said, the church definitely will apply.
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