[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 5 (Monday, February 5, 2001)]
[Pages 232-233]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing the
Faith-Based Initiative

January 29, 2001

    Good morning. Thank you all for coming. I take great joy in making 
this announcement. It's going to be one of the most important 
initiatives that my administration not only discusses but implements.
    First, it's good to have so many groups represented here: religious 
and nonreligious; Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, and Muslim; foundations 
and other nonprofits. I want to thank you all for coming.
    This is a collection of some of the finest America has got to offer, 
people who lead with their hearts and, in turn, have changed the 
communities in which they live for the better. This meeting is a picture 
of the strength and diversity and compassion of our country.
    This is a diverse group, but we share things in common. They provide 
more than practical help to people in need. They touch and change 
hearts. And for this, America is deeply appreciative.
    Everyone in this room knows firsthand that there are still deep 
needs and real suffering in the shadow of America's affluence. Problems 
like addiction and abandonment and gang violence, domestic violence, 
mental illness, and homelessness. We are called by conscience to 
respond.
    As I said in my Inaugural Address, compassion is the work of a 
nation, not just a government. It is more than the calling of 
politicians; it is the calling of citizens. It is citizens who turn mean 
streets into good neighborhoods. It is citizens who turn cold cities 
into real communities.
    It is one of the great goals of my administration to invigorate the 
spirit of involvement and citizenship. We will encourage faith-based and 
community programs without changing their mission. We will help all in 
their work to change hearts while keeping a commitment to pluralism.
    I approach this goal with some basic principles. Government has 
important responsibilities for public health or public order and civil 
rights, and Government will never be replaced by charities and community 
groups. Yet when we see social needs in America, my administration will 
look first to faith-based programs and community groups, which have 
proven their power to save and change lives. We will not fund the 
religious activities of any group, but when people of faith provide 
social services, we will not discriminate against them.
    As long as there are secular alternatives, faith-based charities 
should be able to compete for funding on an equal basis and in a manner 
that does not cause them to sacrifice their mission. And we will make 
sure that help goes to large organizations and to small ones, as well. 
We value large organizations with generations of experience. We also 
value neighborhood healers, who have only the scars and testimony of 
their own experience.
    Tomorrow I will begin turning these principles into a legislative 
agenda. I will send to Congress a series of ideas and proposals. Today I 
want to raise the priority and profile of these issues within my own 
administration. I want to ensure that faith-based and community groups 
will always have a place at the table in our deliberations.
    In a few moments, I will sign two Executive orders. The first 
Executive order will create a new office, called the White House Office 
of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The head of this office will 
report directly to me and be charged with important responsibilities. He 
will oversee our initiatives on this issue. He will make sure our 
Government, where it works with private groups, is fair and supportive. 
And he will highlight groups as national models so others can learn from 
them.
    The second Executive order will clear away the bureaucratic barriers 
in several important agencies that make private groups hesitate to work 
with Government. It will establish centers in five agencies--Justice, 
HUD, HHS, Labor, and Education--to ensure greater cooperation between 
the Government and the independent sector. These centers will report 
back on regulatory barriers to working with nonprofit groups, and make 
recommendations on how those barriers can be removed.
    I have put this broad effort into the hands of two exceptional 
people--first, Steve

[[Page 233]]

Goldsmith, known as one of the most innovative mayors in America, who 
pioneered ways to promote community efforts. He will continue to advise 
me on these issues.
    And I have asked Steve to serve on the board of the Corporation for 
National Service. This organization has done some good work in 
mobilizing volunteers of all ages. I've asked Steve to report to me on 
how we can make the Corporation do better and to get help where it's 
most needed.
    And secondly, Professor John DiIulio will head the new office I am 
announcing today. He is one of the most influential social entrepreneurs 
in America. I can't tell you how honored I am for him to leave his post 
in academia to join us. He is the author of a respected textbook on 
American Government. He has a servant's heart on the issues that we will 
confront. He's worked with disadvantaged children. He has been a major 
force in mobilizing the city of Philadelphia to support faith-based and 
community groups.
    It's a fantastic team. I'm honored to have them on my team. I look 
forward to hearing from them, as well as I look forward to working with 
the people in this room and the social entrepreneurs all across America 
who've heard the universal call to love a neighbor like they'd like to 
be loved themselves, to exist and work hard, not out of the love of 
money but out of the love of their fellow human beings. I'm absolutely 
convinced the great fabric of the Nation exists in neighborhoods, 
amongst unsung heroes who do heroic acts on a daily and hourly basis. 
It's the fabric of the country that makes America unique. It is the 
power of promise that makes the future so promising--is the power of the 
missions that stand behind me.
    This is an effort that will be an effort from now, the second week 
of my administration, to the last week of my administration, because I 
am confident that this initiative when fully implemented will help us 
realize the dream that America--its hopes, its promise, its greatness--
will extend its reach throughout every single neighborhood all across 
the land.
    And now it is my honor to sign the two Executive orders.

Note: The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. in the Indian Treaty Room at the 
Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building.