[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 6 (Monday, February 11, 2002)]
[Pages 193-194]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks During a Meeting With Congressional Leaders

February 7, 2002

Faith-Based Initiative

    President Bush. I want to welcome Senator Lieberman and Senator 
Santorum and the delegation of U.S. Senators from both parties here at 
the Oval Office, to herald a great accomplishment, which is an agreement 
to move a Faith-Based Initiative out of the United States Senate.
    All of us in this room share a priority and insist that people who 
don't have hope can find hope; people who wonder about the American 
Dream will realize the American experience is meant for them. One way to 
ensure that is to unleash these fantastic armies of compassion which 
exist all across the country.
    And Government ought to stand on their side. We're in complete 
agreement that Government should not discriminate against faith-based 
programs, but it should encourage them to flourish. And so I welcome so 
very much the Senators here to get this really important piece of 
legislation through.
    This legislation will not only provide a way for Government to 
encourage faith-based programs to exist without breaching the separation 
of church and state; it will also encourage charitable giving, as well. 
And we have an opportunity to capture the compassion of the country, 
focus it in the right direction. And because of the Senators here, we're 
taking a big step in that direction.
    So Senator Lieberman, the lead sponsor, thank you for being here, 
appreciate you coming.
    Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. Thank you, Mr. President. Thanks for 
your leadership on this, and thanks to Senator Santorum and all our 
colleagues and our staffs that worked very hard on this. I have always 
believed that faith, right from the beginning of this country, was one 
of the great unifiers of the American people. And faith has been strong 
enough to unify all of us as we went forward to find a constitutionally 
appropriate way to have a Faith-Based Initiative, to help people who 
want to do good works and whose desire to do good works is motivated by 
their faith.
    This proposal really will matter to people. It creates some very 
important tax incentives for greater charitable giving, including saying 
to nonitemizers--and Mr. Secretary, you correct me, but I think 
something like 75 percent of taxpayers do not itemize.
    Secretary Paul H. O'Neill. That's right.
    Senator Lieberman. And it will give individuals an additional $400 
deduction for charitable giving and couples an additional $800. That's a 
lot stronger, with all respect, than the comparable House bill. And I 
think it really will motivate more charitable giving. There are other 
tax incentives, as well.
    We also have an agreement to increase funding for a group of social 
service programs, including, particularly, the Social Service Block 
Grant Program, which is very

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important to our States and very important to a lot of nonprofit 
organizations, including faith-based organizations that now use it to do 
good works. We have also here--and I mention that this is 
constitutionally appropriate--but we have responded here in this 
proposal to the evidence presented by your Faith-Based Office, John 
DiIulio, last summer, I believe, and the study that showed that there 
was some sense of not fairplay totally toward faith-based groups as they 
applied for Government funding.
    And this says that if you qualify otherwise, you can't be 
discriminated against in applying for a grant to do social service work 
if you have a cross on the wall or a mezuzah on the door or if you 
praise God in your mission statement. And that's the way it ought to be. 
So this is a real step forward.
    I remember when we stood together last year over in Anacostia on the 
day you announced your desire to have this Faith-Based Initiative, I was 
proud to support you. And I said then, because we were talking in 
general terms, that the devil--if I may use that term advisedly--
[laughter]--would be in the details. The details along the way, Congress 
being what it is, turned out to be quite devilish. But in the end here 
today, I think we've put the good Lord right into the details.
    President Bush. Yes, thank you.
    Senator Lieberman. And I'm proud to be part of it. I thank you.
    President Bush. Thank you, sir. Thank you all. See you a little 
later on.

Note: The President spoke at 2:05 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of this address.