[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 10 (Monday, March 13, 2006)]
[Pages 418-423]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the White House National Conference on Faith-Based and 
Community Initiatives

March 9, 2006

    Thanks for coming. Appreciate you being here. Thanks for the warm 
welcome. This is the second White House National Conference on Faith-
Based and Community Initiatives, and I appreciate your attendance. I 
take this conference very seriously, and I'm glad you do as well.
    The last conference was in June of 2004. Some of you were probably 
wondering whether I'd be back for this conference. [Laughter] For those 
of you who did think I was going to be back, it was just as matter of 
faith. [Laughter] I appreciate you being here. It's good to see some old 
faces--on some young people--and some new faces.
    I want to thank my Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, for 
introducing me. I appreciate Secretary Elaine Chao, the Department of 
Labor; Secretary Jim Nicholson. It's a good sign when Cabinet members 
come. It shows a commitment beyond just the President.
    I appreciate my friend Jim Towey. I don't know if you know Towey. 
There he is. His job has been to make sure that the Faith-Based and 
Community-Based Initiative becomes an integral part of the Government 
and that the White House effectively reaches out to people to assure 
them that if they participate in the faith-based initiative, they won't 
have to lose their faith. It's hard to be a faith-based program if you 
can't practice your faith, no matter what your faith may be. And I'm 
proud of the work that Towey has done.
    Every time I talk about Towey, I always bring up the same old, tired 
line about him, but I might as well try it one more time. So he was 
Mother Teresa's lawyer. And I always wonder about a society where Mother 
Teresa actually needed a lawyer, you know? [Laughter] But she--they 
picked a good one in Towey.
    I want to thank Acting Administrator Fred Schieck of the USAID. He's 
here because USAID must continue to reach out to faith-based programs in 
order to make sure that we fulfill missions around the world in a 
compassionate way. Stephen Goldsmith, who is the Chairman of the 
Corporation for National and Community Service, is with us. Steve, 
thanks for being here.
    Congressman Tom Osborne--where is the Congressman? He's somewhere 
here. Anyway, I appreciate you coming, Congressman. Dr. Jim Billington, 
who is the head of the Library of Congress--Dr. Billington, thank you 
for coming. Leaders in the armies of compassion--those would be your 
sergeants, your lieutenants, and a few generals--thank you all for 
joining. And I appreciate members of the corporate community who have 
joined us, and foundation America, that has joined us as well. This is 
an important conference.
    We meet at a time of great hope for the country. In my State of the 
Union--I stated this, and I believe it firmly--that America is 
witnessing a quiet transformation, a revolution of conscience, in which 
a rising generation is finding that a life of personal responsibility is 
a life of fulfillment. Part of being personally responsible in America 
is to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. And for 
those of you who are finding those who have heard the call to help 
interface with those in need, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. 
You represent the true strength of the United States of America.
    Statistics matter, and you'll hear me talk about some of the results 
of the faith-based initiative. It's hard to be a results-oriented 
society unless you actually focus on results. I'd like to share some 
results with you to boost my belief that there is a quiet transformation 
taking place. Violent crime rates have fallen to their lowest level 
since the 1970s. Welfare cases have dropped by more than half. Drug use 
amongst youth is down 19 percent since 2001. There are fewer abortions 
in America than at any point in the last three decades. The number of 
children born

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to teenage mothers has fallen for a dozen years in a row. I attribute 
the success of these statistics to the fact that there are millions of 
our fellow citizens all working to help people who hurt, working toward 
a better tomorrow.
    There's a lot of work to be done, obviously. We still have pockets 
of poverty where people wonder whether or not the American experience 
belongs to them. We have place where there is hopelessness and despair. 
We've got people that are homeless. We've got addicts trapped into a, 
what appears to them, I'm certain, kind of a never-ending cycle of 
despondency.
    In answering the challenges, staying focused on helping change 
America one person at a time is a vital part of government, corporate 
America, philanthropic America, and the faith and community-based 
programs. It's got to be our continued focus. Even though statistics are 
improving, so long as we find anybody who hurts, we all should recognize 
that we hurt. It's the collective conscience of America that really 
helps define the nature of our country, and it gives me great optimism 
for the future of our country.
    You know, it's interesting, as I--one of my jobs is to constantly 
herald our strengths. I think when people recognize if you deal with 
problems from your position of strength, it's more likely you'll be able 
to solve problems. And what's interesting about the conscience of our 
country is that it was first recognized by de Tocqueville. I often speak 
about Alexis de Tocqueville and his observations about what made America 
unique and different in the 1830s. He talked about voluntary 
associations, of people all coming together to achieve a common good.
    That's what you've done. You're representing voluntary associations 
of people all aiming to achieve the common good. And the common good is 
achieved in America when we help people who hurt, when we provide 
mentors for people who need love, when we provide food for those who are 
hungry, and we provide shelter for those who need shelter.
    Our job is to make sure that the spirit that de Tocqueville saw is 
not only relevant today but stays alive and well throughout the 21st 
century. There's forever going to be a need of compassionate help in our 
society. And for those of you who are on the frontlines of social 
entrepreneurship, thank you for setting such a good example.
    Part of this conference is to make sure that you receive 
encouragement. The other part is to make sure you've got the tools 
necessary to succeed. Part of the tools necessary to succeed is to help 
philanthropic America understand it's okay to support faith-based 
institutions.
    We've got fantastic corporate foundations in America who recognize 
that we all ought to focus on results, not process; that the question 
government and private philanthropy ought to ask is, does the program 
get the results that we all want, as opposed to, what is the nature of 
the people trying to get results? When you focus on results, all of a 
sudden it becomes crystal clear how best to spend resource dollars to 
achieve certain objectives.
    And today, I met with some folks earlier that talked about their 
foundations and how their foundations recognize the importance of 
achieving results--funding results-oriented programs, regardless of 
whether or not they're faith-based or not.
    And for those of you who have set the example, I want to thank you 
very much, but the truth of the matter is that a recent survey of our 
Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, headed by Towey, of 20 
large corporate foundations, found that only about 6 percent of their 
grants went to faith-based groups. I believe the results are better than 
that. I am confident that the faith community is achieving unbelievable 
successes in--throughout our country.
    And therefore, I would urge our corporate foundations to reach 
beyond the norm, to look for those social entrepreneurs who have been--
haven't been recognized heretofore, to continue to find people that are 
running programs that are making a significant difference in people's 
lives.
    When we studied 50 large foundations, we found that one in five 
prohibited faith organizations from receiving funding for social service 
programs. In other words, there's a prohibition against funding faith 
programs from certain foundations in the country. I would hope they 
would revisit their charters. I

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would hope they'd take a look at achieving social objectives--make the 
priority the achievement of certain social objectives before they would 
make the decision to exclude some who are achieving incredible progress 
on behalf of our country.
    I believe all of us, no matter what level of government we're in--
Federal, State, and local--and I believe all of us, no matter if we're 
private or pubic, ought to allow religious organizations to compete for 
funding on an equal basis, not for the sake of faith, but for the sake 
of results.
    The Tax Code can be--can encourage contributions. We had an 
interesting discussion from a person earlier that said that the level of 
giving in America is substantial, but it can be more. We all can do our 
part, individually, but the Tax Code can help as well. I've got some 
interesting ideas to help philanthropy here in America. One of them is 
to allow corporate America to deduct--take larger tax deductions for 
food donations.
    If one of the issues--[applause]--it's kind of a specialized 
request, I admit it. But if one of the issues is to get food to the 
hungry, it makes sense to provide incentives for people who have got the 
wherewithal to be able to provide the resources to get the food headed 
toward the hungry in the first place. I think it will help those of you 
who are worried about getting food to people, to know that providers of 
resources will be given an economic incentive to do that. That, 
hopefully, will make it easier for you to get the product to distribute.
    Secondly, seniors now have to pay taxes on a portion of their 
individual retirement account savings, and so why not allow them to take 
part of that money and send it to charitable organizations, as opposed 
to paying tax on it. So let me give you some practical ways that the 
Government--[applause]. I hope the Senate and the House takes these 
initiatives seriously, so that they recognize the Tax Code has got an 
important part of helping make sure that there's more than just talk 
behind the Faith-Based and Community-Based Initiative.
    Government has got a role to play. As you know, this has been quite 
a controversial subject here in the United States Congress. We believe 
in separation of church and state--the church shouldn't be the state, 
and the state shouldn't be the church. No question that's a vital part 
of the country, and that's a vital part of our heritage, and we intend 
to keep it that way. But when it comes to social service funding, the 
use of taxpayers' money, I think we're able to meet the admonition of 
separation of church and state and, at the same time, recognize that 
faith programs provide an important model of success. They help us 
achieve certain objectives in our country.
    It used to be that groups were prohibited from receiving any Federal 
funding whatsoever because they had a cross or a star or a crescent on 
the wall. And that's changed, for the better. It's changed for the 
better for those who hurt in our society. And so now, when the 
government is making social service grants, money is rewarded to 
groups--awarded to groups that get the best results, regardless of 
whether they're a faith-based program or not. That's all people want. 
They want access to grant money on an equal basis, on a competitive 
basis, so there's no discrimination one way or the other.
    I repeat to you, and I'm going to say this about five times, I'm 
sure: Our job in Government is to set goals and to focus on results. If 
you're addicted to alcohol, if a faith program is able to get you off 
alcohol, we ought to say, ``Hallelujah and thanks,'' at the Federal 
level.
    One of the things I asked old Jim Towey to do was to let me know if 
we're making any progress. You know, a lot of people around the country 
say, ``Politicians are good at talking, but sometimes they don't really 
follow through.'' It's kind of like, the check is in the mail. So I 
said, why don't you give us a score card, and I want to share with you 
some of the results that has taken place over the last year. The Federal 
Government awarded more than $2.1 billion in competitive social service 
grants to faith-based organizations last year. That's an increase of 7 
percent over the previous year, and that is 11 percent of all Federal 
competitive social service grants. We're making progress about creating 
a level playing field for people to be comfortable in, one, applying for 
grants, and two, when receiving a grant--and then

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actually getting the money out the door to social service organizations.
    For example, $780 million in grants was distributed through the 
Department of Health and Human Services. USAID gave $591 million worth 
of grants. These are the faith-based organizations--$521 million through 
HUD. And so going from ground zero to today, we're making progress. I 
can tell you why; it's because we're measuring.
    A lot of people were nervous about applying for grants. I can 
understand that, you know. They said, ``Why in the world would I want to 
interface with the Federal Government? [Laughter] They may try to run my 
business. They may want to try to tell me how to conduct--how to run my 
program.'' We've done a good job, I think, through these different 
faith-based offices and throughout our government of assuring people in 
the government, don't--look, don't tell people how to run their 
business, accept the way they are, and focus on results. And part of the 
reason we had these conventions and these outreaches, regional 
outreaches, is to assure people that the role of the government is to 
fund, not to micromanage how you run your programs. I repeat to you, you 
can't be a faith-based program if you don't practice your faith.
    We've launched some other initiatives which some of you are involved 
with--programs to help those who are addicted find treatment. We've 
talked about mentors for children of prisoners. And for those of you 
involved in the mentoring program for children of prisoners, I want to 
thank you on behalf of a grateful nation. You are providing a fantastic 
service to help make sure the future is bright.
    Can you imagine what it would be like growing up with your mom or 
dad in prison? Maybe some of you have. It's got to be a heartbreaking 
experience. And a lot of these kids just cry for love. And to help find 
a loving soul who is willing to embrace a child and to stay with that 
child is a wonderful contribution to the country, and it makes sense for 
the Federal Government to provide funding for such programs.
    We are helping prisoners transition back into society. We want to 
help small service organizations gain capabilities. One of the things 
that some of you who have been involved with the faith-based community 
understand, that, you know, the big guys get rolling and kind of get a 
nice head of steam up, and there doesn't seem to be much focus on 
smaller organizations, some of which are just getting started. Our job 
is to make sure that the Compassion Fund helps startups. I don't want to 
sound like a business guy, but there are some people just getting 
started; they need tutoring; they need help. But they can provide a 
vital service.
    One reason faith programs exist is because some good soul sees 
there's a demand. And they may not be the well-established organization, 
and it seems like to me, it's a proper use of resource to help startups, 
new social entrepreneurs, small social entrepreneurs get their feet on 
the ground to provide compassionate help, alongside the big ones. 
[Applause] There you go.
    There's other targeted programs, as well as social service 
competitive grant money. And I'm sure you're being briefed on--I hope 
you're being briefed on all this during this conference. You ought to 
feel comfortable about making sure that your program has a chance to 
participate in a myriad of opportunities. We want you to do that. We 
welcome your participation. We want involvement.
    The other thing is, we're trying to work hard is to change the 
culture here in Washington. The faith-based program is relatively new, 
and it takes a while for cultures to change, and we want people 
throughout the bureaucracies to not fear the involvement of faith 
programs and community-based programs in the compassionate delivery of 
help. And one of the real challenges we have is at the State and local 
governmental level. We've made good progress, by the way, here at the 
Federal level, on competitive grant money.
    See, a lot of money that comes out of Washington is formula-driven. 
It just kind of flows out. And so sometimes that money goes to the 
States, and the States are the decisionmakers as to whether or not a 
faith program can be involved in the--in receiving that money to help 
meet social objectives. We are constantly working with Governors and 
mayors to convince them that having a faith-

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based office in their respective centers of responsibility will really 
help improve their State, as well as the--as well as their cities.
    And there's progress being made there. I think there's something 
like 30 Governors have now got faith-based offices, and over 100 mayors 
have got faith-based offices. And to the extent that you can influence 
your mayor or your Governor, convince them to open up an office and make 
sure that some of the Federal money that flows to the States is open for 
competitive bidding for faith-based programs.
    By the way, we just set up a new faith-based and community office in 
the Department of Homeland Security. Last month, I signed a bill 
extending what's called charitable choice; it's a mechanism by which 
these programs can go forward. And it's--one of the most important 
things about the legislation I signed, it allows faith-based groups to 
receive Federal funding without changing their hiring practices. This is 
going to stay around for another 5 years. In other words, the bill 
extended the life of the charitable choice provision in the welfare 
reform law by another 5 years.
    I would hope Congress would recognize the importance of charitable 
choice and extend it forever. I mean, if it makes sense today, it makes 
sense forever.
    You know, one of the things that really inspires me is when I get to 
meet folks who are on the frontline of changing America one soul at a 
time. And today I had the privilege of meeting a woman named Dana 
Ingram. She's with us. She is the founder of a faith-based housing and 
financial service organization in Hinesville, Georgia, called JC Vision. 
This is an organization that provides financial counseling and 
assistance in receiving credit and securing a home loan.
    See, one of the things that I know is important for the future of 
the country is to promote ownership. I really like the idea when 
somebody opens the door of the place they're living, and says, ``Welcome 
to my home. Welcome to my piece of property.'' And this lady--and Dana 
is involved with counseling. Look, face it, when you look at a mortgage 
deal, all that fine print makes some people nervous. It makes me 
nervous. [Laughter] Of course, I'm in temporary housing. [Laughter]
    When she first--a few years ago, her program served 500 people on a 
budget of less than $100,000. She applied for Federal funding. She said, 
``Yes, I'm a faith-based program, but I do believe that we can benefit 
from competitive grant money.'' And so she applied, and she was awarded 
a grant. Her budget is now $400,000. Now she's serving 10,000 people. 
The idea is to promote successful programs, to focus on whether or not 
these programs are successful. And if they are, encourage them. One way 
to encourage somebody is to have a little grant money available on a 
competitive basis--nothing more encouraging than to get some grant 
money. And so Dana is encouraged, and she's expanding her program.
    One of the really successful programs in America is a program called 
Teen Challenge. I don't know if you're aware of Teen Challenge. So 
Pastor Arthur Stafford is with us. Arthur works at Teen Challenge New 
Haven. Notice I didn't say, ``Mister.'' I said, ``Pastor.'' Teen 
Challenge is a faith-based program.
    And he is a--his program is aimed, like many of the Teen Challenge 
programs, at helping young folks overcome addiction to drugs, which 
oftentimes lead to crime and other problems. Not long ago, funding 
constraints limited how many people Teen Challenge in New Haven could 
host. And they spent--Arthur and his buddies spent a lot of time raising 
money for the program. For those of you who are on limited budgets who 
have got grand ambitions to save lives, you know how much time you can 
spend away from the task at hand toward finding money to sustain your 
programs. And so Arthur and Team Challenge competed for and earned a 
Federal grant through the Access to Recovery drug treatment program. For 
those of you involved in drug treatment, the Access to Recovery drug 
treatment program provides a good source of money for you. I recommend 
you applying for grants from that program.
    And so what Arthur has said is that--when he got the money--``It's 
been a blessing to our ministry.'' I find that interesting, don't you--
``It's been a blessing to our ministry. We're not worried about how to 
raise money all the time; we can focus on transforming lives.''

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    And so today Matt Enriquez is with us. So Matt comes in to meet the 
President. I said, ``How you doing, Matt?'' He didn't speak--he looked a 
little nervous. [Laughter] Matt was addicted to drugs. He had spent time 
because of robbery. He was lost, and then he was found by people at Teen 
Challenge. He is now going to college.
    Where are you, Matt? There he is. Where's Arthur? Pastor, stand up. 
[Applause] Yes, there you go. Get your Pastor, Matt. There he is. Thank 
you.
    So Matt now goes to the Connecticut Culinary Institute. If you're 
looking for a cook, he's your man. [Laughter] Here's what he said: ``The 
best thing about''--speaking about Teen Challenge--``is the love that's 
in the program. I had no idea what I wanted to do at all. This let me 
know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.''
    See, Government can pass law, and it can hand out money, but it 
cannot love. And so I want to thank--[applause]. I appreciate the 
examples--letting me use you as examples. America can change one heart 
at a time. Matt is living proof. America changes not only when a soul 
like Matt gets saved but the person who is involved with helping Matt 
also becomes a stronger and better citizen as well.
    And now Matt goes on. See, Matt himself serves as a way to help 
change lives. Maybe Matt--maybe somebody is listening here. I don't know 
if this deal is on C-SPAN or not, but if it is, maybe somebody is out 
there like Matt, who needs help and can find help at a Teen Challenge or 
another program, all aimed at helping somebody save lives.
    Matt, I know when you get your deal going and making a good living 
as a cook, you yourself will turn and help find somebody else find help 
too. So I appreciate you.
    Our job is--for the next 3 years, is to continue to work with 
Congress to make sure that money is opened up to faith-based programs. 
Competitive grant money should not be earmarked. It should be open for 
competitive-based grants so that--[applause].
    We'll continue to work with local and State officials to open up 
their programs to faith and community-based programs. I'm going to 
continue to work on individual choice programs. I like the idea of 
providing help for individuals by empowering them to be the 
decisionmaker. In other words, it makes a lot of sense to me to say to 
somebody who is trying to recover from a drug addiction, ``Here's the 
money to help you; you go pick the program that suits your needs so you 
can solve your problem.''
    And so we got a lot of work to do, to continue to encourage you to 
do the work you're doing. I am inspired by the love and compassion that 
I find as I travel the country. For those of you, by the way, who are 
involved with helping the Katrina folks, I want to thank you from the 
bottom of our Nation's heart for welcoming those who I'm sure felt lost, 
and then felt welcomed when a total stranger embraced them in a 
typically American compassionate way. I assure you that as long as I'm 
the President, I will always recognize where the strength of this 
country lies, the true strength--and that's in the hearts and souls of 
our fellow citizens.
    My hope is that the vision that de Tocqueville saw in 1830 is a 
vision that some observer will find still strong in America in the year 
2030 and 2060 and beyond. Because so long as America is able to unleash 
the compassion of our country, will it be able to bring hope into dark 
corners of our country, places where there is no light, places where 
there's despair, places where people can realize their potential if 
given a chance.
    And so I want to--for those of you who are a part of giving people a 
chance, for those of you who have heard the universal call, I thank you 
for your work and ask for God's blessings on your lives and on your 
work.
    Thanks for coming. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 11:58 a.m. at the Washington Hilton Hotel.