This Week
Washington Watch
Maneuvering On Choice
Labels for opponents; role for Lieberman; blocking excavation.
JAMES D. BESSER
,
Washington Correspondent
ewish opponents of President
George W. Bush's plan to
make it easier for religious
groups to get federal money
to provide human services were
stunned by last week's surprisingly easy
House passage of a major charitable
choice bill. They are regrouping to
wage an all-out fight in the Senate.
The stakes have soared with last-
minute changes that critics say could
jeopardize existing social service pro-
grams run by religious groups, includ-
ing numerous Jewish federation agen-
cies, and multiply the measure's
church-state problems.
The biggest last-minute changes in the
House version of the Community
Solutions Act involved the way religious-
ly affiliated groups will get their money.
Under the original bill, funds would
go directly to programs such as drug
treatment centers and counseling serv-
ices run by religious charities.
But the House Judiciary Committee
will allow secretaries of the various
departments administering charitable
choice programs to shift much of the
funding from direct grants to vouch-
ers, which would be given directly to
clients who could use them at the
agencies of their choice.
The "voucherization" of charitable
choice was coupled to a huge cut in
funding for the program by the House
Ways and Means Committee, which
scaled back the promised tax incentives
intended to encourage charitable giving.
The result: many religious groups
that already get government money
under old, tougher church-state guide-
lines will be forced to compete for a
dwindling pie with groups that will be
able to apply under more relaxed rules.
Established programs will no longer
be assured of their funding, Jewish lead-
ers worry. Vouchers "will create a great
deal more competition," said Ronald
Soloway, executive director of govern-
ment relations for the UJA Federation
of New York. "The problem is how you
will be able to maintain existing pro-
grams in that situation — especially
when there is no new money."
Diana Aviv, United Jewish
Communities' national vice president
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2001
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for public policy, said the Jewish feder-
ation system is "vulnerable," and that
the combination of vouchers and less
money could force Jewish service
providers to redirect money to adver-
tising for clients just to keep afloat.
The biggest losers, she said, could be
new, small and innovative programs
that "need money before the first
client walks in the door."
Labels For Opponents
The stealthy inclusion of a vouchers
provision also changes the church-state
calculus for the initiative, said Michael
Lieberman, Washington counsel for
the Anti-Defamation League, who
labeled the House bill "the worst ver-
sion of charitable choice that Congress
has ever voted on."
Lieberman said that while the bill
contains restrictions on the sectarian
use of funds for money given directly
to agencies, it has none for money that
flows through vouchers.
With vouchers, religion-based pro-
grams could still not discriminate in
accepting clients, he said. "But once a
client is in a program, anything goes,
including proselytization."
Jewish supporters of charitable
choice, primarily in the Orthodox
world, dismiss those concerns. "In a
sense, vouchers provide the ultimate
protection against misuse, because
(clients) can decide for themselves
where they want to go for services,"
said Nathan Diament, director of the
Orthodox Union's Institute for Public
Affairs.
The new voucher provisions were a
primary reason the bill sailed through
the House last week despite earlier
opposition from conservative
Christian leaders, congressional
observers say. Another was the success-
ful effort by supporters to tar oppo-
nents as gay rights supporters.
Some Jewish groups are privately
urging big gay rights groups like the
Human Rights Campaign to take a
less prominent role as the battle heats
up in the Senate.
But charitable choice opponents,
too, have successfully attached harsh
labels to their adversaries.
"There has been a major effort to
define traditional religious beliefs and
groups as enemies of civil rights," said
the OU's Diament. "If you look close-
ly at the bill, that's just not true."
Role For Lieberman
With the charitable choice bill facing
long odds in the upper chamber, Sen.
Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., has emerged
as the likely dealbreaker or dealmaker.
Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, is a
strong supporter of faith-based solu-
tions to the nation's human service
needs, but he has echoed concerns by
civil rights groups that the House bill
could lead to widespread job discrimi-
nation using government money.
The lawmaker, who told the
Democratic Leadership Council that
he will probably introduce his own
bill, was due for a White House pow-
wow late in the week to hash out the
matter directly with President George
Bush.
"I've always believed that religion is
a source of unity in America, not divi-
sion," Lieberman said on Fox News
"Sunday." "Right now, this bill is
framed in a way that seems to have
divided us."
Jewish groups on both sides of the
debate are racing to lobby the lawmak-
er and his staff. That battle could pit
the observant senator against
Orthodox groups, which do not want
the measure modified to suit civil
rights groups.
"While we're gratified at the out-
come of the House vote, we have con-
cern about what might happen on the
Senate side," said Abba Cohen,
Washington director for Agudath
Israel of America, which supports
charitable choice. "We are very con-
cerned that a final bill fully protects
the rights of religious organizations."
That includes the right to hire only
employees who share their religious val-
ues — a sticking point for Lieberman.
The discrimination issue "has the
potential to be a poison pill," said
Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at
the conservative Hudson Institute.
"My guess is that Lieberman will
seek some kind of compromise that
will be palatable to both religious
and civil.rights groups. But he will
have to get inspiration from King
Solomon to come up with a proposal
that satisfies everybody."
Charitable choice opponents,
Wittmann said, have played a risky
game by focusing so much of their
effort on the job discrimination issue
and not on church-state questions.
"They've put too many of their egg
in one basket," he said. "If Liebermar
comes up with an innovative strategy
on discrimination, they may be in
trouble."
John Green, a University of Akron
political scientist who studies religion
and politics, said Lieberman faces bot
potential rewards and huge risks in th
battle.
A Lieberman-Bush compromise the
retains much of the House bill, Gree
said, "will anger a lot of the core
Democratic constituencies, including
civil rights groups and large parts of
the Jewish community."
But if Lieberman holds out for a bi
that bars religious discrimination, "h i
stature as a Democrat who takes reli-
gion seriously and has concern for tre
ditional values could be undermined.
One thing is clear: without a
Lieberman-engineered compromise,
charitable choice will be bottled up ii
the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Blocking Excavation
Congress, already considering legisla-
tion to "reassess" ties with Yasser
Arafat's Palestinian Authority and a
handful of resolutions critical of his
actions, is now looking into what
some say is the systematic destructioi
of Jewish artifacts on Jerusalem's
Temple Mount.
Last week, Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va
introduced the Temple Mount
Preservation Act, which would cut o
aid to the Palestinians until "all unau
thorized excavations of the Temple
Mount stop."
Cantor began with a list of 16
cosponsors, but congressional source
say the measure could quickly gathe
momentum because of rising frustra-
tion with Arafat's actions.
Continued Palestinian excavations
on the site, Cantor said is "one of th
most unprecedented attacks on reli-
gious heritage of our time."
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., a lead
cosponsor, admitted that the act was
also created to alter the U.S. role in t
Mideast peace process. The measure
reflects a "judgment of many in
Congress that America needs to get
of the middle of the table and shuffle
off the honest broker status of the
eight years, and move squarely to prc
mote the interests of Israel," he said.
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