Washington Watch

Arctic Debate

Jews target of oil debate, faith-based initiative, school vouchers, Irnai Irrith sale.

Washington Correspondent

diversification of sources of energy.
That includes ANWR."

ewish groups are being
aggressively wooed by both
sides as a major fight nears
over oil drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
The administration and the
Republican leadership want to open
up parts of the 19 million acres to oil
drilling, citing America's growing
dependence on Mideast oil.
Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska,
the lead sponsor of the National
Energy Security Act, has been aggres-
sively courting Jewish groups in
recent days as the GOP leadership
looks for strategies to win enough
Democratic votes to get the measure
through the Senate.
Murkowski cites Israel's security as
one reason to press for the legisla-
tion, which he said would dramati-
cally decrease U.S. dependence on
foreign oil suppliers, including Iraq.
But some Jewish groups disagree.
Mark Jacobs, executive director of
the Coalition on the Environment
and Jewish Life, said, "This is a
manipulation of Jewish concern for
Israel; the focus on the refuge is a
dangerous distraction from what we
really need to be doing about energy
security." That includes things like
energy conservation and alternative
energy development, he said, not
risking a fragile ecosystem for mar-
ginal energy gains.
In a letter to lawmakers, Rabbi
David Saperstein, director of the
Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism, said, "The oil in the coastal
plain will not have any discernible
impact on decreasing foreign oil con-
sumption. Destroying a pristine
wilderness is not the way to provide
for our vital energy needs."
But other Jewish groups are stand-
ing up with Murkowski — literally. -
Representatives of the Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs
(JINSA) and the Orthodox Union
were scheduled to appear with the
lawmaker at a news conference.
Shoshana Bryen, JINSA's special
projects director, said, "Jewish groups
should be lining up to support any
legislation that provides for the

A decision by the White House and
the Senate leadership on how to sal-
vage what remains of President
Bush's controversial faith-based ini-
tiative could come as early as this
week. But the talk of compromise
hasn't penetrated the more conserva-
tive House.
•
Earlier this year, the House passed
a sweeping bill that included contro-
versial "charitable choice" provisions,
which would remove church-state
restrictions on religious groups that
want federal funding to provide
health and social services.
But the Democratic Senate balked;
Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-
S.D., has indicated that no bill con-
taining major charitable choice lan-
guage will see the light of day.
Facing the likelihood that its sig-
nature domestic issue would be
buried in Congress, the White
House entered . negotiations with
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Sen.
Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.
Santorum is an unabashed charita-
ble choice supporter; Lieberman
supports the concept, but shares
some of the concerns raised by
Jewish groups about the possible
impact on civil rights protections.
The administration is apparently
ready to accept a compromise for-
mula that would shelve charitable
choice for the time being, while
passing provisions designed to use
tax incentives to spur charitable giv-
ing.
Lieberman, Capitol Hill sources
say, is ready to go along.
Jewish groups that have supported
Bush's faith-based package say they
can live with a compromise — as
long as it isn't the last word on char-
itable choice.
"We've been working with
Lieberman and the White house to
help forge a consensus package that
will do some good for people in
need," said Nathan Diainent, direc-
tor of the Orthodox Union's
Institute for Public Affairs. "If we
have to do only some of what we

JAMES D. BESSER

•

Faith-Based

want now, we should; we shouldn't
let the perfect be the enemy of the
good."
Abba Cohen, Washington director
for Agudath Israel of America, said
conservative supporters "want iron-
clad assurances that charitable choice
will not be forgotten, that it will
reemerge next year full speed ahead."
But it is not at all clear that the
much more conservative House will
go along with the compromise being
worked out by the Senate and the
White House.
One big problem: money. The
House bill, passed this summer,
threw out the tax provisions intend-
ed to boost charitable giving because
leaders said they would cost too
much.
"With the economic slowdown
and the tremendous costs of the war
[on terrorism], this will be a big
issue in the Senate," said an official
with a major Jewish group that
opposes charitable choice. "And the
House has already made it clear they
don't want to spend more money on
social services — which is what these
tax provisions are really about."

School Vouchers

The issue of school vouchers is also
percolating just below the surface of
a capital that is preoccupied with the
ongoing war and the battered federal
budget.
Last week, supporters of
Cleveland's school choice program
filed their briefs with the Supreme
Court, which will decide the consti-
tutionality of that plan in the current
term. Opponents have another
month to get their legal acts together.
The Orthodox Union and Agudath
Israel of America joined in a friend-
of-the-court brief under the auspices
of the Jewish Commission on Law
and Public Affairs (COLPA). The
brief was authored by constitutional
lawyer Nathan Lewin, an OU board
member.
The American Jewish Congress is
contributing to a brief by civil liber-
ties groups opposing the Cleveland
program; the Anti-Defamation
league will file its own brief, arguing
that the Cleveland programs should

be declared unconstitutional.
The Cleveland case could provide
the long-awaited constitutional test
of vouchers. If the justices approve
the program, Jewish activists on both
sides of the debate say it will touch
off a flurry of state and federal
voucher legislation.
The court will hear the case early
in 2002; a decision is expected by
next summer. .

Landmark Sold

B'nai B'rith International is getting a
big financial boost. But in the
process, the group is also joining the
legion of Washington's homeless.
Late last week, the group signed a
tentative contract to sell its down-
town headquarters for $10 million.
The buyer: the Human Rights
Campaign, the nation's largest gay
and lesbian civil rights organization.
B'nai. B'rith officials have been
exploring a number of options for
unloading the eight-story building
only a few blocks from the White
House. The building is in need of
renovation, which B'nai B'rith —
fighting to reverse a decline in mem-
bership and revenues — can ill
afford.
Washington sources say the agree-
ment with HRC does not include
provisions for B'nai B'rith to move
back after the building is renovated.
Instead, the group will seek new and
smaller quarters in the Washington
metropolitan area.
The group will also have to find
new quarters for the B'nai B'rith
Klutznick Museum, a Jewish land-
mark in downtown Washington.
The decision means that a number
of Jewish groups that liave rented
space from B'nai B'rith in recent
years — including The National
Conference on Soviet Jewry, the
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the
Jewish Council for Public Affairs and
the Orthodox Union's Institute for
Public Affairs — will all be looking
for new offices.
The B'nai B'rith headquarters
building is a landmark for another
reason: in 1977, the building was
attacked by members of the Hanafi
Muslim sect.
Some 100 hostages were held in
the building and two other sites in
Washington for 39 hours. A number
of B'nai B'rith staffers spent the time
tied up in the eighth-floor confer-
ence room.
And in 1997, the building was the
target of a failed anthrax mail attack.

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11/16
2001

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