Publications

Category: Policy or Legislative

Document Type: Report

This new report by the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy - a project of the Rockefeller Institute of Government with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts to produce independent, non-partisan research on the role of faith-based social service providers in America - documents that the absence of new legislative authority has not stopped the Bush Administration from using its executive powers to widely implement the Faith-Based Initiative throughout the federal government.

The Expanding Administrative Presidency: George W. Bush and the Faith-Based Initiative examines the steps taken to promote and implement the Faith-Based Initiative since it was first introduced by President Bush in January 2001. The report details changes in federal rules, bureaucracies, funding, and public outreach advanced by the Bush Administration to increase partnerships with faith-based groups to provide a vast array of human services. Religious organizations are now involved in government-encouraged activities ranging from building strip malls for economic improvement to promoting child car seats to distributing Medicare prescription cards.

While supporters hail these moves as a way of ending the exclusion of certain religious groups from public programs and widening the choice of providers, critics question whether efforts to remove barriers facing faith-based organizations have also weakened longstanding walls banning religious groups from mixing spiritual activities with their secular services.

Click here to read the Roundtable news release that highlights the report's findings.

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The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy
Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government

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