MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - President Bush on Tuesday urged the Democratic-led Senate to pass a bill making it easier for faith-based groups to get federal funds to offer social services to ease ``despair and worry and hopelessness.''
A version of the legislation, a signature issue of Bush's agenda during the 2000 presidential election, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives but there appears to be little momentum behind it in the Senate.
In a speech in Wisconsin, the president called on the Senate to move on the legislation despite what many in Congress see as the slim chances before the November midterm election.
``Get it on my desk so I can sign it and we can get forward with the goal of making sure America is better for every citizen,'' Bush said in an appeal aimed largely at Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat.
``In our plenty, there are pockets of despair and hopelessness,'' he said. ``And so long as there's that despair and worry and hopelessness, this nation must do something about it.''
The Senate Finance Committee has approved a watered-down version of the legislation, reducing the amount of charitable donations that people who do not itemize their federal taxes may deduct, and the Senate itself has yet to schedule a vote.
However, Bush aides said the Senate version did include a provision to end a practice in which charitable groups with religious-sounding names were discouraged from applying for federal funding for their social service activities.
``Sometimes faith-based groups are prohibited or discouraged from even applying for federal grants,'' Bush said. ``The federal government should not ask, 'Does your organization believe in God?' ... They ought to ask, 'Does your program work? Are you saving lives? Are you making a difference in people's lives?'''
``Obviously we're not going to use taxpayers' money to ... to promote religion. But we should use taxpayers' money to help people change their lives, so they can realize the American experience and the American dreams,'' he added.
Bush aides said Daschle had promised to put the legislation on the Senate calendar.
Congressional staffers said that the legislation was on the Senate majority leader's ``wish list'' but they noted there were a lot of competing priorities, including the appropriations legislation that funds the government and homeland security legislation to better protect the United States from attacks.