Washington, USA - President Bush said Thursday his administration is making steady progress in steering more federal taxpayer dollars to religious charities.
In the budget year that ended Sept. 30, religious charities received $2.15 billion in federal grants to administer a range of social service programs for the needy. That represented 10.9 percent of the total grants from the seven federal agencies such charities were eligible to apply to in fiscal 2005, according to a White House report.
"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," Bush said. "And that's changed, for the better.
"It's changed for the better for those who hurt in our society," he said. "So now when the government's making social service grants, money is awarded to groups that get the best results regardless of whether they're a faith based program. That's all people want. They want to acess to grant money on an equal basis, on a competitive basis, so there's no discrimination one way or the other."
He spoke before dozens of religious leaders invited to the annual White House conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
The Housing and Urban Development Department awarded the highest percentage of its competitive, discretionary funding to religious charities _ 24 percent _ while the Health and Human Services Department had the lowest at 7.4 percent.
The 2005 amount is 7 percent higher than the year before, when $2 billion _ or 10.3 percent of the total _ was awarded to religious charities, the report said.
The president has been pushing the idea of helping religious charities get a share of federal money since he first took office in 2001. He says a government culture that is unfriendly to religious groups must be changed so they have equal footing with nonsectarian social service providers competing for federal contracts.
He argues the charities are effective with the needy because of the shared values and religious identity of their volunteers and employees.
After Congress balked at legislation, Bush began using executive orders and regulations to accomplish his goal.
Critics take issue with the president's insistence that religious charities that receive taxpayer dollars could retain the right to hire and fire based on religion. Critics also have said Bush's initiative is designed mostly as a political tool, since the plan is popular with religious leaders who are influential in the Republican Party and are a core base of support for Bush.