Politics & Policy

BUSH TRIES TO REVIVE FAITH-BASED PROGRAMS WHILE PLEDGING TO HONOR SPEECH
CONCERNS

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is trying to resurrect one of the biggest
flops of his first year in office -- his initiative to give federal aid to
religious social-services groups.

And starting with a speech next week, Mr. Bush will signal that he has
learned some lessons from that failure. For one thing, he is working with
prominent Democrats from the outset. And this time around, he won't push
for allowing religious groups that accept federal aid to discriminate
against job applicants whose views or lifestyles they oppose, such as
homosexuals; that issue was a primary deal-killer in 2001. And Mr. Bush
will be more mindful of constitutional concerns about commingling God and
government, aides say.

"I have not given up on my faith-based initiative," Mr. Bush told a group
of mayors meeting at the White House Thursday. "I think we can get a bill
out of Congress."

The initiative stands atop a pile of unfinished business from Mr. Bush's
domestic agenda, after what was otherwise a remarkably successful first
year in which he enacted his tax-cut and education-reform proposals. While
war sidelined that agenda, Mr. Bush's test now, as he tries to revive the
proposals, is whether he will be heard above the din of investigations and
new reports related to the unfolding scandal behind the collapse of Enron
Corp., one of his biggest political supporters.

The unfinished business also includes a bill of rights for managed-care
patients, his energy plan, an economic-stimulus bill and a proposal to get
health coverage to more of the uninsured. The president will also promote
those issues in coming weeks, as part of the White House's overall campaign
to portray Mr. Bush as a "compassionate conservative" and to deflect
attention from the Enron story.

But Bush aides believe the initiative to help faith-based groups offers the
clearest example of Mr. Bush's particular brand of conservatism. A devout
Christian, he believes -- more passionately than many Republicans,
including many inside his administration -- that religious groups can play
a more prominent role in salving the country's social wounds.

Yet last year, his initial approach to the long-contentious
church-and-state issue created a "climate of suspicion and division that
made it impossible to pass anything," says Dan Gerstein, spokesman for Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut Democrat who has been talking with the
administration about a compromise. Now, the Lieberman aide adds, Mr. Bush
has made it clear he wants to "work on a truly bipartisan, consensus
package," one that seeks to broaden the bill's reach to all charities, not
just faith-based groups.

The Senate's Republican leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, agrees that the
White House's new tack "clearly makes it easier" to pass a bill, perhaps
early this year. Last year, he recalls, "some Democrats were resisting it,
some legitimately, because they felt it went too far in some areas."

Mr. Bush ideally would like to let all religious groups compete for
billions of dollars in government contracts to administer social programs,
such as those for drug addicts and alcoholics, without any change to their
faith-based practices. He also would encourage states to create offices for
spreading messages of spiritual awareness in their social-services departments.

But in Mr. Bush's first year, that vision for a partnership of government
and religious charities appeared to blind him to the political and
constitutional realities he faced. Bush aides concede privately that the
president badly miscalculated when he allowed conservative Republicans to
carry the legislative torch, a strategy that had worked with his tax cuts.
With his blessing, they wrote a bill that was needlessly partisan and
arguably unconstitutional, these aides acknowledge.

The fatal blow, however, came from the White House. Word leaked that top
Bush lieutenants, including political adviser Karl Rove, apparently assured
the Salvation Army that it wouldn't be subject to state antidiscrimination
laws, in exchange for its lobbying in support of the plan. Meanwhile, even
some conservative Republicans had started raising questions about the
constitutionality of the president's ideas. And then John DiIulio, a
Democrat who headed Mr. Bush's Office of Faith-based and Community
Initiatives, resigned in August, citing health reasons.

The post remains vacant, but aides say Mr. Bush plans to announce Mr.
DiIulio's successor in next week's speech, when he touts his scaled-back
version of his proposal for religious groups. Bush advisers will say only
that the new "faith czar" won't grate on Republicans and administration
officials as Mr. DiIulio sometimes did. Mr. DiIulio, an academic, opposed
the White House's initial strategy and often sparred with conservative
Republicans over the details of the faith-based initiative.

Mr. Bush is backing a plan that Sens. Lieberman and Rick Santorum, a
Pennsylvania Republican, are drafting. The compromise would enable more
taxpayers to take a break for charitable contributions, including to
churches, mosques or synagogues, as an incentive for more giving. It would
allow more religious groups to compete more easily for government
contracts. But beyond that, it would acquiesce to Democratic demands for
increased spending on government social programs. The latest draft
specifies several such programs, including a fund for assisting charities
of all types and denominations.

This emerging compromise received a boost earlier this month, when a panel
of religious and civil-rights leaders headed by former Sen. Harris Wofford,
a Pennsylvania Democrat, endorsed most of its ideas.

But it is sure to draw controversy, as well -- this time from some of Mr.
Bush's original allies among GOP social conservatives. When the details
emerge, according to one person involved in the negotiations, Republicans
will see this faith-based initiative as little more than an expansion of
"big government programs." And House Republicans already are gearing up to
fight Mr. Bush if his plan won't allow churches to discriminate in hiring.

While current federal law permits churches to consider a person's religious
views in hiring decisions -- even when the churches receive federal money
- -- some conservatives want Mr. Bush to go further and propose to override
state and local antidiscrimination laws.

House GOP aides say party leaders there might even try to sink the
president's initiative if he doesn't relent. In a recent letter to Mr.
Bush, 26 GOP House members, including Majority Leader Richard Armey and
Majority Whip Tom DeLay, said religious groups must be permitted to turn
away applicants "whose conduct and lifestyles are inconsistent with their
statements of faith and sincerely held religious views."

Yet the White House expects Mr. Bush ultimately to prevail, thanks to the
lesson he has drawn from his days as governor of Texas: Cut deals, claim
victory and get the credit -- even when you don't get everything you want.