WASHINGTON — Key senators on Tuesday put the brakes on President Bush's effort to channel more government money to religious charities, giving the White House time to fine-tune its proposal before the Senate acts on the more controversial parts of the package.
The decision to wait several months to a year to act on the "charitable choice" component of the package, which would allow government to fund religious-oriented social services, was made with the White House's agreement. It comes after vehement protests from both conservatives and liberals who feared the grants would corrupt government, churches or both.
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), the lead sponsor in the Senate of Bush's "faith-based initiative," said he would split the proposal in two. He said he would introduce in the coming days a bill that includes various tax incentives to encourage charitable giving, the component of the faith-based plan that attracts mostly broad, bipartisan support.
The more controversial component of Bush's plan, expanding the charitable choice law, would face an "incremental approach," Santorum said, with legislative action coming after the administration uses the current law as a "proving ground" for expansion. Charitable choice now applies to a few welfare programs; the new proposal would expand the provision to more programs in five Cabinet agencies. "My sense is we're looking within the next year for them to work out the bugs," Santorum said of the charitable-choice expansion. "The timing may be right then."
