On July 24, 2008, the House of Representatives voted to accept a Senate bill reauthorizing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The President is expected to sign it as soon as possible, to much fanfare, because of the popular program’s effectiveness in its first five years. Even though PEPFAR was working according to plan, Congress nonetheless decided to “fix” the program. The subsequent changes in policy suggest that the results from PEPFAR’s second five years are likely to be more mixed. The program’s successes were the result of …
In his speech today on faith-based programs, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) proposed that religious groups cannot compete for government contracts unless they give up their freedom to consider religion in their hiring decisions, a radical proposal that effectively repeals Charitable Choice: In order to receive federal funds to provide social services, faith-based organizations … must comply with federal anti-discrimination laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Religious organizations that receive federal dollars cannot discriminate with respect to hiring for government-funded social service programs. This is a …
