By Chelsea Langston Bombino

June 26, 2018

Last month, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order revising the federal faith-based and community initiative. The initiative, first established by President George W. Bush and modified by President Obama, has maintained its basic principles and structure under the Trump administration.

Both the changes and the continuity were discussed in a recent podcast organized by the Religious Liberty Practice Group of The Federalist Society. IRFA founder and Senior Director Stanley Carlson-Thies, who served with the Bush White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, joined Melissa Rogers, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Executive Director of the Obama White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Carlson-Thies and Rogers addressed the changes in the current White House administration with respect to its role and continuity with the Centers for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives in major federal departments. Additionally, they discussed the President’s action to eliminate the guaranteed referral to an alternative provider that was instituted by the Obama administration.

The conversation also included a brief discussion on how action by the former Obama administration to prohibit federally funded programs discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and same-sex marriage poses a challenge for many faith-based providers of services. Devising a better way to protect all rights must be a top agenda item for the faith-based initiative in the current administration.

IRFA continues to engage with the administration about the partnership and how federal agencies can effectively connect with the wide range of community-serving organizations, both faith-based and non-religious.