[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 50 (Monday, December 16, 2002)]
[Pages 2156-2160]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Executive Order 13279--Equal Protection of the Laws for Faith-Based and
Community Organizations
December 12, 2002
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and
the laws of the United States of America, including section 121(a) of
title 40, United States Code, and section 301 of title 3, United States
Code, and in order to guide Federal agencies in formulating and
developing policies with implications for faith-based organizations and
other community organizations, to ensure equal protection of the laws
for faith-based and community organizations, to further the national
effort to expand opportunities for, and strengthen the capacity of,
faith-based and other community organizations so that
[[Page 2157]]
they may better meet social needs in America's communities, and to
ensure the economical and efficient administration and completion of
Government contracts, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Definitions. For purposes of this order:
(a) ``Federal financial assistance'' means assistance that non-
Federal entities receive or administer in the form of grants, contracts,
loans, loan guarantees, property, cooperative agreements, food
commodities, direct appropriations, or other assistance, but does not
include a tax credit, deduction, or exemption.
(b) ``Social service program'' means a program that is administered
by the Federal Government, or by a State or local government using
Federal financial assistance, and that provides services directed at
reducing poverty, improving opportunities for low-income children,
revitalizing low-income communities, empowering low-income families and
low-income individuals to become self-sufficient, or otherwise helping
people in need. Such programs include, but are not limited to, the
following:
(i) child care services, protective services for children and
adults, services for children and adults in foster care,
adoption services, services related to the management and
maintenance of the home, day care services for adults, and
services to meet the special needs of children, older
individuals, and individuals with disabilities (including
physical, mental, or emotional disabilities);
(ii) transportation services;
(iii) job training and related services, and employment services;
(iv) information, referral, and counseling services;
(v) the preparation and delivery of meals and services related
to soup kitchens or food banks;
(vi) health support services;
(vii) literacy and mentoring programs;
(viii) services for the prevention and treatment of juvenile
delinquency and substance abuse, services for the prevention
of crime and the provision of assistance to the victims and
the families of criminal offenders, and services related to
intervention in, and prevention of, domestic violence; and
(ix) services related to the provision of assistance for housing
under Federal law.
(c) ``Policies that have implications for faith-based and community
organizations'' refers to all policies, programs, and regulations,
including official guidance and internal agency procedures, that have
significant effects on faith-based organizations participating in or
seeking to participate in social service programs supported with Federal
financial assistance.
(d) ``Agency'' means a department or agency in the executive branch.
(e) ``Specified agency heads'' mean the Attorney General, the
Secretaries of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services,
Housing and Urban Development, and Labor, and the Administrator of the
Agency for International Development.
Sec. 2. Fundamental Principles and Policymaking Criteria.
In formulating and implementing policies that have implications for
faith-based and community organizations, agencies that administer social
service programs supported with Federal financial assistance shall, to
the extent permitted by law, be guided by the following fundamental
principles:
(a) Federal financial assistance for social service programs should
be distributed in the most effective and efficient manner possible;
(b) The Nation's social service capacity will benefit if all
eligible organizations, including faith-based and other community
organizations, are able to compete on an equal footing for Federal
financial assistance used to support social service programs;
(c) No organization should be discriminated against on the basis of
religion or religious belief in the administration or distribution of
Federal financial assistance under social service programs;
(d) All organizations that receive Federal financial assistance
under social services programs should be prohibited from discriminating
against beneficiaries or potential beneficiaries of the social services
programs on the basis of religion or religious belief.
[[Page 2158]]
Accordingly, organizations, in providing services supported in whole or
in part with Federal financial assistance, and in their outreach
activities related to such services, should not be allowed to
discriminate against current or prospective program beneficiaries on the
basis of religion, a religious belief, a refusal to hold a religious
belief, or a refusal to actively participate in a religious practice;
(e) The Federal Government must implement Federal programs in
accordance with the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of
the First Amendment to the Constitution. Therefore, organizations that
engage in inherently religious activities, such as worship, religious
instruction, and proselytization, must offer those services separately
in time or location from any programs or services supported with direct
Federal financial assistance, and participation in any such inherently
religious activities must be voluntary for the beneficiaries of the
social service program supported with such Federal financial assistance;
and
(f) Consistent with the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Speech
Clause of the Constitution, faith-based organizations should be eligible
to compete for Federal financial assistance used to support social
service programs and to participate fully in the social service programs
supported with Federal financial assistance without impairing their
independence, autonomy, expression, or religious character. Accordingly,
a faith-based organization that applies for or participates in a social
service program supported with Federal financial assistance may retain
its independence and may continue to carry out its mission, including
the definition, development, practice, and expression of its religious
beliefs, provided that it does not use direct Federal financial
assistance to support any inherently religious activities, such as
worship, religious instruction, or proselytization. Among other things,
faith-based organizations that receive Federal financial assistance may
use their facilities to provide social services supported with Federal
financial assistance, without removing or altering religious art, icons,
scriptures, or other symbols from these facilities. In addition, a
faith-based organization that applies for or participates in a social
service program supported with Federal financial assistance may retain
religious terms in its organization's name, select its board members on
a religious basis, and include religious references in its
organization's mission statements and other chartering or governing
documents.
Sec. 3. Agency Implementation.
(a) Specified agency heads shall, in coordination with the White
House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (White House
OFBCI), review and evaluate existing policies that have implications for
faith-based and community organizations in order to assess the
consistency of such policies with the fundamental principles and
policymaking criteria articulated in section 2 of this order.
(b) Specified agency heads shall ensure that all policies that have
implications for faith-based and community organizations are consistent
with the fundamental principles and policymaking criteria articulated in
section 2 of this order. Therefore, specified agency heads shall, to the
extent permitted by law:
(i) amend all such existing policies of their respective
agencies to ensure that they are consistent with the
fundamental principles and policymaking criteria articulated
in section 2 of this order;
(ii) where appropriate, implement new policies for their
respective agencies that are consistent with and necessary
to further the fundamental principles and policymaking
criteria set forth in section 2 of this order; and
(iii) implement new policies that are necessary to ensure that
their respective agencies collect data regarding the
participation of faith-based and community organizations in
social service programs that receive Federal financial
assistance.
(c) Within 90 days after the date of this order, each specified
agency head shall report to the President, through the Director of the
White House OFBCI, the actions it proposes to undertake to accomplish
the activities set forth in sections 3(a) and (b) of this order.
Sec. 4. Amendment of Executive Order 11246.
[[Page 2159]]
Pursuant to section 121(a) of title 40, United States Code, and
section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and in order to further the
strong Federal interest in ensuring that the cost and progress of
Federal procurement contracts are not adversely affected by an
artificial restriction of the labor pool caused by the unwarranted
exclusion of faith-based organizations from such contracts, section 204
of Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965, as amended, is hereby
further amended to read as follows:
``SEC. 204 (a) The Secretary of Labor may, when the Secretary deems
that special circumstances in the national interest so require, exempt a
contracting agency from the requirement of including any or all of the
provisions of Section 202 of this Order in any specific contract,
subcontract, or purchase order.
(b) The Secretary of Labor may, by rule or regulation, exempt
certain classes of contracts, subcontracts, or purchase orders (1)
whenever work is to be or has been performed outside the United States
and no recruitment of workers within the limits of the United States is
involved; (2) for standard commercial supplies or raw materials; (3)
involving less than specified amounts of money or specified numbers of
workers; or (4) to the extent that they involve subcontracts below a
specified tier.
(c) Section 202 of this Order shall not apply to a Government
contractor or subcontractor that is a religious corporation,
association, educational institution, or society, with respect to the
employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work
connected with the carrying on by such corporation, association,
educational institution, or society of its activities. Such contractors
and subcontractors are not exempted or excused from complying with the
other requirements contained in this Order.
(d) The Secretary of Labor may also provide, by rule, regulation, or
order, for the exemption of facilities of a contractor that are in all
respects separate and distinct from activities of the contractor related
to the performance of the contract: provided, that such an exemption
will not interfere with or impede the effectuation of the purposes of
this Order: and provided further, that in the absence of such an
exemption all facilities shall be covered by the provisions of this
Order.''
Sec. 5. General Provisions.
(a) This order supplements but does not supersede the requirements
contained in Executive Orders 13198 and 13199 of January 29, 2001.
(b) The agencies shall coordinate with the White House OFBCI
concerning the implementation of this order.
(c) Nothing in this order shall be construed to require an agency to
take any action that would impair the conduct of foreign affairs or the
national security.
Sec. 6. Responsibilities of Executive Departments and Agencies. All
executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall:
(a) designate an agency employee to serve as the liaison and point
of contact with the White House OFBCI; and
(b) cooperate with the White House OFBCI and provide such
information, support, and assistance to the White House OFBCI as it may
request, to the extent permitted by law.
Sec. 7. Judicial Review.
This order is intended only to improve the internal management of
the executive branch, and it is not intended to, and does not, create
any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or
in equity by a party against the United States, its agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees or agents, or any person.
George W. Bush
The White House,
December 12, 2002.
[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 12:09 p.m., December
13, 2002]
Note: This Executive order was published in the Federal Register on
December 16.
[[Page 2160]]