[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 241 (Monday, December 16, 2002)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 77141-77144]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-31831]
[[Page 77139]]
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Part III
The President
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Executive Order 13279--Equal Protection of the Laws for Faith-Based and
Community Organizations
Executive Order 13280--Responsibilities of the Department of
Agriculture and the Agency for International Development With Respect
to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 241 / Monday, December 16, 2002 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 77141]]
Executive Order 13279 of December 12, 2002
Equal Protection of the Laws for Faith-Based and
Community Organizations
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 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
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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. 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,
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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.
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
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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.
(Presidential Sig.)B
THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 12, 2002.
[FR Doc. 02-31831
Filed 12-13-02; 12:09 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P