news release from BARNEY FRANK
Congressman, 4th District, Massachusetts
April 14, 2003 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Peter Kovar Dorothy Reichard 202-225-9400 617-332-3920
Washington Office: 2252 Rayburn Building Washington, D.C. 20515 (202) 225-5931 www.house.gov/frank District Press Office: 29 Crafts Street Newton, Massachusetts 02458 (617) 332-3920
FIVE TOP DEMOCRATS CHALLENGE PRESIDENT’S LEGAL AUTHORITY TO REPEAL ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS IN FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE In a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft last week, the five senior Democrats who oversee committees with jurisdiction over issues raised by regulations issued under the President’s faith-based initiative challenged the Administration’s legal authority to undermine state and federal anti-discrimination laws without Congressional approval. Reps. John Conyers (D-MI), Lane Evans (D-IL), Barney Frank (D-MA), George Miller (D-CA), and Henry Waxman (D-CA) challenged the deletion of existing civil rights protections in the new faith-based rule proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development on January 6, 2003. They are Ranking Members, respectively, of the following House Committees: Financial Services, Education and Workforce, Veterans Affairs, Judiciary, and Government Reform. “At the federal level, the law currently prohibits religious discrimination in Community Development Block Grants,” Frank said. “At the state and local levels, a variety of laws protect people from religious discrimination. No matter how much the President wants to fund discriminatory organizations, he cannot do it in violation of the law, and we would hope the nation’s Chief Law Enforcement Officer would confirm this.” “The President explicitly asked Congress to allow federally-funded discrimination in his first faith-based proposal,” Frank said. “But that proposal could not pass Congress, and the Senate instead passed the CARE Act last week without any of the President’s discriminatory proposals in it. Therefore current law – which prohibits this kind of discrimination – must stand.”
“Obviously, neither Department regulations nor the President’s Executive Order can repeal a federal statute,” the five Democrats wrote Ashcroft. “Therefore, lest confusion result, we ask you to affirm that the anti-discrimination provisions of [current law] continue to be in legal force and effect, notwithstanding President Bush’s [faithbased executive orders and regulations].” The letter also seeks to clarify that the President cannot unilaterally pre-empt state and local law. The President’s original faith-based proposal sought to give federal money to organizations that discriminate in employment on the basis of religion even when funding this kind of discrimination was prohibited by state and local law. “When Congress strenuously objected to this violation of states’ rights,” Frank said, “the President and the supporters of this idea backed off the proposal. So we are writing the Attorney General to confirm that these promises to respect state and local laws are being kept. But if the Attorney General reads these regulations to overrule state law, we want to make it clear that such an attempt to make an end-run around Congress is illegal and unconstitutional.” A copy of the letter is attached. #####