July 13, 2001

I. Foreign Aid

The House of Representatives is poised to act on the Foreign Aid Appropriations Bill, possibly as early as next week. Please call your members and ask them to oppose any efforts to reduce aid to Israel or to make changes in the terms of assistance to Israel; and to support final passage of the FY ‘02 Foreign Aid Appropriations Bill, which includes $2.04 billion in military aid and $720 million in financial assistance. The bill also contains important funding for other parts of the world, as well as funding for the U.S. refugee program. MEPCA: Urge Members to support the Middle East Peace Commitments Act (HR1795). During Committee deliberations language drawn from MEPCA was added to the Foreign Aid Appropriations Bill. The bill now stipulates new PLO compliance requirements. If the President deems that Palestinian leaders are not in substantial compliance with their commitment to renounce terrorism and discipline violators, sanctions could be imposed. Those sanctions include downgrading the PLO office in Washington; designating Fatah, Tanzim or Force 17 as a foreign terrorist organization; or eliminating non-humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Magen David Adom (MDA): The Foreign Aid Appropriations Bill also contains new language that supports international recognition of the MDA. U.S. assistance for the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would be prohibited unless the President determines that "the Magen David Society of Israel is not being denied participation in the activities of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement." This provision would not affect aid to the ICRC that is directed toward its humanitarian activity around the world. Also on MDA: Senators Fitzgerald and Clinton are inviting their colleagues to "sign on" to letters to Secretary of State Colin Powell and leaders of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to call for immediate action by the Movement to recognize and admit to full membership Israel's Magen David Adom Society with its emblem, the Red Shield of David. Please encourage your senators to join this initiative.

II. World Conference against Racism

Urge House Members to sign a "dear colleague" letter on the World Conference Against Racism." Representative Joseph Crowley (D-NY) is circulating a letter among his colleagues -- which will be sent to Secretary of State Colin Powell and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan -- expressing serious concern regarding the divisive and hate-filled tone emerging in preparations for the United Nations Conference Against Racism, specifically efforts to resurrect the old canard equating Zionism with racism. The letter thanks the leaders for their efforts up to this point and urges continued work to eliminate this type of provocative and inflammatory language from this conference.

III. Charitable Choice

The House of Representatives has placed H.R. 7, the "Charitable Choice" bill, on the calendar for a vote perhaps as early as Wednesday, July 18^th. This legislation would dramatically expand "charitable choice" programs for sectarian institutions and religious organizations. The JCPA and a broad coalition of religious, civil rights, and education organizations remain very troubled by this legislation. It fails to provide meaningful and effective First Amendment safeguards to prevent proselytizing activities, coercion or indoctrination. It also fails to protect clients and service provider employees from religiously based discrimination. Recommended Action: Immediately alert your leadership that this issue may come up next week and generate as many calls, letters, and e-mails as possible to Members of the House of Representative explaining why they should oppose this seriously-flawed legislation.

See ADL ISSUE BRIEF below:

ADL ISSUE BRIEF: HR 7: "CHARITABLE CHOICE" EXPANSION

BACKGROUND

For decades, "religiously-affiliated" social service agencies, such as Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities and Jewish Federations, have received very substantial direct government subsidies for providing a variety of quasi-governmental services. These groups, separately-incorporated from religious institutions (like churches and synagogues), have always operated under certain structural restrictions which guard against the possibility of any religious coercion or employment discrimination.

However, "charitable choice," first adopted as part of the 1996 welfare reform bill, mandates that whenever the Federal Government allows private organizations to perform social welfare services, the government must also allow sectarian institutions to have an equal opportunity to participate. For the first time, these provisions permit churches, synagogues, and other pervasively sectarian institutions to receive direct government funding -- without necessary firewalls -- to administer on-site social services and public health benefits on behalf of the government. In addition, "charitable choice" explicitly permits these institutions to discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring, firing, and promotion decisions for these federally-funded service programs.

OUTLOOK FOR THE 107^TH CONGRESS

The House of Representatives is now poised to consider, HR 7, the "Community Solutions Act of 2001," which would dramatically expand government funding to sectarian institutions and religious organizations. ADL supports the measure’s very modest tax incentives to promote corporate and private charitable giving, but we strongly oppose other provisions which expand "charitable choice" without essential safeguards. There is no Senate counterpart to this measure.

TALKING POINTS FOR OUTREACH TO MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE

** "Charitable Choice" is unconstitutional. These programs plainly violate the First Amendment's prohibition against direct funding that promotes religious beliefs. Allowing churches, synagogues, and mosques to take the place of government as the provider of essential services in a community will likely result in the kind of coercion that the Establishment Clause was designed to prevent.

** "Charitable choice" is bad public policy. These initiatives threaten to subject a large segment of American society to religious coercion -- at taxpayers' expense. Needy citizens may be directed to religious institutions where they may be proselytized or feel pressured to participate in religious practice in order to receive their benefits. In addition, "Charitable choice" explicitly creates, for the first time, the possibility of Federally-funded employment discrimination on the basis of religion.

** "Charitable Choice" is bad for religion. These programs raise serious concerns about the possibility of government entanglement with religious practices and are likely to result in unwelcome, divisive competition among religious groups before elected officials for scarce government funds.

** This particular measure takes several serious steps backward from even the minimal protections offered in previous "charitable choice" laws:

• Recipients of government contracts are explicitly permitted to discriminate in hiring and promotion decisions on the basis of religion;

• Program participants are not ensured access to secular alternative programs;

• Beneficiaries who receive indirect aid or vouchers for social welfare services can still be subjected to proselytizing, worship or religious instruction - under circumstances which would make such proselytizing virtually impossible to monitor;

• Extremists and hatemongers could receive taxpayer money.