no author
July 18, 2001

Group Calls For Senate to Pass Faith-Based Initiative

[Editor's note: This press release descibes how a new organization created by Michael Joyce, formerly of the Bradley Foundation, is now attempting to generate political support for president George W. Bush's Faith-Based Initiative. An earlier press release described how Joyce would be creating two new organizations to create support for the initiative. One is headed by Joyce, the other by his second wife, Mary Jo Joyce]

[US NEWSWIRE]

Americans for Community, Faith-Centered Enterprise (ACFCE) Applauds House Passage of Faith-Based Initiative, Calls for Prompt Action in Senate

To: National Desk

Contact: Americans for Community and Faith-Centered Enterprise202-661-4740

WASHINGTON, July 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Michael S. Joyce, president of Americans for Community and Faith-Centered Enterprise (ACFE) [editor's note: a 501(c)(4) organization created in June to work for passage of Bush's Faith-Based Initiative] today applauded the passage in the United States House of Representatives of H.R. 7, the Community Solutions Act of 2001, and called on the United States Senate to pass the bill promptly and send it to President Bush for his signature.

"Today's vote to pass the Community Solutions Act of 2001 represents an important step forward in President Bush's effort to implement a compassionate and conservative social policy that provides a helping hand to the lost, the last and the least in our society," Joyce said. "We call upon the Senate to enact companion legislation without delay, so faith-based charities across the country can offer new hope and greater opportunities to our fellow citizens who are most in need of assistance."

The Community Solutions Act has the strong support of a broad, bipartisan and rapidly growing coalition of faith-based providers and charitable groups. Among the more than 50 national organizations supporting the bill are: the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Faith and the City, Habitat for Humanity International, the National Evangelical Association, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Prison Fellowship Ministries, the Family Research Council, the Islamic Institute, and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (see below).

The Act provides for $13.3 billion in new charitable tax deductions, expands charitable choice to allow faith-based organizations to compete for federal grants in many new areas of public assistance; prohibits discrimination against service providers and beneficiaries on the basis of religion, and authorizes the creation of Individual Development Accounts.

"The eloquent statements from such diverse leaders as His Eminence, Roger Cardinal Mahoney on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries, and the Honorable Andrew Young and the Honorable James T. Laney of Faith and the City are powerful indicators of the broad base of support the President's faith-based initiative has earned," Joyce said. "In the words of Messrs. Young and Laney, 'Let us work together to empower our many armies of compassion in communities of faith and elsewhere.'"

ACFE was formed in June, 2001 to educate policymakers and the public about the faith-based initiative, mobilize support for the initiative among charitable and public policy organizations, and communicate information about the initiative to a diverse and growing coalition of supporters. ACFE's president, Michael S. Joyce, a longtime innovator and activist in social policy, has been termed by the Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot as "the closest thing to the original source for what Mr. Bush is trying to accomplish."

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List of supporters:

-- American Association of Christian Schools

-- American Center for Law and Justice

-- American Renewal

-- American Values

-- Americans for Tax Reform

-- Association of Christian Schools International

-- Call to Renewal

-- Catholic Alliance

-- Catholic Health Association

-- Center for Law and Religious Freedom

-- Coalitions for America

-- Faith and the City

-- Family Research Council

-- The Good Works Coalition

-- Habitat for Humanity International

-- H.O.P.E. Center, Inc.

-- Hudson Institute

-- Independent Women's Forum

-- Institute on Religion and Public Life

-- Islamic Institute

-- Love in Action

-- National Adoption Foundation

-- National Association of Evangelicals

-- The National Baptist Convention, USA, Housing Commission

-- National Center for Faith-Based Initiative

-- National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise

-- National Hispanic Religious Partnership for Community Health

-- National Medical Association

-- National Restaurant Association

-- Neighbors Plus

-- New York Hispanic Clergy Organization

-- Ohio Baptist State Convention

-- Ohio Health

-- Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

-- Philadelphia Leadership Foundation

-- The Potter's House

-- Prison Fellowship Ministries

-- Religious Freedom Coalition

-- Republican Jewish Coalition

-- Reverend Luis Cortes

-- Rosa & Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development

-- The Salvation Army

-- SisterHood Incorporated

-- The Sixty Plus Association

-- Southern Christian Leadership Conference

-- Tennessee Conservative Union

-- Toward Tradition

-- Traditional Values Coalition

-- Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

-- United States Catholic Conference of Bishops

-- We Care America

-- World Vision

KEYWORDS:

RELIGION, POLICY

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/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/07/19 18:09