Senator Marco Rubio's (R-Florida) press release on the "Lifting Local Communities Act" recognizes that "churches and other faith-based organizations play a vital role in lifting up their communities."
"These organizations should not be discriminated against because of their faith or held back by bureaucratic red tape," he continues. "This bill would ensure that faith-based organizations do not have to compromise their beliefs to provide critical social services to those in need."
Kassie Dulin, director of government affairs for Texas-based First Liberty Institute, supports the legislation, calling it "excellent" and "vital to ensure that faith-based organizations like adoption and foster care services and soup kitchens and homeless shelters are able to operate according to their beliefs, and also that they won't be banned from getting federal dollars just because of their religious beliefs."
Like Rubio, Dulin recognizes that faith-based operations contribute to many communities and have done so for years.
"It's estimated that about $1.2 trillion of socio-economic value is added to the U.S. economy by faith-based organizations," she notes. "If they are unable to function or unable to receive federal dollars that secular organizations can get, that's not only going to harm them, but it's going to harm our communities, including those in our communities that need those services the most."
The measure has the backing of CatholicVote, the Faith & Freedom Coalition, Heritage Action, and the Family Research Council. It is also supported by Senators Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi), Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), and Rick Scott (R-Florida).
