Religious Charities Get More Federal Money

[Judi Lynn]

Religious Charities Get More Federal Money
More Federal Money Going to Religious Charities, White House Says

By JENNIFER LOVEN

WASHINGTON Mar 9, 2006 (AP)— The Bush administration says it is making steady progress in steering more federal taxpayer dollars to religious charities.

In the budget year that ended Sept. 30, religious charities received $2.15 billion in federal grants to administer a range of social service programs for the needy. That represented 10.9 percent of the total grants from the seven federal agencies such charities were eligible to apply to in fiscal 2005, according to a White House report obtained by The Associated Press.

The Housing and Urban Development Department awarded the highest percentage of its competitive, discretionary funding to religious charities 24 percent while the Health and Human Services Department had the lowest at 7.4 percent.

The 2005 amount is 7 percent higher than the year before, when $2 billion or 10.3 percent of the total was awarded to religious charities, the report said.
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