Joe Lieberman: “I am truly proud to join Senators Santorum, Bayh, Brownback, Bill Nelson, Cochran, Carnahan, Lugar, Clinton and Hatch in…”

“I am truly proud to join Senators Santorum, Bayh, Brownback, Bill Nelson, Cochran, Carnahan, Lugar, Clinton and Hatch in introducing the Charity Aid, Recovery, and Empowerment, or CARE, Act. This important bill responds to a significant problem facing our nation: the social service needs of far too many of our fellow citizens continue to go unmet, and we in Congress must do more to bring additional resources to people in need and to assist and empower the community and charitable groups seeking to serve them. A little over a year ago, Senator Santorum and I stood with President Bush as he unveiled his Faith-based and Community Initiative. At the time, I embraced the plan's worthy goals, to strengthen our partnerships with charitable organizations and help them help more people in need, but I cautioned that the devil truly would be in the details. As it turned out, those details, particularly as they related to creating a larger, lawful space for faith-based groups at the public policy table, proved more than devilish when it came to translating our outline into legislation. It would not be an exaggeration to say that many people had lost faith in ever seeing anything remotely resembling a faith-based and community initiative.”