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A cornerstone of the Bush Administration’s domestic policy agenda following the 2000 election was the Faith-Based Initiative. The Bush Administration claims, “Faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) have a long tradition of helping Americans in need and together represent an integral part of our nation’s social service network. Yet, all too often, the Federal government has put in place complicated rules and regulations preventing FBCOs from competing for funds on an equal footing with other organizations.” 1 The President’s objective was to place FBCOs on a level playing field with non-religious social service organizations. 2 From the standpoint of the Administration, “Federal funds should be awarded to the most effective organizations – whether public or private, large or small, faith-based or secular – and all must be allowed to compete on a level playing field.” Bush flatly disavows the mindset “that if government would only get out of our way, all our problems would be solved.” 3 Instead, Bush is a conservative who believes there are “some things the government should be doing.” 4 Faith-Based and Community Initiative is an example of a domestic policy that the federal government should enact.

To achieve the central element of his domestic policy within the first term of his presidency, George W. Bush did not rely upon the legislative process alone to advance Faith-Based and Community Initiative (FBCI). Although FBCI made it to Congress’s agenda, Bush also utilized the lawmaking power of the executive branch to help ensure the implementation of his policy preferences. Bush has adopted a two-pronged lawmaking approach in his effort to implement FBCI by utilizing executive orders, decrees, regulations, etc. while at the same time pursuing congressional action. How Bush has chosen to deploy his resources to implement his faith-based policy agenda helps shed substantive light on the development of the institutional presidency and our understanding of presidential power.

Part I is a theoretical examination of a president’s ability to formulate his domestic policy agenda within the executive branch by exercising his unilateral power and his use of the legislative process. A president has the ability to use both executive and legislative lawmaking avenues in order to move his policy agenda forward and successfully achieve his policy references. Too frequently, scholars of American institutions focus on the ability of a president to achieve his domestic policy agenda within the legislative arena, failing to recognize the duel importance of a chief executive’s formal legal authority and ability to act unilaterally when pursuing his policy preferences.

Part II focuses on Bush’s use of the institutional presidency as well as the legislative process to further his domestic policy agenda. This case study attempts to trace the decision-making process that led Bush to look to unilateral power as a complement to or in place of the legislative process to implement FBCI from 2001-2003. This approach, as defined by Lawrence Mohr, attempts to “present a series of occurrences in a sequence over time so as to explain how some phenomenon comes about.” 5 In other word, this case study traces the use of executive and congressional action on FBCI in order to understand how Bush has been able to implement the greatest number of his preferences in this policy arena.

ish many of the key components of FBCI. Is it a worthwhile use of resources for a president to advance American social policy through the executive branch, and if so under what conditions? Or is a president better served by entering the legislative arena? Is this a successful bargaining strategy for presidents, or can unwillingness to cooperative with Congress backfire? What constitutional questions arise when a president utilizes his executive authority to advance his policy preferences?

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PDF Ebook More than Just Talk: George W. Bush, Faith-Based Initiatives and Presidential Lawmaking