Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton sent an open letter to President Trump on Wednesday, asking to ensure that religious organizations and churches are included in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster funding in response to Hurricane Harvey.
“Churches have opened their doors to feed, shelter, comfort, and rebuild their communities — even hosting FEMA operations in the process — but this policy has made those very same churches ineligible for assistance because their primary use is, by nature, religious,” Abbott and Paxton wrote. “The policy of denying relief funds for churches discriminates on the grounds of religion and is nothing more than the relic of an administration that preferred rewriting laws to faithfully executing them.”
A recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, was highlighted in the letter to the president as a defense for their request. In the case’s decision, the right of religious organizations to participate in publicly available programs on equal footing with secular groups was protected, including funding.
“Excluding churches and houses of worship from FEMA disaster relief not only makes for bad policy, as you acknowledge, but also risks the federal government violating the constitutional rights of those who are playing an instrumental role in getting Texans back on their feet after Hurricane Harvey,” the letter concluded. “In light of this, we urge you, Mr. President, to move with alacrity and define ‘private nonprofit facility’ in FEMA’s Policy Guide to include churches and other faith-based organizations.”
Earlier this month, President Trump signed a disaster relief bill funding $15.25 billion to those ravaged by Hurricane Harvey.
President Trump recently said that churches should receive funding from FEMA similar to other nonprofits. The president has the authority to decide whether or not to include religious organizations under FEMA’s definition of a “private nonprofit facility.”
