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Meanwhile, the White House is denying that article in yesterday's Washington Post, which reported that the faith-based initiative was being postponed. Actually, it quoted deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Don Eberly as directly saying "We're postponing." But Bush directly contradicted that yesterday. Asked, "You're not backing down off your faith-based program, are you?," the president replied, "Oh, not at all, no. Our faith-based—we've submitted a package to the United States Congress. I'm proud of the faith-based initiative. There is a lot of bipartisan support on the Hill, and somebody mentioned something about an article today. I haven't read it yet. But, no, we're moving forward. It's the right thing to do." Meanwhile, reports The Boston Globe, "White House officials yesterday rejected requests for interviews with Eberly and John DiIulio Jr., the director of the faith-based office. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said Eberly did not believe that the Post article was an 'accurate reflection' of his remarks, and Fleischer called the story 'puzzling'." Sounds like somebody spoke out of turn (but, according to an article in Saturday's Washington Post, that's becoming de rigueur at the White House.) Meanwhile, Congress really is moving forward. Reps. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) and Tony Hall (D-Ohio) say they will introduce legislation later this month to translate Bush's faith-based initiative into law.

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March (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45