House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is seeking to “cripple Catholic schools” by cutting off needed funding while subsidizing “illegal aliens and sanctuary cities,” said Catholic League president Bill Donohue Monday.
Ms. Pelosi “boasts of her Catholic schooling,” Dr. Donohue notes in Monday’s statement, and yet “wants to rescind funding for Catholic schools that were granted money by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.”
In the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, Pelosi has money for all her pet causes and yet nothing for strapped Catholic schools, Donohue notes.
Pulling no punches, Donohue says that what Pelosi is trying to do is “immoral.”
“She seeks to discriminate against taxpayers who send their children to Catholic schools, families who were equally impacted by the pandemic,” he writes. “She is also violating the Federal Emergency Management Act (FEMA) policy as outlined in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.”
In his communiqué, Dr. Donohue observes that FEMA funding rules from 2018 allowed direct funding to houses of worship damaged by natural disasters.
The rules said that FEMA will not “exclude houses of worship from eligibility for FEMA aid on the basis of religious character or primarily religious use of the facility,” he notes, adding that under the same rules “activities of community centers or houses of worship open to the general public” qualify for federal funding.
The FEMA policy was written “to provide relief to churches that were damaged by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma,” Donohue says. “Coronavirus has also impacted churches, as well as schools.”
Yet while coronavirus does not discriminate, “Pelosi does,” he concludes.
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