A provision included in the two-year budget agreement signed by President Donald Trump Friday morning provides congressional assurance that churches and other houses of worship can legally receive disaster relief funding after several decades of exclusion.
Although the legislation is estimated to add over $300 billion to the federal deficit, it includes language that solidifies in law the eligibility of churches and other houses of worship damaged by natural disasters to receive repair funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Congress has delivered a big victory for houses of worship everywhere,” Diana Verm, legal counsel at the nonprofit religious freedom law firm Becket, said in a statement.
Becket represents Florida synagogues and Texas churches that sued the federal government last year after being denied FEMA funding in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma because of a rule barring the funding from going to houses of worship.
“It was always strange to tell houses of worship that there is no room at the inn, when they are the first to help in time of…
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