Church profiting from the State?

The Bush Crime Family is going to PAY Religious institutions for their CHARITY work???

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/27/fema.religious.reut/index.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have provided shelter, food and supplies to the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

The payments with taxpayer money would mark the first time that the government has made such payments to faith-based groups at a time following natural disasters, the newspaper reported, citing FEMA officials.

FEMA is a division within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

According to the article, religious groups that operated emergency shelters, food distribution centers or medical facilities at the request of state and local governments in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be eligible.

Rita, with winds of 120 miles per hour, struck the Gulf Coast over the weekend. Katrina came ashore in Louisiana on August 29, killed more than 1,000 people and caused as much as an estimated $200 billion in economic losses.

Reimbursements would cover a "wide range of costs," FEMA spokesman Eugene Kinerney was quoted as saying.

Kinerney said they would include "labor costs incurred in excess of normal operations, rent for the facility and delivery of essential needs like food and water," the report said.

The policy was outlined in a September 9 internal memorandum, titled "Eligible Costs for Emergency Sheltering Declarations."

Under the policy, religious groups, like secular nonprofit groups, will be required to document their costs and file for reimbursement from state and local emergency management agencies, which in turn will seek funds from FEMA, the report said.

The report cited a FEMA official in Louisiana as saying it is too early to know how many groups will seek reimbursement under the new program.

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