This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

49300 

Vol. 82, No. 205 

Wednesday, October 25, 2017 

1See also Memorandum from Attorney Gen. Jeff 

Sessions for All Executive Departments and 

Agencies, ‘‘Federal Law Protections for Religious 

Liberty’’ (Attorney General Memorandum) at 1 (Oct. 

6, 2017), https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/ 

file/1001891/download (‘‘[r]eligious liberty is a 

foundational principle of enduring importance in 

America, enshrined in our Constitution and other 

sources of federal law’’). 

2Brian Grim and Melissa Grim, ‘‘The Socioeconomic Contribution of Religion to American 

Society: An Empirical Analysis,’’ Interdisciplinary 

Journal of Research on Religion 12, no. 3 (2016), 

http://www.religjournal.com/pdf/ijrr12003.pdf. 

3 Ibid, Table 13. 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

Office of the Secretary 

21 CFR Chapter I 

42 CFR Chapters I and IV 

45 CFR Subtitle A and Subtitle B, 

Chapters II, III, IV, X, and XIII 

[HHS–9928–RFI] 

Removing Barriers for Religious and 

Faith-Based Organizations To 

Participate in HHS Programs and 

Receive Public Funding 

AGENCY: Center for Faith-Based and 

Neighborhood Partnerships, Office of 

Intergovernmental and External Affairs, 

HHS. 

ACTION: Request for information. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of 

Health and Human Services (HHS) is 

committed to delivering services to the 

public as efficiently and effectively as 

possible. Religious and faith-based 

organizations (hereafter ‘‘faith-based 

organizations’’) are important partners 

with unique expertise that is crucial to 

advancing HHS’s mission of protecting 

and enhancing the health and wellbeing of Americans. HHS seeks 

comment from faith-based organizations 

and other interested parties to inform 

HHS on how it may best identify and 

remove regulatory or other barriers in 

order for these institutions to participate 

in HHS-funded or regulated programs, 

strengthen partnerships with faith-based 

organizations to improve service 

delivery to the American people, and 

ensure faith-based organizations are 

affirmatively accommodated and not 

excluded from publicly funded or 

conducted programs or activities 

because of HHS requirements that 

burden or interfere with their religious 

character or exercise. 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before November 24, 2017. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

in one of four ways (please choose only 

one of the ways listed): 

1. Electronically. You may submit 

electronic comments through http://

www.regulations.gov. 

2. By email. You may submit email 

comments to the following email 

address ONLY: CFBNP@hhs.gov. 

3. By regular mail. You may mail 

written comments to the following 

address ONLY: Center for Faith-Based 

and Neighborhood Partnerships, Office 

of Intergovernmental and External 

Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and 

Human Services, Attention: RFI 

Regarding Faith-Based Organizations, 

Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 

Independence Avenue SW., 

Washington, DC 20201. Please allow 

sufficient time for mailed comments to 

be received before the close of the 

comment period. 

4. By express or overnight mail. You 

may send written comments to the 

following address ONLY: Center for 

Faith-Based and Neighborhood 

Partnerships, Office of 

Intergovernmental and External Affairs, 

U.S. Department of Health and Human 

Services, Attention: RFI Regarding 

Faith-Based Organizations, Hubert H. 

Humphrey Building, 200 Independence 

Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20201. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Shannon Royce, (202) 690–6060. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: All 

submissions made must include the 

Agency name HHS–9928–RFI. All 

comments received may be posted 

without change to http://

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided. 

I. Background 

Executive Orders 13279 and 13559, 

issued by President George W. Bush and 

President Barack Obama, respectively, 

direct Federal agencies to ‘‘ensure equal 

protection under the laws for faithbased and community organizations’’ 

and ‘‘to strengthen the capacity of faithbased and other neighborhood 

organizations to deliver services 

effectively to those in need.’’ Further, in 

Executive Order 13798, President 

Donald Trump declared that ‘‘the 

Founders envisioned a Nation in which 

religious voices and views were integral 

to a vibrant public square, and in which 

religious people and institutions were 

free to practice their faith without fear 

of discrimination or retaliation by the 

Federal Government . . . Federal law 

protects the freedom of Americans and 

their organizations to exercise religion 

and participate fully in civic life 

without undue interference by the 

Federal Government. The executive 

branch will honor and enforce those 

protections.’’ The President further 

declared that it will be ‘‘the policy of 

the executive branch to vigorously 

enforce Federal law’s robust protections 

for religious freedom.’’ 1

This commitment to faith-based 

organizations has extended across 

administrations because faith-based 

organizations have a long history of 

providing an array of important services 

to people and communities in need of 

health care, education, social services, 

and other charitable services in the 

United States. Religious faith, in its 

many expressions, is a key aspect of 

American life and culture. Because so 

many people live their lives through 

their faith commitments, faith-based 

organizations are uniquely positioned to 

understand and serve their neighbors 

and communities in culturally 

competent ways. These organizations 

are driven by faith to serve people of all 

faiths or none with compassion and 

commitment, and to provide them with 

food, housing, health care, family 

support, mental health support, 

addiction recovery, counseling, 

education, and other essential services. 

According to a study by researchers at 

Georgetown University and the 

Newseum Institute, over 150 million 

Americans are members of over 344,000 

religious congregations which sponsor a 

combined 1,621,000 health and social 

service programs.2 The study estimated 

that religious organizations provide 

about $1.2 trillion in socio-economic 

value to the U.S. every year.3

Furthermore, the mission driving these 


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4The White House Office of Faith-Based and 

Community Initiatives, ‘‘Federal Competitive 

Funding to Faith-Based and Secular Non-Profits 

Fiscal Year 2007,’’ last accessed September 29, 

2017, https://georgewbushwhitehouse.archives.gov/government/fbci/datacollection-2007.html. 

5Lisa McCracken, ‘‘Faith and the Not-For-Profit 

Provider,’’ Ziegler Investment Banking, August 25, 

2014, http://image.exct.net/lib/ff021271746401/d/4/ 

zNews_Featured_082514.pdf; Byron Johnson, 

William H. Wubbenhorst, and Alfreda Alvarez, 

‘‘Assessing the Faith-Based Response to 

Homelessness in America: Findings from Eleven 

Cities,’’ Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, 

(2017), available at http://www.baylorisr.org/wpcontent/uploads/ISR-Homeless-FINAL-01092017- 

web.pdf; Catholic Health Association of the United 

States, ‘‘Catholic Health Care in the United States,’’ 

last updated January 2017, https://www.chausa.org/ 

about/about/facts-statistics. 

6Attorney General Memorandum at 1. 

7 Id. at 7. 

8 Id. at 8. 

organizations can lead to improved 

services and innovative service delivery. 

The U.S. Department of Health and 

Human Services (‘‘HHS’’ or ‘‘the 

Department’’)—the Federal 

Government’s largest grant-maker and 

the third largest Federal contracting 

agency—administers Federal funding 

with the overarching goal of delivering 

services, providing access to programs, 

and funding research that will improve 

the health and well-being of Americans. 

HHS’s Federal funding opportunities 

span a wide range of activities: From 

providing health care services to 

particular populations, to aiding child 

welfare programs and providing 

resources to the elderly, to funding 

child care and nutrition programs and 

helping refugees and asylees connect 

with the resources they need to become 

self-sufficient, to supporting biomedical 

and other scientific research. 

Faith-based organizations have 

historically been a crucial component of 

HHS’s efforts by delivering charitable 

care to Americans in need and engaging 

in other worthwhile initiatives with the 

assistance of grant and contract funding 

provided by the Department. For 

instance, HHS awarded over $817 

million in funding to faith-based 

organizations across 65 competitive, 

non-formula grant programs in fiscal 

year 2007.4 Over half of all Continuing 

Care Retirement Communities in the 

country were faith-based in 2013; 

almost 60 percent of the emergency 

shelter beds for the homeless in eleven 

major cities were provided by faithbased organizations in 2016; and one in 

six hospital patients were cared for in 

Catholic hospitals in 2015, to name just 

a few of the industries in which these 

groups are invaluable in advancing the 

Department’s objectives.5 Faith-based 

organizations also provide significant 

assistance in natural disasters and 

emergencies. 

HHS is dedicated to engaging in 

partnerships with a broad range of 

private sector organizations, some of 

which are faith-based and some of 

which are not, and we aim to administer 

our programs and funding without 

discrimination on the basis of religion. 

As part of achieving the Department’s 

overall goals, HHS is fully committed to 

fostering robust and thriving 

partnerships with faith-based 

organizations that serve as either 

recipients or sub-recipients of 

Department funding or as partners with 

state or local agencies funded or 

regulated by HHS. This commitment is 

bolstered by the Attorney General’s 

Memorandum for All Executive 

Departments and Agencies, ‘‘Federal 

Law Protections for Religious Liberty,’’ 

issued on October 6, 2017 pursuant to 

Executive Order 13798. The Attorney 

General instructed that, ‘‘to the greatest 

extent practicable and permitted by law, 

religious observance and practice 

should be reasonably accommodated in 

all government activity, including 

employment, contracting, and 

programming,’’ provided twenty 

principles to guide administrative 

agencies and executive departments in 

carrying out such tasks, and also 

provided guidance to such agencies and 

department in implementing such 

religious liberty principles.6 Given the 

regulatory nature of many of HHS’s 

programs, HHS notes that the Attorney 

General’s guidance directed that, ‘‘[i]n 

formulating rules, regulations, and 

policies, administrative agencies should 

also proactively consider potential 

burdens on the exercise of religion and 

possible accommodations of those 

burdens.’’ 7 Similarly, with respect to 

grants and contracts, the Attorney 

General’s guidance instructs that 

‘‘[a]gencies also must not discriminate 

against religious organizations in their 

contracting or grant-making activities,’’ 

noting that ‘‘[a]bsent unusual 

circumstances, agencies should not 

condition receipt of a government 

contract or grant on the effective 

relinquishment of a religious 

organization’s Section 702 exemption 

for religious hiring practices, or any 

other constitutional or statutory 

protection for religious organizations.’’ 8

Given the importance of faith-based 

organizations in carrying out the 

Department’s mission of improving 

Americans’ health and well-being, and 

the principles and directives in the 

Attorney General’s Memorandum for All 

Executive Departments and Agencies, 

HHS solicits comments, through this 

request for information, to determine 

whether its existing regulations and 

guidance advance the Department’s 

priority of cultivating partnerships with 

faith-based organizations that provide 

services to people in need or conduct 

other meaningful work. Because HHS 

primarily partners with faith-based 

organizations through grant and contract 

funding, HHS specifically seeks to 

identify any regulatory, guidance-based, 

or other requirements or conditions for 

grants or contracts that present barriers 

for faith-based organizations to 

participate in HHS-funded programs, 

and methods to ensure faith-based 

organizations are affirmatively 

accommodated, and not excluded from 

HHS-funded or conducted programs or 

activities because of HHS requirements 

that burden or interfere with their 

religious character or exercise. 

In this request for information, HHS 

seeks input from the public and relevant 

stakeholders on potential changes that 

could be made to existing HHS 

regulations or guidance to ensure that 

faith-based organizations and their 

religious beliefs and moral convictions 

are properly accommodated, that faithbased organizations are not required to 

act contrary to their religious beliefs or 

moral convictions (as a recipient, subrecipient, contractor, sub-contractor, or 

otherwise) or are otherwise not 

restricted, excluded, substantially 

burdened, discriminated against, or 

disproportionately disadvantaged in 

HHS-conducted or funded programs or 

activities (including those administered 

by state and local governments) because 

of their religious character, identity, 

beliefs, or moral convictions. 

HHS also seeks input on whether 

faith-based organizations could face 

potential obstacles to participation in 

state or locally funded programs, or 

restrictions on their privately funded 

activities, because of HHS requirements 

imposed on state and local governments 

as a condition of receiving HHS 

funding. 

Finally, HHS seeks input on what 

policies, procedures, and assessment 

tools HHS should develop to 

affirmatively further the 

accommodation, equal treatment, and 

respect for the religious exercise of 

faith-based organizations interacting 

with HHS or HHS-funded entities. 

II. Solicitation of Comments 

HHS solicits comments on potential 

changes to existing regulations or 

guidance that affirmatively assure the 

equal treatment of faith-based 

organizations and on the extent to 

which faith-based organizations are 

beneficial to furthering the mission of 

the Department. Specifically, HHS seeks 


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49302 Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 205 / Wednesday, October 25, 2017 / Proposed Rules 

information that would assist it in 

pursuing the following objectives: 

1. To remove obstacles to 

participation by faith-based 

organizations in the delivery of publicly 

funded services and activities. What 

changes in HHS regulations, guidance, 

or other documents (e.g., contracts and 

funding opportunity announcements) or 

processes might encourage faith-based 

organizations to participate in HHSfunded programs and services? What 

existing regulations, guidance, or other 

documents or processes deter such 

participation? 

2. To ensure faith-based 

organizations—particularly those with a 

history of providing health, education, 

and other support to low-income 

people—are not excluded from 

eligibility for HHS funding. Which 

provisions in HHS regulations, 

guidance, or other documents directly 

or indirectly inhibit faith-based 

organizations from receiving HHS 

funds? How can the Department 

improve these regulations, guidance, or 

other documents? Are any faith-based 

organizations being restricted, excluded, 

substantially burdened, discriminated 

against, or disproportionately 

disadvantaged by HHS, an HHS grantee 

or contractor, or a state or local 

government entity administering an 

HHS-funded program or activity 

because of their religious character, 

identity, beliefs, or moral convictions? 

3. To ensure that faith-based 

organizations receive accommodation, 

equal treatment, and respect for their 

religious beliefs and moral convictions 

from HHS or HHS-funded entities. What 

regulations, guidance documents, 

policies, procedures, and/or assessment 

tools should HHS develop to 

affirmatively further the 

accommodation, equal treatment, and 

respect for the religious exercise of 

faith-based organizations interacting 

with HHS or HHS funded entities? 

4. To improve our understanding of 

the role of faith-based organizations in 

implementing programs and activities 

that advance the goals and objectives of 

HHS. Describe the value, whether 

qualitative or quantitative, that faithbased organizations provide in 

improving the health and well-being of 

Americans and other populations 

eligible for public benefits and services. 

What would the consequences be if 

these organizations were no longer able 

to participate in the Department’s 

programs or services or were denied 

eligibility for Federal funding? Do faithbased organizations provide unique 

value that could not easily be replicated 

by other recipients? Would adequate 

services be available to people in need 

in the absence of Federal partnerships 

with faith-based organizations? 

This is a request for information only. 

Respondents are encouraged to provide 

complete but concise responses to any 

or all of the questions outlined above. 

This request for information is issued 

solely for information and planning 

purposes; it does not constitute a notice 

of proposed rulemaking or request for 

proposals, applications, proposal 

abstracts, or quotations, nor does it 

suggest that the Department will 

undertake any particular action in 

response to comments. This request for 

information does not commit the United 

States Government (‘‘Government’’) to 

contract for any supplies or services or 

make a grant award. Further, HHS is not 

seeking proposals through this request 

for information and will not accept 

unsolicited proposals. Respondents are 

advised that the Government will not 

pay for any information or 

administrative costs incurred in 

response to this request for information; 

all costs associated with responding to 

this request for information will be 

solely at the interested party’s expense. 

Not responding to this request for 

information does not preclude 

participation in any future rulemaking 

or procurement, if conducted. It is the 

responsibility of the potential 

responders to monitor this request for 

information announcement for 

additional information pertaining to this 

request. We also note that HHS will not 

respond to questions about the policy 

issues raised in this request for 

information. HHS may or may not 

choose to contact individual responders. 

Such communications would only serve 

to further clarify written responses. 

Contractor support personnel may be 

used to review the responses submitted 

under this request for information. 

Responses to this notice are not offers 

and cannot be accepted by the 

Government to form a binding contract 

or issue a grant. Information obtained as 

a result of this request for information 

may be used by the Government for 

program planning on a non-attribution 

basis. Respondents should not include 

any information that might be 

considered proprietary or confidential. 

This request for information should not 

be construed as a commitment or 

authorization to incur cost for which 

reimbursement would be required or 

sought. All submissions become 

Government property and will not be 

returned. HHS may publicly post the 

comments received, or a summary 

thereof. While responses to this request 

for information do not bind HHS to any 

further actions related to the response, 

all comments may be posted online on 

http://www.regulations.gov. 

III. Collection of Information 

Requirements 

This document does not impose 

information collection requirements; 

that is, reporting, recordkeeping or 

third-party disclosure requirements. 

This request for information constitutes 

a general solicitation of comments. In 

accordance with the implementing 

regulations of the Paperwork Reduction 

Act (PRA) at 5 CFR 1320.3(h)(4), 

information subject to the PRA does not 

generally include ‘‘facts or opinions 

submitted in response to general 

solicitations of comments from the 

public, published in the Federal 

Register or other publications, 

regardless of the form or format thereof, 

provided that no person is required to 

supply specific information pertaining 

to the commenter, other than that 

necessary for self-identification, as a 

condition of the agency’s full 

consideration of the comment.’’ 

Consequently, this document need not 

be reviewed by the Office of 

Management and Budget under the 

authority of the Paperwork Reduction 

Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). 

Dated: October 20, 2017. 

Jane E. Norton, 

Director, Office of Intergovernmental & 

External Affairs, U.S. Department of Health 

and Human Services. 

[FR Doc. 2017–23257 Filed 10–24–17; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4120–01–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 770 

[EPA–HQ–OPPT–2017–0245; FRL–9962–80] 

RIN 2070–AK36 

Voluntary Consensus Standards 

Update; Formaldehyde Emission 

Standards for Composite Wood 

Products 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: EPA is proposing to amend 

the formaldehyde emission standards 

for composite wood products final rule, 

published in the Federal Register on 

December 12, 2016 (81 FR 89674). The 

proposed amendment would update 

multiple voluntary consensus standards 

that have been updated, superseded, or 

withdrawn since publication of the 

notices of proposed rulemaking on June 

10, 2013 (78 FR 34796 and 78 FR 34820) 


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