This dissertation explores the passage of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) through John Kingdon’s (2003) Multiple Streams Theory. A policy analysis of the FFATA was conducted adapting Bardach’s Eightfold Path to Effective Problem Solving (2005) to explore the effectiveness of the FFATA. The dissertation focused on the attempt of the FFATA to account for the acceptable disbursement and use of disaster recovery payments and the ability of faith based initiatives to provide relief without compromising the separation of church and state principle through a coupling event. Additionally, this research sought to determine if faith based initiatives created a greater risk in awarding Stafford Act’s Public Assistance Grant Funds in the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The study found the FFATA is not successfully meeting its goals and objectives in disaster recovery situations as it relates to Public Assistance Grants after Katrina because it fails to trace federal funding to the actual recipient of the grant. To determine if faith based initiatives created a greater risk in awarding Public Assistance Grant Funds after Katrina, 75 reports published by Office of Inspector General on Hurricane Katrina were reviewed to determine which types of compliance issues auditors have found with entities receiving federal funding under this grant program. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis and document analysis was performed on the collected data. Data showed that public entities have a higher percentage of questioned costs in comparison to faith based organizations. Content analysis revealed that 100 percent of public entities still spent the money on some other public purpose, but not necessarily a disaster-related purpose as required by federal rules specific to the PA Grant Program. Faith based organizations were more likely to have a violation of federal rules where the money ultimately was not traceable, indicating a greater risk of faith based organizations to violate the separation of church and state principle.

A complex mix of community and government activities and policies address social welfare needs, and the balance of roles varies from country to country and sometimes community to community. Economic changes and other factors have led to the development of comprehensive welfare states in many countries, making national/federal governments significant players in social welfare planning and provision. Even with these structural changes, communities are still active in assessing and providing for their own members' needs, though in widely variable forms. Religious organizations are key players in providing for community social welfare needs, both congregations and faith-based organizations, as well as contributing to the national level policy discourse. To understand the role of congregations in social welfare provision, this project presents a case study of congregations in a small U.S. city (using qualitative interviews and other contextual data), a review of federal faith-based social welfare policy (from three administrations), and a discussion of the U.S. case in comparison to similarly constructed European case studies. The federal policy documents reflect an emphasis on communities as best placed to serve their own needs. The community interview data yielded themes focused on collaboration and structural ways congregations contributed to social welfare. Respondents generally voiced a similar position that community organizations have intimate knowledge of the community's needs and how to meet these. However, respondents (with a few exceptions) saw the work of community organizations as only possible within a larger government structure of regulation and funding. The constraints of program and funding guidelines that created a need for congregations to fill gaps, discussed by respondents, refers to the complex system of benefits designed to identify the deserving portion of those in need. The results of this project fit in a larger, international comparative analysis of social welfare and religion in western liberal democracies. Examining religion's participation in social welfare provision contributes to the understanding of religion's role in the public sphere as possible moral commentator, contributor to the common good, and identity legitimation.

La "Faith-based" diplomatie américaine et les ambiguïtés du plan Marshall : le cas de la France dans l’après-guerre. Le Président Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) affirme dès 1946 que les E.U. doivent s’armer d'une « diplomatie fondée sur la foi » pour encourager la reconstruction spirituelle d'une Europe « déchristianisée » face au communisme. Pour faire barrage au marxisme de l’Union Soviétique, il fallait commencer par la France, vue comme la pierre de voûte spirituelle. Plus que toute autre nation, elle bénéficie avec le plan Marshall d'un puissant soutien financier militaire, économique et d'une conquête des cœurs et des esprits. De multiples agences interviennent dans cette période alors que les Églises américaines redécouvrent cette terre de mission. Généralement articulées autour de la conviction religieuse des Présidents, les initiatives sont relayées sur le terrain par l’engagement d’acteurs privés. Officialisée en 1998 par le président Clinton dans la promulgation de l’Acte international sur la liberté religieuse, cette approche a justifié la ténacité des missionnaires de 1945 à nos jours dans une France catholique religieusement peu diverse. Encouragées par le quatrième Réveil la plupart des missions américaines, églises protestantes historiques, nouvelles religions ou NMR (mormons, adventistes, témoins de Jéhovah etc...) et Évangéliques ont bien accueilli cette opportunité, phase d’introduction pour certaines ou de redémarrage pour d’autres déjà présentes dès le 19ème siècle. Bien que l'entreprise de « nation building » économique et culturelle de la France ait été perçue par l’opinion américaine de l’époque comme l'une des plus décevantes de l’après-guerre, les résultats de la transformation de la société française sont apparus avec un décalage dans le temps. Pouvons-nous alors retracer les sources des mutations transatlantiques des religions d'origine américaine et l’évolution du paysage religieux français aux activités gouvernementales et missionnaires en ce début de la Guerre froide ? / President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) claims in 1946 that the U.S. should advance a "faith-based" diplomacy to encourage the spiritual reconstruction of a “dechristianized” Europe .To stand in the way of a Marxist and Godless Soviet Union, it has to begin with France, seen as the spiritual stone arch. More than in any other nation, the Marshall Plan brings a financial, economic and military support, willing to conquer hearts and minds. Many key governmental agencies are involved in this time period, while American churches engaged in aid relief are rediscovering France as a new mission territory. Usually strongly influenced by the religious conviction of the Presidents, "Faith-based policies” supporting Foreign policies are reinforced on the ground by the engagement of private voluntary organizations (PVOs). Formalized in 1998 by President Clinton as a tool in Foreign policy in the enactment of the Act on International Religious Freedom, this approach justifies the tenacity of missionaries from 1945 to the present day in a secular and catholic France. Encouraged by the Fourth Awakening, most American missions, mainstream Protestant churches, new religions like NRM (Mormonism, Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc...) and Evangelicals, welcome this mixed opportunity: a comeback for a few denominations already presents in the 19th century and for others a chance for a fresh beginning. Although the business of "nation building”, the reshaping of the economic and cultural life of France, is perceived by the American public opinion as one of the most disappointing of the post-war, a deeply transformed French society will later emerge. The overlapping of American public and private organizations, of American churches and missionaries lay the groundwork for the radical transformation of a French monolithic religious landscape. Without doubt this can be traced to this short and critical experimental period of the Early Cold War.