WASHINGTON -- With his signature proposal for faith-based federal spending increasingly imperiled, President Bush on Wednesday made rare overtures to lawmakers in an effort to get the issue back on track.
A new strategy became necessary after Bush on Monday declared the issue a key priority, and then watched as furor erupted over a deal his administration allegedly cut with the Salvation Army, the nation's largest charity.
It was just the latest setback to an ambitious proposal that has been bedeviled almost from the start.
"He has to at least turn up the heat for the House to pass the measure," said Marshall Wittman, senior analyst at the Hudson Institute and former legislative director for the Christian Coalition. "The proposal starts off with Democrats opposed and his own base divided, and while there is popular support, there is not widespread political enthusiasm."
In a renewed effort to put momentum behind the long-stalled proposal, Bush on Wednesday delivered a pep talk to the House Republican Conference.
Later, the White House called to set up a meeting for Bush with Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, who also discussed legislative strategy with the president, conceded the prospects for the administration's faith-based plan look uncertain.
"It may be more difficult, but we will certainly pursue it," the Mississippi senator said. "We'll try to get the votes, and we'll try again and again until it's done because I believe the American people support the concept."
Earlier this week, an internal report from the Salvation Army suggested the White House would be willing to allow religious organizations receiving federal funds to skirt anti-discrimination laws protecting lesbians and gays, in exchange for lobbying support on behalf of the faith-based program.
After an intense flurry of criticism, the White House, which had been reviewing the policy, said it would not allow the exception.
But the Salvation Army flap was just the latest apparent setback for the proposal, which has yet to develop momentum to match Bush's expectations.
"The irony here is that this is the president's signature issue, and it seems to muster very little enthusiasm with conservatives," said Wittman.
Bush, a born-again Christian, campaigned on a promise to direct public dollars to religious organizations that provide social services.
Saying he believes such groups are better equipped than the government is to serve society's needy and troubled, Bush established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and took steps to shore up support for his plan.
Various bills filed in support of his program would allow religious organizations to compete with secular groups for federal grants and provide tax incentives for charitable giving, among other features.
But in the intervening months, the administration has been steadily scaling back various aspects of the once-ambitious program, amid criticism, opposition and a lack of interest in the newly Democratic controlled Senate.
On Wednesday, the House Ways and Means Committee passed a set of tax breaks that are part of Bush's overall faith-based program, but only after a wholesale scaling back of the plan by House Republicans.
The measures would allow taxpayers to deduct up to $25 in donations for the first two years, with a maximum of $100 by 2010.
The plan would confer less than $4 in savings for taxpayers in the first year, growing to about $15 by 2010.
Bush had originally proposed a phased-in program, but his plan would have allowed taxpayers to deduct 100 percent of their contributions after 10 years.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, sits on the House committee and voted for the tax breaks, which he said represent a compromise among all the competing priorities faced by lawmakers.
"My personal feeling is that it could be real helpful, but we are on a budget, though people don't want to believe it," Brady said. "We have to weigh what we want to do here against health care, and energy and everything else."
Still, Brady was optimistic about the prospects for passing some form of faith-based program this year.
"We probably won't be able to get everything, I think it's a work in progress," Brady said.
Some high-profile opponents to Bush's plan include Christian Coalition President Pat Robertson and others, citing concern the public funding could go to groups like the Church of Scientology.
Democrats also have shown a lack of support for the plan, and civil libertarians view the effort as a potential threat to the constitutional separation of church and state.
Public support for the effort includes a large number of African-Americans, a key group among which Bush has not traditionally fared well with politically.
Brady called Bush's talk with Republican House members a positive step, and said it reminded him of similar motivational chats Bush delivered as governor when Brady was a member of the Texas Legislature.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, observing that "Congress' agenda is not always the president's agenda," said Bush wants a bill to sign by August.
"Congress should send him legislation on a patients' bill of rights, on education, on faith-based solutions prior to leaving for the August recess. That's his call to Congress," Fleischer said.