The House narrowly passed a bill allowing religious groups under federal job-training contracts to discriminate in their hiring based on employees’ religious beliefs. The current law disallows such discrimination for jobs that are financed by taxpayers — not clerical positions, but staff positions for the tax-funded job training programs. Some Republican representatives argued that the bill was an extension of the faith-based initiatives and a needed protection for religious groups who would otherwise be forced to compromise their beliefs. Democratic representatives disagreed, with Robert C. Scott (VA) arguing that the bill would “‘shift the weight of the federal government from supporting the victim of discrimination to supporting some so-called right to discriminate with federal funds.'”