On January 24th, I attended a discussion of U.S. Government Inter-Agency Faith-based and Community Initiatives partners at the Headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) here in Washington, D.C. In addition to HUD, representatives from the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security, Interior, Veterans Affairs, Education, Commerce, State and Agriculture (USDA) were present to discuss  Faith-Based Priorities for 2018. Across the board, all present endorsed the U.S. Government's commitment to strengthening our relationship with faith-based and local community  entities that  have a long and proven 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 both the United States and internationally. Inter alia, reference was made to a 2016 study by Georgetown University and the Newseum Institute, pointing out that over 150 million Americans are members of over 344,000 religious congregations which sponsor a combined 1,621,000 health and social service programs. The study in general estimated that religious organizations provide about $1.2 trillion in socio-economic value to the U.S. every year.  The commitment of HHS 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" is explored in its Federal Register Notice of October 25, 2017, whose link is here.