These numbers didn't get in to my story today on President Bush's faith-based initiative, but I thought they were important.

Mr. Bush, during a visit to a prisoner re-entry program yesterday, said that his faith-based program has made it easier for religiously based groups "to compete for billions of dollars in federal grants."

The White House provided numbers that said funding for faith-based programs slowly has increased from 2003, when those groups received $1.2 billion in federal funds, to 2006, when faith-based programs received $2.2 billion.

Funding for secular nonprofits is much higher but fell from $12.8 billion to $12.4 billion from 2005 to 2006, according to the White House, which only began tracking federal funding for secular nonprofits in 2005.

— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times