Bush's faith-based initiative director to leave

By Major Garrett, CNN White House Correspondent

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- John DiIulio Jr., head of President Bush's Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, will leave his post as soon as a replacement can be found, the White House confirmed Friday.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said DiIulio, an academic with deep roots in the faith-based community, intended to stay with the White House only six months and that an aggressive search was underway for a replacement.

"The president will miss John's service," Fleischer said. "He is a good man. He did what he set out to do."

DiIulio announced his resignation in an interview Thursday with the Cox newspaper chain.

"I've always said that I agreed to stay for six months, to help launch the initiative, help mobilize people who would not be traditional friends and allies," DiIulio said in the interview.

Senior officials credited DiIulio with bringing the president's faith-based initiative back to life. The legislation drew tepid response on Capitol Hill, even among many Republicans. DiIulio, the officials said, was instrumental in winning endorsements from the largely Democratic U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and civil rights activist Rosa Parks.

"He was instrumental in turning things around," said one senior official. "He reached out to groups that are hard to reach for Republicans. But they know him and respect him."

These endorsements put grassroots muscle behind the initiative, persuading once-skeptical House Republicans to get on board. The House passed the president's faith-based initiative in early July, but not before scaling back the size of tax breaks available to low-income Americans who donate to charities from $86 billion to $8.6 billion.

The Senate will take up the initiative some time during this Congress. Administration officials are open to other changes in the legislation that would require large faith-based groups to adhere to state and local laws banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Key sponsors of the Senate bill, Sens. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, and Joe Lieberman, D-Connecticut, have said such a change is required to win Senate passage.

In the Cox interview, DiIulio said he wanted to spend more time with his family. He commuted regularly by train from Philadelphia to Washington. He and his wife, Rosalee, have three children, ages 8, 11 and 13.

"The separation from his family, the travel and the stress were also factors," one official said.

DiIulio also said in the interview that he needed to lose weight. White House officials said there were health concerns involved in DiIulio's decision but would not be more specific.