August is Best to 'Turn up the Heat' on Legislators, Shea Says
Episcopal News Service. August 11, 2005 [081105-1-A]
“The best time to turn up the heat on issues of concern to Episcopalians is when Congress is back home, escaping Washington’s humid August,” said Maureen Shea, director of the church’s Office of Government Relations. “We hope many Episcopalians will join the members of our grassroots networks – both clergy and lay – to talk with their Members of Congress before they return to D.C. after Labor Day.”
Working with John Johnson and Alex Baumgarten, the church’s domestic and international policy analysts, and based on the public policy resolutions passed at General Convention and in Executive Council, Shea identified the federal budget for FY ’06, the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and the Middle East as critical issues needing constituent support.
“Congress will make important decisions on all of these issues in the fall. We hope Episcopalians, whether through visits, attending town hall forums, or calling in to radio shows, will convey their views to their elected officials. Constituent opinions are what matter most,” Shea concluded.
Office of Government Relations
FACT SHEET
THE FY’06 FEDERAL BUDGET:
Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ and United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, as well as the US Catholic Conference and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism have all raised serious concerns about the FY ’06 federal budget. Now the budget is in the “reconciliation” process where Congress assigns final numbers to programs. Of urgent concern in the budget are:
• Food Stamps: This year’s Budget Resolution requires the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to cut $3 billion from programs under their jurisdiction – those include federal nutrition assistance for low-income households, particularly the Food Stamp Program - by September 16.
• Medicaid: The budget resolution requires committees to cut $10 billion from Medicaid. The National Governors’ Association wants to shift more of the cost to low-income recipients, requiring families with incomes below 150% of the poverty line to pay up to 5% of their incomes for their medications. Advocacy groups seek to preserve Medicaid benefits for low-income households without shifting more of the cost of prescription drugs to them.
• TANF: The authorization for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families expired in 2002 and has operated since on extensions. Congress has failed to reauthorize the program because of conflicts over proposed changes. The President and House Republican leaders want to impose more stringent work requirements and divert funds into “marriage promotion” initiatives. If Congress folds a five-year extension of TANF into Budget Reconciliation, the House Ways and Means Committee will make cuts in TANF funds and Senate efforts to increase child care funding, coupled with less severe increases in the work requirements, will be lost.
• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Opening the Refuge to drilling continues to be a priority for this Administration. Knowing they might lose if it was included in the Energy Bill, they put revenue from drilling in the budget and therefore it will be part of the reconciliation package.
GLOBAL HIV/AIDS FIGHT: The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is alone in having the capacity to mobilize resources free from ideological restrictions, serves over 160 countries, and is able to reach places like Asia where the pandemic is most on the rise. Our nation’s present annual commitment of $350 million to the Global Fund – a fraction of the commitment Congress and the President gave to the program in 2003 – is woefully inadequate. In contrast, the United Kingdom recently doubled its own annual contribution to the Global Fund. Unless the U.S. contribution to the Fund is increased significantly, several of the Fund’s key programs will not be renewed.
MIDDLE EAST: We have strongly supported the President in his quest for a two-state solution in which there is both an Israeli and Palestinian state, living side by side in peace. We have also been clear that while we view the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as an important step, it is a step – not an end in itself. Other very serious issues remain, in particular the decision of the Israeli government to continue building settlements and to complete a separation barrier in Jerusalem by September 1. Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and a State of Palestine, and this is an issue that should be resolved as part of final status negotiations between both parties.