IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller
By Dennis Sadowski
WASHINGTON
(CNS) — Catholic advocates visited Capitol Hill Feb. 6 hoping members of Congress
were ready to listen to their push for a federal budget that makes the needs of
poor and vulnerable people a priority.
Coming at
the end of the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, their visits took on greater
urgency as Congress faced a Feb. 8 deadline to pass a budget deal or approve
another stopgap spending measure to keep the government operating.
The
advocates’ main concern stemmed from the willingness of some in Congress to
consider deep cuts in the social service safety net to offset part of the $1 trillion
deficit expected over the next decade under the tax reform bill passed in
December.
The most
vulnerable programs: Medicare and Medicaid; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
formerly known as food stamps; The
Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP; and international humanitarian and
poverty-reducing assistance.
Other “asks” included a path to citizenship for 1.8 million young adults who
were brought illegally into the country as children; increasing the value of
the Low-Income Housing Tax
Credit, a primary vehicle that helps finance new affordable housing projects;
and maintaining “strong and vibrant investments” in diplomacy and overseas
development that leads to peaceful societies.
Even with a
budget that spares deep cuts for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, there’s
talk that the 2019 budget plan due out in mid-February from the Office of
Management and Budget will zero in on the very programs the advocates want to
protect for a significantly smaller share of the federal pie.
In the
current Washington environment there are other concerns, of course — climate
change, education, Social Security, the minimum wage and worker rights, to name
a few. For now though, social services, housing and international aid were deemed
the most pressing by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Relief
Services and Catholic Charities USA.
Trying to
determine what issues are most important on any given day has given headaches
to the three agencies as they see new crises emerge daily and the stances of
President Donald Trump shift, seemingly, hour by hour.
Still, the
three agencies coordinate as much as possible to ensure there is a consistent
message coming from Catholics.
“On the budget stuff, we work on a one-church
strategy,” Bill
O’Keefe, vice president for government relations and advocacy at CRS,
told Catholic News Service.
International
humanitarian and poverty-reducing aid has long been supported by CRS and the
USCCB. Funding for international programs including disaster assistance,
peacekeeping operations, and the President’s Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief,
or PEPFAR, totaled about $24.5 billion in fiscal year 2017. That’s about
0.5 percent of the federal budget, noted Stephen Colecchi, director of the USCCB’s Office of
International Justice and Peace.
At Catholic
Charities USA, addressing the need for affordable housing remains a priority
and for officials there increasing the value of the Low-Income Housing Tax
Credit, or LIHTC, is a must.
The tax
credit has funded 30 percent of the nation’s 10 million affordable housing
units. Catholic Charities agencies nationwide use it as a tool to attract
investment in the housing projects they develop.
However, the
tax reform act is expected to make the credit less attractive to investors.
With the corporate
tax rate reduced from 35
percent to 21 percent, high-level investors are less likely to invest in
the construction of new affordable housing projects to take advantage of LIHTC,
Stephen Caprobres, executive
director of Housing for Hope, Inc. of Catholic Charities Community Services in
the Phoenix Diocese, said during a social ministry gathering
workshop.
The country
already faces a shortage of more than 7 million affordable housing units and
should fewer projects be built, housing advocates fear the crunch will worsen.
Social
ministry gathering delegates and Catholic agencies aren’t the only ones
concerned about potential budget cuts in social services. Nearly 1,000 women
religious voiced their views in letters to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, that were
supposed to be delivered to his office on Capitol Hill in December.
Two women religious
from Ryan’s district, Dominican
Sister Erica Jordan of Kenosha and Franciscan Sister Ruth Brings of Janesville, were
scheduled to meet with Ryan’s deputy chief of staff, but the meeting was
canceled by the time their plane landed in Washington, according to the Catholic social justice lobby Network.
Sister Kathleen Kanet, a member of
the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary in New York City, told CNS she
came up with the idea of religious sisters writing letters as she read news reports about Ryan,
who is Catholic, discussing the need for spending cuts to help balance the
federal budget. Network helped coordinate the effort.
Sister
Kanet said she thought the speaker should hear from women religious, many of
whom see the daily struggles of families living in poverty.
“I’m
thinking who can challenge that in the light of Jesus,” she said. “It
became so clear to me that religious sisters can do this.”
As of Feb.
7, the letters had yet to be delivered. Network leaders were determining how they
might be helpful as budget drama unfolds.
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Follow Sadowski on Twitter: @DennisSadowski.
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