wfn.org | [ENS] Presiding Bishop calls on Congress to oppose budget package

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Presiding Bishop calls on Congress to oppose budget package

Congressional budget bill pitting Katrina victims against working poor
'tantamount to blasphemy'

By John Johnson

ENS 101905-1

[Episcopal News Service] In an interview with reporters on October 13,
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold joined the Rev. John Thomas, General
Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, and Senator Harry
Reid (D-NV), the Senate Minority Leader, in calling on Congress to abandon
the FY '06 Budget Reconciliation bill.  Their call comes as Congress
presses ahead with a budget reconciliation process requiring $35 billion
in cuts from domestic spending, even before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

This week several House and Senate committees will convene hearings to
begin the process of reporting cuts to mandatory programs that serve
the working poor, children and seniors.  Program cuts to Medicaid, Food
Stamps, housing and college loans are due by the end of October with
consideration by the full House and Senate expected to follow quickly.
House Republican leaders are expected to offer an amendment this week
asking for an additional $15 billion in mandatory spending cuts to
help pay for the government's response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Defense spending for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan will not be cut.
Congress will consider separately $70 billion additional tax cuts later
this fall.

"Congress and the President must come together and focus on poverty
that exists across the nation, and not exacerbate poverty [by passing]
a budget that further impoverishes one group of poor people in order
to help those impoverished or further impoverished by the hurricanes,"
said Griswold.  "Nothing could be clearer in the Gospel than Jesus'
identification with the poor.  'When I was hungry you gave me food.
When I was naked you clothed me, sick you cared for me, truly I tell you,
what you did for the least of these, you did [it] for me.' And so for
a nation to declare itself under God and neglect the poor in its midst
is tantamount in my mind to blasphemy."

Griswold reflected on his recent trip to the hurricane devastated Gulf
Coast region, saying that as he visited flooded homes in New Orleans with
survivors and responders he learned a great deal about the "pre-Katrina"
poverty that existed in the city. Griswold added, "Some of what I heard,
not just about Katrina but also about pre-Katrina conditions, reminded
me very much of the poverty I saw visibly when I was serving as Bishop
of Chicago and underscored the fact that in many instances the first
devastation, before the havoc wreaked by wind or water, is in fact
that poverty."

"As Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church I feel morally obliged
to call upon Congress to abandon the budget reconciliation process,"
Griswold concluded.

At its recent Executive Council meeting, held October 7-10 in Nevada,
members of the Council passed resolution NAC-037 (see ENS story
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_68487_ENG_HTM.htm) that calls on the
Episcopal Church to be a "force for justice," asking Episcopalians to
engage their government representatives as they consider their responses
to the hurricanes. Issues identified in the resolution include urging
Congress to pass a budget that does not pit one group in need against
another and calls for more money overall to care for the country's most
vulnerable residents.

As part of its ongoing work related to the Federal Budget and in response
to the Presiding Bishop's and Executive Council's actions, the Episcopal
Public Policy Network issued an "Action Alert" asking Episcopalians to
contact their Senators and Representatives and urge them to stop the
budget reconciliation package working its way through the Congress,
according to the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations
in Washington, D.C..  To view the alert, visit the EPPN Web site at
http://www.episcopalchurch..org/eppn/.

Entitlement cuts considered most detrimental to those in need include
$10 billion from health care for the poor delivered through the Medicaid
program, $13 billion from pensions and student loans, $3 billion from
Food Stamps for the poor as well as commodity supports and conservation
programs and $470 million from housing programs.  The remaining $9
billion will likely come from programs in the areas of transportation,
environment, and immigration among others.   Additionally, House Resources
and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committees could include lease
sales from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which would
effectively open the Arctic Refuge to drilling.

The Presiding Bishop and other denominational leaders have repeatedly
called on Congress to put forward a budget that is "just" and
reflects the values and priorities of Americans in caring for the
least among us.  To view a copy of letters by the mainline leaders,
go to http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_59751_ENG_HTM.htm
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_61586_ENG_HTM.htm
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_65508_ENG_HTM.htm

In April the House and Senate narrowly approved the fiscal 2006
Congressional Budget Resolution, which called for $34.7 billion dollars in
cuts to mandatory spending while also providing $70 billion in additional
tax cuts over five years.  The Reconciliation Bill is protected against
filibuster in the Senate, a particular concern if the bill includes
oil revenue from drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Proponents of drilling have determined that the budget reconciliation
process is their best hope for opening the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to drilling.

The Episcopal Church, through the General Convention, Executive Council
and House of Bishops, has repeatedly opposed drilling in the Arctic
Refuge-traditional sacred space of the native Alaskan Gwich'in Nation-90
percent of whom are Episcopalian.  More information on the Arctic Refuge
can be found on the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations
web site.  (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3654_67245_ENG_HTM.htm)

-- John Johnson is a domestic policy analyst in the Episcopal Church's
Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C.

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