St. Charles Advocacy Topics--May 12, 2009

[jus...@stcharleschurch.org]

ST. CHARLES ADVOCACY TOPICS—May 12, 2009


I. LOCAL/REGIONAL—No Input This Week


II. STATE

--II. A. ASK GOVERNOR KAINE TO USE FEDERAL STIMULUS FUNDS TO HELP
VIRGINIA’S NEEDIEST FAMILIES


III. NATIONAL

--III. A. VIRGINIA CATHOLIC CONFERENCE (VCC) ASKS FOR OPPOSITION TO
DESTRUCTIVE EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH

--III. B. ONE YEAR LATER, IMMIGRANTS ARE STILL WAITING FOR
COMPREHENSIVE REFORM


IV. INTERNATIONAL—No Input This Week

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I. LOCAL/REGIONAL—No Input This Week


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II. STATE

--II. A. ASK GOVERNOR KAINE TO USE FEDERAL STIMULUS FUNDS TO HELP
VIRGINIA’S NEEDIEST FAMILIES

SALT (Social Action Linking Together) asks us to urge Governor Kaine
to use additional financial resources available through the Federal
“Stimulus” bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—ARRA) to help
Virginia’s neediest families in this time of serious economic
distress.

The TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) Emergency Fund,
created by Section 2101 of the Recovery Act, provides 80 percent
federal funds for increased spending on cash assistance, non-recurrent
short-term benefits, and subsidized employment. For every 5 dollars
that benefits are increased, 4 dollars will come from the Federal
Government. Virginia is eligible to receive up to $79 million from
this fund during federal fiscal years 2009 and 2010. This money can
be rapidly spent on necessities, such as housing and child care, to
stimulate the local economy.

Please contact Governor Kaine and make the case. The essential
arguments are:

--Please use the additional resources (up to $79 million) of the
Federal “Stimulus” bill (ARRA) to help Virginia’s neediest families
while stimulating our economy.

--For every $5 increase in TANF benefits, $4 will come from Federal
funds. For a small investment, Virginia can leverage significant
assistance.

--Among the uses of this assistance: help low-income families stay in
their homes and out of shelters, help them pay energy bills to avoid
utility cutoffs, and finance temporary employment programs to combat
rising joblessness due to the current severe recession.

--Please take advantage of this opportunity to help Virginia’s most
vulnerable families as well as the economy.

Governor Kaine may be contacted by using the link below.

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TO CONTACT THE GOVERNOR AND STATE LEGISLATORS:

- To contact Gov. Kaine go to:
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm

- Find your senator at
http://sov.state.va.us/SenatorDB.nsf/$$Viewtemplate+for+WMembershipHome?OpenForm

- Find your representative at
http://dela.state.va.us/dela/MemBios.nsf/MWebsiteTL?OpenView
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III. NATIONAL

--III. A. VIRGINIA CATHOLIC CONFERENCE (VCC) ASKS FOR OPPOSITION TO
DESTRUCTIVE EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH

The VCC reports that on March 9, President Obama issued an Executive
Order overturning the limits President Bush had placed on stem cell
research funding. Subsequently, the National Institute of Health (NIH)
published draft guidelines of the Obama directive, which proposes to
use federal funds for stem cell research that requires destroying
human embryos. The public has until Tuesday, May 26, 2009, to submit
comments on these draft guidelines. In addition, some members of
Congress have already stated a desire to move forward with legislation
in favor of an even broader policy that would encourage the deliberate
use of in vitro fertilization or cloning to produce human embryos for
stem cell research.

The VCC asks us to take action on a U. S. Conference of Bishops
(USCCB)-approved alert by the National Committee for a Human Life
Amendment (NCHLA). The NCHLA alert will allow you to e-mail your U.S.
Representative and U.S. Senators in opposition to using your tax money
for embryonic stem cell research; it will then direct you to the NIH
web form, where you can submit a pre-drafted comment on the
institute's proposed regulations. The link is:

http://actions.nchla.org/Core.aspx?Screen=compose2&SessionID=$AID=970:SITEID=-1:VV_CULTURE=en-us:APP=GAC:ISSUEID=17646$.

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--III. B. ONE YEAR LATER, IMMIGRANTS ARE STILL WAITING FOR
COMPREHENSIVE REFORM

Today, May 12, is the anniversary of the raid of the Agroprocessors
plant in Postville, Iowa, where over 389 undocumented workers were
arrested. This raid called national attention to our broken
immigration system, yet Congress has still taken no action to fix
it.

To commemorate the first anniversary of the Postville immigration
worksite enforcement action, Bishop John C. Wester, Chairman of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration,
released a statement recalling the humanitarian cost of such actions
and calling, once again, for the reform of our nation immigration
policies.

To read Bishop Wester’s statement, go to http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2009/09-102.shtml.

For those wishing to advocate with their senators and representative
for comprehensive immigration reform, please click on the following
link:

http://capwiz.com/networklobby/issues/alert/?alertid=13317706&type=CO.

This is a site for NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice
lobbying organization, which provides direct email links to senators
and representatives, as well as sample language that may be useful in
drafting an email.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~HOW TO
CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE THROUGH INCREDIBLY EASY
WAYS!

To contact your senators and representative, go to
http://actioncenter.crs.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ac_homepage or
http://capwiz.com/networklobby/home/ and enter your zip code.

(Both sites have links to additional information about issues.)

You can also reach your senators and representative by calling the
Congressional Switchboard (202) 224-3121.
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IV. INTERNATIONAL—No Input This Week

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[NOTE: We encourage you to forward this e-mail to others you think
would be interested.

To join this network, go to the St. Charles Web site, Social Justice
page, by using this link: http://www.stcharleschurch.org/maillist.htm
and follow the instructions you find there under Social Justice.

If you do take action to advocate, we encourage you to mention the St.
Charles Advocacy Network. If you wish to let us know you took action,
you can e-mail us at jus...@stcharleschurch.org. Thank you.]