Catholic Coalition on
Climate Change
Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Substitute to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036)
ACTION NEEDED:
The Senate is expected to take up major climate change legislation today, Monday, June 2. We urge you to call, e-mail and fax your Senators immediately and ask them to act now to address the serious moral dimensions of climate change. Urge them especially to maintain and strengthen the anti-poverty provisions within "Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Substitute to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act" (S. 3036).
To reach Senators, go to www.senate.gov.
The phone number for the Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121
SUMMARY:
Beginning June 2, the Senate will begin debating groundbreaking climate change legislation. The USCCB and other religious partners have emphasized that a central moral measure of climate change legislation is how it touches the poor and vulnerable. We ask that you contact your Senators as soon as possible and urge them to support climate change legislation that reflects the demands of prudent action, promotes the common good and protects the poor. The introduction, improvement and consideration of this major legislation represents an important step in addressing climate change and its impacts on the poor. While the USCCB does not endorse the many specific provisions of the bill, we welcome and support provisions that address the disproportionate effects climate change and climate change legislation will have on poor and vulnerable people in our country and around the world.
OVERVIEW:
The "Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Substitute to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act" (S. 3036) institutes a "cap and trade" program that provides market-based incentives to lower greenhouse gases and generate funds for public goods. The USCCB is primarily concerned with key provisions that provide much needed assistance, at home and abroad, to poor people and poor countries for adaptation and mitigation of climate change.
International Provisions:
The bishops support the significant funding in the bill that will help poor and vulnerable people in developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. This funding has doubled in this latest version of the legislation but we are concerned that there may not be enough assistance in the early years of the bill when it may be most needed.
Domestic Provisions:
Substantial resources are targeted for states, utilities and others to help offset the anticipated energy price rises for low-income people. However, the USCCB believes that more careful targeting and better mechanisms for aid delivery should be supported.
In summary, the USCCB welcomes these efforts and will continue to work with Senate leaders and others to build on and strengthen these essential commitments and to assure that those with the greatest needs receive the most help through effective, targeted and workable allocations and programs.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Position:
In their statement, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good, the U.S. Catholic Bishops declared:
We especially want to focus on the needs of the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable in a debate often dominated by more powerful interests. Inaction and inadequate or misguided responses to climate change will likely place even greater burdens on already desperately poor peoples. Action to mitigate global climate change must be built upon a foundation of social and economic justice that does not put the poor at greater risk or place disproportionate and unfair burdens on developing nations.
As Bishop Wenski (Orlando), Chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace emphasized at a press conference: "The real "inconvenient truth" is that those who contribute least to climate change will be affected the most and have the least capacity to cope or escape."
The USCCB and other partners in the faith community continue to support the current anti-poverty provisions and will support additional improvements as the bill is debated including 1) more and earlier funding for international adaptation measures in the early years and 2) better targeting and more effective vehicles for the domestic low-income energy assistance provisions.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Cecilia Calvo, Project Coordinator, USCCB Environmental Justice Program: 202-541-3188, ccalvo@usccb.org
Dan Misleh, Executive Director, Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, 301-322-1180, danmisleh@catholicsandclimatechange.org
May 29, 2008
SENATE LEADERSHIP: SCHEDULE GLOBAL AIDS BILL FOR A VOTE NOW!
TAKE ACTION NOW! Contact your Senators now (http://actioncenter.crs.org) and urge them to ask Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to reach a bipartisan consensus and schedule a vote on S. 2731, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008, also known as PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
WHY IS PROGRESS ON THE PEPFAR BILL STALLED? The House of Representatives passed its version of the PEFAR bill (H.R. 5501) in early April while the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed its bill in March.
Since then, the bill has been stalled with no vote
scheduled for the full Senate. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have been working hard to make improvements to the Senate bill and as stated in a recent letter urge the Senate leadership to broker a consensus on the bill and schedule it for a vote expeditiously.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THE PEPFAR BILL DOESN’T MOVE FORWARD? Catholic health institutions deliver approximately 25 percent of all HIV and AIDS care worldwide. Much of this care requires advanced planning while many care providers depend on U.S. government funding to carry out their programs. Without a firm commitment to reauthorize the PEPFAR program, care providers cannot plan for future activities. The risk of suspension in assured funding, however brief, could disrupt HIV treatment, undermine the credibility of healthcare institutions providing HIV services, and endanger lives.
WHY IS PEPFAR IMPORTANT? Because of PEPFAR, CRS has saved more than 115,000 lives through antiretroviral treatment and provides HIV care and support services for another 175,000 HIV positive people. Men and women who were on the brink of death are now leading normal lives, caring for their children and contributing to their communities because they are on antiretroviral therapy. More than 60,000 orphaned children are being cared for, going to school and embracing a bright future. Nearly 350,000 youth have been educated about risky behaviors and how abstinence-until-marriage and mutual fidelity within marriage are the most effective ways to
prevent HIV infections. Visit the CRS website http://crs.org/public-policy/hiv_aids.cfm for more information about PEPFAR.
WHAT DOES PEPFAR HAVE TO DO WITH MY FAITH? Our faith tradition as Catholics requires us to care for the among us and to uphold the life and dignity of all people. People affected by HIV or suffering from AIDS need and deserve our love and care just as Jesus called on us to care for those who are hungry or thirsty or a stranger or
naked or ill or in prison (Mt. 25:31-46). Catholic social teaching instructs us to live in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world. Pope John Paul II reminded us that we must commit ourselves to the common good, “that is to say, the good of all and each individual, because we are all really responsible for all” (Sollicitudo rei socialis, no. 38).
WHAT IS THE CHURCH’S POSITION ON PEPFAR? The Catholic Church in the United States strongly supports reauthorizing PEPFAR in a way that retains the program’s current focus to save lives of poor people affected by HIV and living with AIDS. We specifically support an authorization of $50 billion in funding over five years, increased nutrition resources for effective treatment, improving the health care capacity of host governments, and expanding HIV and AIDS treatment and morally sound ways of prevention.
For more information, contact:
Tina Rodousakis, Grassroots Advocacy Manager, CRS, 410-951-7462, trodousa@crs.org
Gerry Flood, Counselor, International Justice and Peace, USCCB, 202-541-3167, gflood@usccb.org
April 28, 2008
RISING FOOD PRICES, ONGOING CONFLICTS TAKING THEIR TOLL:
Urge Congress to help the hungry, the displaced and to foster peace
TAKE ACTION NOW! Scroll down to send a message to your Members of Congress today and urge them to provide additional funding for urgently needed food aid, Iraqi refugees, and humanitarian efforts in Darfur, Sudan and other African countries when they consider the FY 2008 Supplemental Appropriations bill.
WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT THE FY 2008 SUPPLEMENTAL? The FY 2008 Supplemental Appropriations bill provides an opportunity for critical support for emergencies around the world. For example, the recent spike in global food prices has caused rioting in some of the poorest nations on earth such as Haiti and Senegal.
The FY 2008 Supplemental should also assist people affected by conflict in countries such as Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Afghanistan. It should offer help to Iraqi refugees, provide aid to promote peace in the Holy Land, support peacekeepers in Darfur and diplomatic efforts to sustain peace between North and South Sudan.
WHAT DOES THE FY 2008 SUPPLEMENTAL HAVE TO DO WITH MY FAITH? Catholic social teaching is rooted in the sacredness and fundamental dignity of every human life. As Catholics, we are also called to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters worldwide who are suffering because of war, disease, natural disaster and poverty. Our nation's acts of solidarity with people in need can reduce their suffering and improve their lives to help build a more stable and peaceful world.
WHAT IS THE CHURCH'S POSITION ON THE FY 2008 SUPPLEMENTAL? In a recent letter to the Senate Senate Letter Appropriations Committees, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) urged Members to include funding in the FY 2008 Supplemental Appropriations bill that would help relieve the suffering of millions of people in conflict areas around the world.
In your message to Congress, please focus on the following priorities for the FY 2008 Supplemental Appropriations:
FEED THE HUNGRY: Provide at least $600 million in Title II emergency food aid, plus an additional $100 million for the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.
HELP REFUGEES FROM IRAQ AND OTHER COUNTRIES: Provide at least $173 million to meet the daily needs of Iraqi refugees who have been forced to shelter in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Turkey and to fulfill the Administration's pledge to admit 12,000 Iraqi Refugees in FY 2008. An additional $172 million is urgently needed for refugees in other parts of the world, particularly the DRC.
SUPPORT THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE: Support the President's request for $220 million to support the peace process and to provide urgent humanitarian needs.
RESPOND TO THE CRISIS IN SUDAN: Provide substantial supplemental funding for Darfur and Sudan, including $455 million for peacekeeping operations and diplomatic efforts to help facilitate an end to the conflict, as well as additional International Disaster Assistance and Migration and Refugee Assistance for Darfur and South Sudan.
INTERNATIONAL DISASTER ASSISTANCE: Make available $335 million to provide emergency assistance to conflict countries such as Afghanistan, the DRC, Chad, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Sri Lanka.
WHERE DOES THE FY 2008 SUPPLEMENTAL STAND NOW? The House of Representatives and Senate will soon consider their respective bills. Now is the time to let all Members of Congress know how urgent it is to include additional funding to help poor people worldwide who are suffering from war, hunger, disease, and natural disasters.
For more information, contact:
Tina Rodousakis, Grassroots Advocacy Manager, CRS, 410-951-7462, trodousa@crs.org
Steve Hilbert, Africa Policy Advisor, International Justice and Peace, USCCB, 202-541-3167, shilbert@usccb.org