05482
Sept. 14, 2005

Churchmen call for halt in budget process

Kirkpatrick, 4 others say U.S. spending plan
would empty cupboards of poor and hungry

by Toya Richards Hill

LOUISVILLE — The devastation and suffering left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have given church leaders an opportunity to call again for the U.S. Congress to halt the federal budget-reconciliation process, which they say promises to gut programs for the poorest and most marginalized Americans.

     The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), joined the leaders of four other “mainline” Christian denominations in sending a letter to Congress that said, in part: “The devastation wrought by Katrina has exposed the anguished faces of the poor in the wealthiest nation on the planet” — faces that “compel us to set before Congress once again our concerns for the FY (fiscal year) ’06 federal budget and its impact on people living in poverty.”

     The others who signed the Sept. 13 letter are the Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church USA; the Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Rev. John H. Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ; and James Winkler, general secretary of the general board of church and society of the United Methodist Church.

     Although Congress this week postponed the budget-reconciliation process for four weeks, Kirkpatrick and the others are calling for a complete halt to the process.

     “The FY ’06 reconciliation bill that is working its way through the authorizing committees will send more people searching for food in cupboards that, quite frequently, are bare,” the letter said. “With renewed urgency, we call on Congress to stop the FY ’06 federal budget reconciliation process immediately.”

     The $2.6 trillion budget resolution passed by Congress is an outline for federal tax and spending for the next five years, said Carolynn Race, associate for domestic poverty and environmental issues in the PC(USA)’s Washington office. The resolution directed Congressional committees to reduce spending for mandatory programs under their jurisdiction, such as Medicaid and food stamps, Race said.

     It is these committee actions that Kirkpatrick and his cohorts are trying to halt.

     “This is a very critical time for the (Katrina) evacuees, and also for the millions who are living in poverty,” Race said.

     In April, the same denominational coalition asked Congress not to cut the budgets of essential entitlement programs, arguing that such a move would “ask our nation's working poor to pay the cost of a prosperity in which they may never share.”

     The faith community constitutes “a prophetic voice” on issues affecting the nation, rather than simply acting as advocates for particular issues, said Race, who had the letter in hand as she met with congressional staff on Wednesday.