July 25, 2013
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Members of Congress:
Across
the nation, Head Start programs ended their school years early, canceled summer
programs, cut staff pay and benefits, and have announced reductions in the
number of children who will be served in the fall. Programs serving meals to
seniors have started to reduce days of home delivery and have closed or reduced
hours for dining rooms. The long-term unemployed have lost federal jobless
benefits, while job-training programs that might have helped them are cut back.
Federal funds for education have been cut, with particularly harsh results for
schools most reliant on these resources: those on Indian reservations or near
military bases. Students counting on college work-study jobs are learning that
they will not get them. Poor families or people with disabilities perilously
close to homelessness after waiting years for a rental voucher have been told
they will have to wait longer.
These
are just some of the impacts of sequestration. At a time when we need to invest
in education, rebuild infrastructure, protect people from hardship, and
jumpstart economic growth that finally reaches most of us, sequestration is
taking us backwards.
While
many are already hurting from the sequestration cuts, the appropriations levels
set by the House of Representatives for FY 2014 will make their hardships even
more unbearable in the future. The House of Representatives’ plan not only
assumes that next year’s budget will continue the devastating sequestration
reductions, but it defies the Budget Control Act’s requirement that half of the
$110 billion in additional annual cuts must be imposed on military programs and
half imposed on the other areas of government. Instead, the defense budget is
increased by 5.4 percent, or $26 billion, over this year’s spending. In marked
contrast, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
are slashed 18.6 percent below this year’s funding, including sequestration. The
Department of Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development is losing 9.6
percent of its funds. Other important domestic areas are also cut deeply:
energy, conservation, and environmental protection programs are cut between 11 – 14 percent. That
same $26 billion defense budget increase could cover many of the cuts to these
vital departments.
As a faith community, we cannot
simply stand aside and allow these cuts to happen. We heed the words of Isaiah 58:10-12: “If you offer your food to the
hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in
the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday…you shall raise up the
foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the
breach, the restorer of streets to live in.”
We support a Faithful Budget - www.faithfulbudget.org - that helps lift the burden on the
poor, rather than increasing it while shielding the wealthiest from any
additional sacrifice or using those funds to expand our defense department.
We urge you to oppose appropriations
based on the House-passed levels. Congress should enact a budget that can advance
fiscal responsibility while increasing support for the poor and vulnerable, by
focusing on job creation and economic revitalization, an equitable tax system
based on fairness, and true human security over disproportionate military
spending. Together, we must be the repairers and restorers of a
Faithful Budget.
Sincerely,
American Friends Service Committee
Bread for the World
Disciples Justice Action Network
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Council of Churches USA
National Council of Jewish Women
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Institute Justice Team
United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
Union for Reform Judaism
United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society
