Year-end Farm Bill Update

It appears that House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders are close to a Farm Bill deal. While we have not seen legislative language, it is our understanding that under the working agreement on the farm bill, the nutrition title would include $8-9 billion in cuts to SNAP made by taking the House level cut to the Heat and Eat program, concentrating the full impact of the cuts in the 16 states that participate. Leaders had hoped to unveil the deal this week, but a key budget analyst was snowed in in New Jersey and unable to provide the necessary Congressional Budget Office scores in time for action before the House adjourns tomorrow, Friday, Dec 13. As such, Ag Committee leaders announced their intention to move the bill in early January.

The House has introduced legislation providing a short-term farm bill extension through January. House Ag Chairman Lucas (R-OK) wanted the legislation in case it looks like Congress won't be able to wrap up the full farm bill reauthorization in early January. In the meantime, Senate leaders have stated explicitly that they will not take up an extension, hoping to maintain pressure on Congress to wrap up negotiations and vote on a final farm bill in early January. One major concern that arises by not passing a bill by December 31^st is that dairy programs will revert back to 1949 farm law, which required USDA to provide price supports at a much higher level than today and which could lead to a significant spike in milk prices. However, Secretary Vilsack has assured negotiators that, provided they take action in early January, he will hold off on implementing permanent law and milk prices will not be impacted.

Agriculture Committee leaders met Tuesday and are scheduled to meet again today. While the House is not in session next week, Chairman Lucas and Ranking Member Peterson (D-MN) are expected to come back next week to finish up negotiations with Senators Stabenow (D-MI) and Cochran (R-MS) to finalize the framework. Staff would finish writing legislative language to match the framework deal before Congress returns in January. In January, the conference committee would have a public meeting to vote on the conference agreement. Some amendments may be concerned at the conference committee level to allow members who are unhappy with certain elements of the legislation to raise their concerns. The bill would then move to the House and Senate floor for final passage. 

Many thanks for all of your tremendous advocacy efforts. Together with our partners, we generated over 4,000 calls to Congress last week and Presbyterians alone sent over 2,000 emails in the last three weeks calling for a Faithful Farm Bill. To read more about PC(USA) advocacy for a comprehensive and faithful Farm Bill, visit our blog.

We will share additional legislative details as they are made available. In the meantime, members of Congress are heading home for the holidays. It's a great time for you to invite them to worship, to volunteer in your food pantries or feeding programs, and to continue to elevate the issues of hunger and ongoing need in your communities.  In a season when we are celebrating the coming a Savior to all people, the stark inequalities become startlingly apparent.  Make sure your elected officials understand the importance of protecting and strengthening nutrition programs and of completing a comprehensive, sustainable Farm Bill.

Farm Bill Deadline Approaches

As the year draws to a close, Congress has many must-pass items left on its plate.  Perhaps most pressing are the budget and the Farm Bill.  The House is scheduled to adjourn for the year next Friday, Dec. 13, but the Senate does not even return from Thanksgiving recess until next Monday, Dec. 6.  This leaves one week for them to wrap up the first session of the 113^th Congress. 

Of course, that it not to say that conversations are not ongoing.  Indeed, bicameral conference committees on both issues are in the midst of delicate and intense negotiations.  Leaving aside the question of the budget for now, for after all, Congress does have a few weeks into the New Year to come to agreement before the next manufactured fiscal crisis, the focus of the faith community has been on the Farm Bill.

Our nation’s food and farm policies, as embodied in the Farm Bill, impact people and communities from rural America to big cities to developing countries. In the Farm bill are provisions that authorize SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly Food Stamps), international food aid, conservation programs, initiatives that support new and minority farmers and ranchers, rural development programs, sustainable energy research, farm subsidies, crop insurance, just to name the most famous.  In all, the Farm Bill is a mixed bag of policies, some of which promote a more just food system and some that trap us in a vicious cycle of subsidized commodities and under-nutrition.  Nevertheless, the Farm Bill is must-pass, if for no other reason than that it authorizes SNAP and promotes environmentally sustainable practices on working farmlands.  

Write to your Members of Congress to urge a just and comprehensive Farm Bill this year.

In the current budget climate, which incorrectly functions from an assumption of scarcity, the Farm Bill’s limited resources must be effectively targeted where need is greatest. And people are hungry -- the U.S. and around the world. Programs and policies that curb hunger and malnutrition, support vibrant agricultural economies in rural communities, and promote the sustainable use of natural resources must be prioritized.  At the same time, we should be shifting away from investment in programs that subsidize factory farms and promote major commodities as the most viable crops for food and fuel.

Earlier in the year, serious threats were made to the funding of SNAP and on Nov. 1st, SNAP benefits were cut as a 2009 funding increase ran out.  Far from there being room to cut SNAP, most SNAP beneficiaries find that their benefits run out by the third or fourth week of the month and turn to private charity to fill gap.  If anything, we need to invest more in Food Stamp benefits.  SNAP is designed as a counter-cyclical program that expands to meet needs when the economy is bad and people lose income and become eligible.  When the jobs outlook and economy improve, it contracts as participants cycle off the program. 

So, Congress must reauthorize the SNAP program without the proposed cuts.  There is simply no way to achieve significant cuts without affecting benefits and nutrition education programs.  Write today to your members of Congress.

During the week before Thanksgiving, hundreds of Presbyterians, including our leaders Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons, Moderator Neal Presa, and Executive Director Linda Valentine, are taking the Food Stamp/SNAP Challenge.  The Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons reflects on his trip to the grocery store in this article and Linda Valentine allowed the News Service to publish her journal from that week here.  Days after their SNAP Challenge concluded, they sent this letter to Congress.

With the PC(USA)’s long-held convictions about food justice and fair food and farm policy, our interests in the Farm Bill, while very concerned with the nutrition programs, are also much broader that.  In a joint statement with interfaith partners, the PC(USA) called on Congress to pass a Farm Bill that:

• Protects and strengthens programs that reduce hunger and improve nutrition in the United States.
• Promotes investments and policies that strengthen rural communities and combat rural poverty.
• Provides a fair and effective farmer safety net that allows farmers in the U.S. and around the world to earn economically sustainable livelihoods.
• Strengthens policies and programs that promote conservation and protect creation from environmental degradation.
• Protects the dignity, health, and safety, of those responsible for working the land.
• Promotes research related to alternative, clean, and renewable forms of energy that do not negatively impact food prices or the environment.
• Safeguards and improves international food aid in ways that encourage local food security and improve the nutritional quality of food aid.

Write to your Members of Congress here.

To read more about the PC(USA) Office of Public Witness’ advocacy around the Farm Bill and SNAP, visit our farm bill blog.

Food Stamp Challenge Letter to Congress

As the festival of Thanksgiving approached, hundreds of Presbyterians, including our denominational leaders Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons, Moderator Neal Presa, and Executive Director Linda Valentine, were just concluding a week of doing the  SNAP/Food Stamp Challenge.  While living on a food stamp budget for just a week cannot come close to the struggles encountered by low-income families week after week and month after month, it does offer those who take the Challenge with a new perspective and greater understanding, especially in the the context of a national holiday devoted to thankfulness.


As part of the Food Stamp Challenge, Presbyterians engaged in all sorts of activities, from the Challenge itself, to anti-hunger education in church, to contacting their Members of Congress.

As part of their challenge, our leaders send the following letter to Congress.  In it, they urge Congress to refrain from cutting SNAP/Food Stamp benefits, which are already too low for many families, and instead to invest in a “comprehensive Farm Bill that ensures access to food for hungry people, provides an ample safety net targeted to those small and mid-sized farmers who most need it, builds up rural communities and their economies, and protects the integrity of God’s creation through robust conservation programs and sustainable agriculture.”

They conclude their letter:  "Our nation’s food and farm policies, as embodied in the Farm Bill, impact people and communities from rural America to big cities to developing countries. In the current budget climate, the Farm Bill’s limited resources must be effectively targeted where need is the greatest. And people are hungry."

The Congressional Conference Committee that is negotiating a final Farm Bill is still meeting this week!  Contact your Members of Congress to weigh in for a more just food system.

###

November 26, 2013

United States Congress

Washington, D.C.

Dear Members of Congress:

We write as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) concludes a week-long SNAP / Food Stamp Challenge in which we, the church’s national leaders, as well as hundreds of Presbyterians, chose to live on an average SNAP benefit, which nationally is about $30 per person per week. This practice is intended to raise awareness within our community about the dire food insecurity of many of our neighbors.  We realize, of course, that our engaging in this Challenge is a symbolic gesture, but we also believe that it has meaning and capacity for building awareness of the very real need in our communities.  We further recognize that our own reactions to living on SNAP benefit levels for a week – both psychological and physiological – cannot begin to approach the experience of a family that is relying for sustenance on these inadequate, and yet essential benefits.

Even as we learned this lesson, we acknowledge what privilege we have in bringing it to an end, in seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, in returning to our usual diets.  So as we enter this festival of Thanksgiving, we give thanks for food and for all the ways that healthy food is available to each of us.  And we give thanks for SNAP, which prevents so many Americans from falling into severe food insecurity. It is our prayer that we will change our food system so that no one in this wealthy nation will suffer hunger and that each and every person will have enough, not too little and not too much.

Through this SNAP Challenge, we learned in practice what we only previously knew intellectually – that far from needing to be cut, Food Stamp benefits are too low and need to be increased, especially in light of the recent Nov. 1^st benefit cliff. So, we urge you to refrain from cutting SNAP, and instead to invest in this program that provides only the most basic assistance to struggling people in some of their darkest hours. 

We further understand from partners in ministry that we, the churches that engage in ministries of charity and mercy cannot alone meet the overwhelming need created by cuts to federal safety net programs. Private charity needs public partnership in order to answer our call to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. As earnestly as we try to fill gaps in services left by government spending cuts, we simply do not have the resources or capacity to respond to the growing and monumental need caused by a severe recession, anemic recovery, and systemic inequity.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) further has a long history of commitment to food justice and food system advocacy.  In a letter sent earlier this year, we called for a “comprehensive Farm Bill that ensures access to food for hungry people, provides an ample safety net targeted to those small and mid-sized farmers who most need it, builds up rural communities and their economies, and protects the integrity of God’s creation through robust conservation programs and sustainable agriculture.”

Our nation’s food and farm policies, as embodied in the Farm Bill, impact people and communities from rural America to big cities to developing countries. In the current budget climate, the Farm Bill’s limited resources must be effectively targeted where need is the greatest. And people are hungry. In particular, we urge you to protect SNAP from cuts that will only make it harder for people to make ends meet, that will increase food insecurity, that will leave children hungry.

And as we observe the national festival devoted to giving thanks, we are thankful for functioning government, for leaders who devote their lives to public service, and for your own service to our nation. 

Should you have any questions or wish to hear more about our reflections and learnings during the SNAP / Food Stamp Challenge, please contact our Office of Public Witness, Leslie Woods, Representative for Domestic Poverty and Environmental Issues, (202) 543-1126, leslie.woods@pcusa.org.

Sincerely,

Reverend Gradye Parsons

Stated Clerk of the General Assembly

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Reverend Dr. Neal Presa

Moderator of the 220^th General Assembly

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Linda Valentine

Executive Director, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)


For the Presbyterian News Service publication of this letter.

Action Alert: Boycott the Occupation

At its July 2012 meeting, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) spent considerable time discussing actions that it could take to help further the peace process between Israel and Palestine. After much study, discussion, and prayer regarding the prospect for peace between Israel and Palestine, the 2012 General Assembly passed a resolution that called for the boycott of all Israeli products coming from the occupied Palestinian Territories. It also directed the Stated Clerk to communicate this action to all other PC(USA) councils and entities and invite and strongly encourage those groups and organizations to endorse this boycott until significant progress toward Palestinian rights and independence can be reported to the General Assembly or Presbyterian Mission Agency. What can you do to join the Boycott?

Join the Interfaith Boycott of Sodastream!

SodaStream’s main production site is in Mishor Edomim, an Israeli settlement industrial park located in the West Bank. The land where the SodaStream factory is located was illegally confiscated from its Palestinian owners by the Israeli military occupation authorities. Israeli settlements are an impediment to peace and violate international law.   For more info go to http://sodastreamboycott.org/
 


 

Have your church or Presbytery sign the Pledge to Pray, Study, and Act to Support the Presbyterian Church (USA) Boycott of Settlement Products

In response to the ongoing cycle of violence that undermines negotiations and hope for an enduring peace in Palestine and Israel, the [Presbyterian Church], [Presbytery] supports the Overture passed at the 2012 General Assembly (PCUSA) calling for the boycott of products made in the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and endorses the boycott of products made in the illegal Israeli settlements. As peacemakers committed to nonviolent resolution of deep-seated conflicts, we join a growing number of international and religious partners, including Jewish, Muslim, and Christian voices, who believe that a boycott can inspire a more useful dialog and negotiation towards a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. 

Respect for the dignity of every human being, alongside a vision to put aside the violence of  terrorism, oppression, and military force is key to moving negotiations forward for a lasting peace for all involved. We are all the children of Abraham, let us no longer profit at the expense of the safety and security of one another. Instead let us end the violent cycle and build a circle of peace.

We, members of the [Presbyterian Church], [Presbytery] pledge to Pray, Study, and Act in support of the right to freedom for all peoples from discrimination, oppression and occupation.

Please let us know if you, your church, or your presbytery choose to join the boycott! Contact catherine.gordon@pcusa.org.

Statement of communities of faith on the ruling of the Dominican Constitutional Court denying citizenship to four generations of Dominicans of Haitian descent

November 26, 2013

"Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.”  -- Proverbs 31:8, 9

  

We represent churches, interdenominational groups and faith-based organizations with long presence and ties in the Dominican Republic.  As communities of faith, we express profound concern at the September 23 ruling of the Constitutional Court that the children of all persons “in transit” in the country since 1929 are not Dominican.  The decision particularly affects Dominicans of Haitian descent, potentially stripping them of their nationality, and putting them at risk of being stateless and/or subject to deportation.   

Dominican citizens of Haitian descent are often among the poorest of the poor.  They are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Haitians who crossed the border in search of a better life, and of migrant workers contracted by the Dominican government to help harvest sugarcane and other crops. They have helped build the wealth of communities, labored at the most difficult jobs, and contributed tremendously to Dominican society and economy.  These Dominican citizens for generations have been fully integrated into Dominican society and have long since lost ties to Haiti.

As churches and faith based organizations working and living in the country and accompanying this population directly, or those who serve them, we have directly observed the impact on them of increasing hostility:

·         We have seen the discrimination and neglect experienced by Dominicans of Haitian ancestry, witnessed their economic and social marginalization in the bateyes, and observed racial discrimination in their personal lives and the public domain.

·         We have noted the impact on this population of the Dominican government’s failure to comply with the 2005 ruling of the Inter-American Court which called for the restitution of birth documents withheld from Dominicans of Haitian descent. This inertia has emboldened some elements to be more vocal in their anti-Dominco-Haitian sentiments, causing Dominicans of Haitian descent to live in fear of xenophobia and racism in their own country.

·         We have noted that since 2005, further rulings of the Dominican Central Electoral Board have authorized civil registry offices to withhold birth certificates, and confiscate ID cards and passports from Dominicans of Haitian descent, simply because of their ancestry.   Hundreds of Dominicans have lived in limbo since then, as without their documents they are unable to go to school, access medical services, open bank accounts, get married, or make needed purchases.  Many of these denationalized Dominicans of Haitian descent are young people awaiting their documentation to rebuild their lives.

·         We have heard the stories of Dominican citizens who have been deported to Haiti because of their dark skin.  

·         We have witnessed the attempt made by institutions of the Dominican government to strip Sonia Pierre, human rights advocate and leader of the Movement of Dominico-Haitian Women, of her citizenship as she courageously fought for the nationality and citizenship rights of the Dominico- Haitian population to be respected.    

This latest ruling of the Dominican Constitutional Court will dramatically worsen the already unjust situation of discrimination and economic marginalization.  Retroactive application is illegal under international law and also violates several articles of the Dominican constitution itself.   UNCHR, UNICEF and the Inter-American Human Rights Commission have deplored this Court decision, and called upon the government of the Dominican Republic to ensure that the fundamental human right to nationality is respected.

We urge the Dominican government to ensure that all necessary steps are taken to safeguard the nationality and citizenship rights of Dominico-Haitians. This includes ensuring that relevant ministries expedite processing the backlog for issuing of birth certificates and national I.D. cards  to Dominicans of Haitian descent born prior to January 2010, whose Dominican nationality is protected by Dominican law as well conventions signed by government.

As people of faith, we cannot remain silent as one entire section of the community is dehumanized simply because of the color of their skin and their cultural heritage.  Jesus Christ welcomed all into the beloved community, and we cannot honor and follow our Lord and Savior by remaining silent in the face of such extreme injustice.

AG Missions Inc, (AMI)

Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College

Community of Christ

Christian Haitian Entrepreneurial Society, Inc.

Church World Service

Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC)

NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Our Lady of Grace- Chelsea/Everett Haiti Committee

Pax Christi Ayiti

Pax Christi USA

Presbyterian Church USA

United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society

United Methodist Women