February 14, 2020

Inside this issue

• CCUSA Presents the Washington Weekly

  CCUSA Presents the Washington Weekly  
 
This week in Washington, President Trump released his annual budget outlining his funding priorities for fiscal year 2021 (FY21) kicking off the start to appropriations season.

President Trump's budget

The president's budget proposed an all-time high, $4.8 trillion budget for FY21. Even with the hefty proposed price tag, the budget proposes nearly $2 trillion in program cuts, including social safety net programs and student loan initiatives.

One of the largest cuts would be for health care for poor and disabled people known as Medicaid. The Medicaid program is a mandatory spending line item and reducing it involves making changes to eligibility. The budget outlines new work requirements and asset tests to access the program. States would be compelled to increase eligibility oversight. The totality of these changes would reduce enrollment causing many to lose access to healthcare.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is another mandatory program that would incur cuts under President Trump's budget proposal. The budget proposal includes a set of work requirements for able-bodied people between the ages of 18 to 65, rather than making a distinction on whether those people have children. Overall the budget reduces SNAP funding over time by roughly $180 billion between 2021 and 2030. The administration indicated that the changes are necessary given that too many Americans remain on public assistance.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is seeing proposed cuts of $8.6 billion. This would be a 15% decrease compared to FY20 enacted levels. Many critical housing programs saw zeroed out funding including the National Housing Trust Fund, HOME Investment Partnership program, and the Community Development Block Grants. Some programs were identified for funding increases including the 202 housing program for the elderly and the 811 housing program for people with disabilities.

The president's budget is the beginning of the appropriations cycle, but it is not a document that is voted on by Congress. The House and Senate will likely offer their own budgets in the coming months that will provide their funding priorities. Each chamber will vote on, and possibly agree upon, one unified budget that the president can sign into law. The House and Senate have indicated they will offer budgets that are much closer to FY20 funding levels.

Faith and the Common Good
Beverly Earl from Catholic Charities San Bernardino --  Riverside was the first to respond that the North Star was the name of the anti-slavery newspaper founded by Frederick Douglass in 1847.

The North Star title was a reference to the directions given to runaway slaves trying to reach the Northern states and Canada: "Follow the North Star".  It was published weekly and was four pages long. It sold by subscription of $2 per year to more than 4,000 readers in the United States, Europe, and the West Indies. Much of its content focused on current events concerning abolitionist issues.  Recently the Library of Congress digitized newspapers edited by Frederick Douglass and made them available online. You can access the collection here. The collection includes 568 issues of three weekly newspaper titles dating between 1847 and 1874: The North Star in Rochester, New York, Frederick Douglass' Paper in Rochester, New York, and New National Era in Washington, D.C.

Douglass was born in 1818, though the month and day are uncertain; he later opted to celebrate his birthday on February 14. Separated as an infant from his mother, Frederick lived with his grandmother on a Maryland plantation until he was eight years old, when his owner sent him to Baltimore to live as a house servant with the family of Hugh Auld, whose wife defied state law by teaching Douglass to read. Upon the death of Hugh Auld, he was returned to the plantation as a field hand at the age of 16. In 1835, he fled to New York City and then to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he worked as a laborer for three years, eluding slave hunters by changing his surname to Douglass. 
In 1845, he published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.  An advocate for women's rights, and specifically the right of women to vote, Douglass lives on through his legacy as an author and leader. His work served as an inspiration to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.  He remained an active speaker, writer and activist until his death in 1895.

Prayer to End Trafficking
Loving Father,
We seek your divine protection for all who are exploited and enslaved.
For those forced into labor, trafficked into sexual slavery, and denied freedom.
We beseech you to release them from their chains.
Grant them protection, safety, and empowerment.
Restore their dignity and provide them a new beginning.
Show us how we might end exploitation by addressing its causes.
Help us reach out in support of victims and survivors of human trafficking.
Make us instruments of your spirit for their liberation.
For this we pray through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
 
From USCCB handout for World Day of Peace 2015

Trivia
Who was the leader of the Cambridge Movement in the early 1960s in Cambridge, Maryland?

Please send your answers to [email protected]

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