Congress was in recess this week. The American Jobs Plan was announced last week. According to the U.S.Customs and Border Protection, the United States saw the largest increase of migrants at the border in 15 years with more than 172,000 migrant encounters at the border. Today, President Biden released his initial 2022 budget outline. The budget seeks $1.5 trillion in spending, with major increases for education, health and the environment. The proposal also includes more than $2.1 billion for the Department of Justice to combat gun violence, an increase of more than $230 million from the previous budget. Here's the budget request. In the monthly jobs report released April 2, 2021, from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), total nonfarm employment rose by 916,000 jobs in March on a seasonally adjusted basis; temporary help services lost 800 jobs. The temporary agency penetration rate slipped from 1.93% to 1.92%. The national unemployment rate declined again last month, from 6.2% to 6.0%, even with a rise in the labor force. Today, Sister Donna Markham sent a letter to the Senate leadership concerning DREAMERS and farm workforce. It will be posted to the Catholic Charities USA website soon. On April 8,2021, the CDC reported that there were 74,860 new COVID cases and 871 deaths. Across the country, 112 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, including 66 million people who have been fully vaccinated. Although signs are promising, people should remain vigilant in their use of masks and social distancing. To learn more about how you can get the vaccine please contact your state health department for its plan for COVID-19 vaccination. Please visit the CCUSA Social Policy/Advocacy page for updates and policy papers. See here.
Faith and the Common Good
As we continue to celebrate the feast of Easter, the long stretch of the pandemic and the economic crisis is still a difficult time for many and we pray for God's peace for all of creation. Your Peace God, who is more than we can ever comprehend, help us to seek you, and you alone. Help us to stand before all that we could do and seek what you would do, and do that. Lift from us our need to achieve all that we can be and instead, surrender to what you can be in us. Give us ways to refrain from the busyness that will put us on edge and off center, give us today your peace. - Author Unknown Trivia
When did April 15th become tax day? On April 1st, the trivia question was, " In 1866, which important piece of legislation did President Andrew Johnson veto?" Dana Sebastian-Duncan from St. Louis was the first to correctly identify The Civil Rights Act of 1866 as the important piece of legislation that President Andrew Johnson vetoed. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the first United States federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. In April 1866 Congress again passed the bill to support the Thirteenth Amendment, and Johnson again vetoed it, but a two-thirds majority in each chamber overrode the veto to allow it to become law without presidential signature. "An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of their vindication", the act declared that all people born in the United States who are not subject to any foreign power are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude. A similar provision was written a few months later into the proposed 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 also said that any citizen has the right to make and enforce contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property. Additionally, the act guaranteed to all citizens the "full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and ... like punishment, pains, and penalties..." Persons who denied these rights on account of race or previous enslavement were guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction faced a fine not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both. After enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 by overriding a presidential veto, some members of Congress supported the 14th Amendment in order to eliminate doubts about the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, or to ensure that no subsequent Congress could later repeal or alter the main provisions of that Act. Thus, the Citizenship Clause in the 14th Amendment parallels citizenship language in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and likewise the Equal Protection Clause parallels nondiscrimination language in the 1866 Act; the extent to which other clauses in the 14th Amendment may have incorporated elements of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 is a matter of continuing debate. Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment was completed in 1868, 2 years after, the 1866 Act was reenacted, as Section 18 of the Enforcement Act of 1870.
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