Contact your Member of Congress this August to Support Vulnerable Families!

BACKGROUND

Members of Congress have returned home for the August recess and are ready to hear what issues are the top priorities for their constituents. It is a critical time for you to make your voice heard on the issues that matter most to Catholic Charities and vulnerable people in need. This year is particularly important because Members of Congress are in the midst of crafting landmark legislation that will fund many key programs that impact Catholic Charities and the people we serve in areas such as housing and homelessness, health care, hunger, poverty alleviation and others.

AUGUST RECESS MESSAGE

• As outlined in our Poverty and Racism report and our Legislative Priorities, we urge Congress to support the following priorities:
  • Affordable Housing: Support robust funding for investments in affordable housing for families, seniors, and rural communities, the National Housing Trust Fund, rental assistance and housing choice vouchers, homeownership for people of color, and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which encourages investments in low-income communities.
  • Families and Children: Expand and make the Child Tax Credit permanent and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit. Support federal funding and tax breaks to help pay for child care expenses. 
  • Medicaid: Support the Medicaid ‘gap’ fix so that all states are covered. 
  • Medicare Expansion: Support Medicare expansion by lowering the eligibility age and adding coverage for dental, vision and hearing care.
  • Support Home and Community Based Service (HCBS) in Medicaid: Expand access to quality, affordable home- or community-based care for seniors and people with disabilities through Medicaid.
  • Food and Nutrition: Extend the WIC certification period to two years. Extend program eligibility for children from five years until their sixth birthday. Allow an additional meal or snack for children in a full day of care. Extend Pandemic EBT so that, in an event of school breaks or unexpected school closures, eligible students will still have access to nutritious food.
  •  Immigration: Include a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure holders as well as a pathway to legalization for unauthorized agricultural workers, and reform the existing temporary agricultural worker visa program, to address current labor shortages.
  • Charities and Nonprofits: Support charities and nonprofits by making the Universal Charitable Deduction permanent and by establishing a $50 billion grant program to help nonprofit organizations retain their employees and scale service delivery.

AUGUST RECESS ACTION ITEMS

• SEND A MESSAGE: Send a message to your Senator/Representative.
• ATTEND A TOWN HALL: Speak up at a Town Hall event/Talk to your member of Congress directly. Visir townhallproject.com

QUESTIONS?

Contact Anthony Granado, Vice President of Social Policy & Government Relations, CCUSA at [email protected].