Dear Members of Congress:

Greetings and Peace to you in this New Year!  As leaders of our respective faith communities, we wrote to you throughout 2005 regarding our concerns for the FY ’06 Federal Budget Reconciliation Bill.    At each step of the complicated budget process we called on Congress to reject cuts to programs that serve the working poor, children and the elderly, as unjust, particularly at a time when both the hurricanes and the U.S. Census Report on poverty brought vividly before us the need to renew our commitment to “the least of these” among us.  We, like you, have had time to learn more fully what is included in the Conference Report on S. 1932.  We write to each of you now to urge you to listen to both your hearts and your constituents, and oppose once and for all the FY ’06 Budget Reconciliation Spending Reduction package when it comes before the House on February 1.

Last year, we called on the President and the Congress to put before the American people a budget that represents the values and priorities of the nation.  Many of you have expressed your own concerns regarding the severity of the cuts considered in the budget reconciliation process.  We applaud those of you in both political parties who sought to prevent those living in the margins of society from bearing the greatest burden.  We are deeply grateful that the Food Stamp Program was spared. 

In our view we believe the final legislation is harsher for those most vulnerable and in need than previously understood.  The conference agreement allows states to reduce benefits for almost all of the 28 million children enrolled in Medicaid today.  The agreement includes more punitive provisions than the original House-passed bill in restricting eligibility for long term Medicaid services hurting many low-income seniors.  New work requirements for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) will now cost states an additional $8.4 billion over five years, potentially forcing states to shift resources away from desperately needed child care to fund the new work requirements.  The agreement would also impose increasingly onerous work requirements on two-parent families.  The conference agreement severely limits states’ ability to tailor state programs to meet the individual needs of the families they serve, likely forces deep cuts in child care assistance for low-income working families who do not receive TANF assistance and allows states to deny contraception to poor women through Medicaid for the first time in the history of the program.  The conference agreement includes provisions that would delay certain Supplemental Security Income payments for up to a year for many poor individuals with disabilities who are eligible for Supplemental Security Income. Finally, we are deeply concerned low and moderate income students will find it more difficult to receive or pay back student loans. 

As a result of the frenzied outcome of the Senate vote to pass the Conference Report on S. 1932 in December, you now have an opportunity to redeem the image of Congress in the eyes of the nation by rejecting cuts to those who suffer in sickness, live in hunger, struggle in poverty, live in the cold and seek brighter futures through education.  As the Psalmist wrote: For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish for ever. (Psalm 9:18) We ask that you listen to your constituents and people of faith and defeat the Conference Report on S. 1932 when it is considered by the House.

Signed by:

The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold

Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church

The Reverend Mark S. Hanson

Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Reverend Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick

Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.)

The Reverend John H. Thomas

General Minister and President, United Church of Christ

Mr. James Winkler

General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society, United Methodist Church