March 13, 2000 Vol. 2, No. 8

This Week in Washington...

For more information, contact Reva Price, Washington Representative at rprice@thejcpa.org

Gun Control Issues Stay Front and Center: The JCPA will join coalition partners at an interfaith call to end gun violence to be issued at a Wednesday press conference. The Honorable Andrew Cuomo, Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and others are scheduled to speak about the important role faith groups can play in bringing to an end the epidemic of gun violence. At Plenum 2000 in Baltimore, the JCPA passed a resolution calling for the enactment of meaningful gun safety legislation. Crafted through a joint effort of national and local agencies, the resolution identifies eight areas to be addressed by federal, state and local legislation. The complete text of the resolution can be found on the JCPA website at www.jewishpublicaffairs.org.

WRFA to Be Introduced In the House: Plenum 2000 delegates heard Representative Jerrold Nadler (NY) announce that the Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA) would soon be introduced in the House, and the latest news is that that may happen as early as this week. Representative Asa Hutchinson (AR) will join Nadler in this effort but other original co-sponsors are still being sought. A coalition letter will be sent to the full House and Senate this week urging members to co-sponsor this important legislation. JCPA member agencies are strongly urged to contact legislators to sign on as cosponsors. WRFA will strengthen the religious accommodation provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Current civil rights law defines the refusal of an employer to reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious practice, unless such accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer, as a form of religious discrimination. But the courts, placing little restraint on an employer’s ability to refuse to provide religious accommodation, have interpreted this standard far too narrowly. The Senate version of the WRFA (S.1668) was introduced this past fall by Senators John Kerry (MA) and Sam Brownback (KS).

Charitable Choice – A Guide to the Perplexed: The Working Group for Religious Freedom in Social Services (including the JCPA) will be holding a briefing for Hill staff on Friday morning. Charitable choice provisions currently appear on eight pieces of legislation, including "Even Start", a children’s literacy program which is part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization. While continuing to oppose charitable choice initiatives, our coalition partners and we seek to focus on ways in which the government can interact with religious institutions without violating the Constitution.

Elsewhere On the Hill: The Senate is in recess this week, but the House is in session. The Budget Committee is scheduled to "mark-up" its FY 2001 Budget Resolution mid-week. Despite announcements last week that both houses had worked out a plan for their respective budget blueprints, a split between House and Senate leadership over spending is guaranteed to get worse before it gets better. Also in the works for this week: the House Census subcommittee’s newest oversight hearing on the 2000 Census, and the House Judiciary Committee renewed efforts to finish work on HR 3660, the so-called "Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2000."

This Week in New York...

For more information, contact Benita Gayle-Almeleh, Senior Community Consultant at bga@thejcpa.org

A comprehensive packet to assist CRCs in interpreting the upcoming papal visit to Israel will be mailed this Wednesday. "Pilgrimage: Pope John Paul II in Israel, March 21-26" will provide background information and programmatic material. The packet was developed by the JCPA in cooperation with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Contact lmallin@thejcpa.org for more information. Much of the information will be posted on the JCPA website as well.

The implications of the recent rapprochement between Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam and Wallace D. Muhammed’s American Muslim Council will be discussed on a conference call scheduled for this Thursday. Participants will hear from Mark Pelavin, Assistant Director of the Religious Action Center who will report on discussions of this issue at UAHC’s recent meeting of its Interreligious Affairs committee, as well as reports by CRC directors concerning recent events in their communities. Contact ksenter@thejcpa.org for more information.