October 16, 2000 Vol. 2, No. 35

This Week in Washington...

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

Congress Speaks Out: 94 Senators signed a letter to President Clinton last Friday expressing "solidarity with the State of Israel at this moment of crisis and our profound disappointment and frustration with PLO Chairman Arafat." The House will act early this week on House Concurrent Resolution 426 which expresses similar sentiments. The legislation would condemn Palestinian leadership for encouraging violence and doing so little to stop it; urge the Administration to use its veto power at the U.N. Security Council to prevent the passage of unbalanced resolutions; and call on all parties involved in the Middle East conflict to make all possible efforts to reinvigorate the peace process to prevent further senseless loss of life. This resolution currently has 64 co-sponsors. Later this week, the Senate is expected to vote on a bill opposing a unilateral declaration of independence by the Palestinian Authority. The legislation (S. 2938) would set as US policy opposition to a unilaterally declared state, withhold US recognition of such a state, and prohibit all US assistance to the Palestinians except for humanitarian and counterterrorism aid. As you will recall, the House voted by an overwhelming 385-27 in support of this proposal. There is still time today to call legislators and urge support of these proposals. Contact rprice@thejcpa.org for updated information.

Making Hate Crimes Legislation a Reality: Although the Hate Crime provision was stripped from the Department of Defense authorization bill, coalition members are still hopeful that the legislation can still be enacted before Congress adjourns. The United Against Hate Coalition has organized another Hill call-in day for Thursday, October 19th. JCPA member agencies are urged to make calls (Congressional Switchboard 202-224-3121) Thursday to members of Congress and to the Republican leadership -Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi. Our message is clear and constant: Congress must not adjourn before enacting Hate Crime Legislation! Newly released FBI statistics show a minor increase in hate crimes from last year. In 1999 there were 7,876 reported hate crimes, slightly above the 1998 level of 7,755. A more complete summary of the report can be found at www.unitedagainsthate.org.

Elsewhere in the Capital: Congress quietly passed a third "Continuing Resolution" last week enabling the Government to continue to function until Friday, October 20^th. It is still unclear if this will be enough time to finish their work for the year. "Return to Home" provisions have a reasonable chance of being included in the flurry of appropriations bills which must pass before Congress adjourns. JCPA member agencies are urged to call members of Congress, Speaker Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth to ask that they support this important initiative. Contact Stephan.Kline@ujc.org. for more information about "return to home". As anticipated, international family planning will be one of the last issues dealt with in this session. While negotiators seem to have accepted the Administration’s request for debt relief to the poorest countries of the world, Congressional leadership continues to insist that the global gag rule (or "Mexico City" language) be included in the final version of the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. (NB: this is the spending bill which provides $2.8 billion in foreign aid to Israel.) The global gag rule would bar any recipient of US funds from advocating, discussing or performing abortions even with their own private funds! Please call your Representatives and Senators (202-224-3121) and the White House (comment lines: 202-456-1414) to let them know that the global gag rule or any variation of it is unacceptable. Legislators should also be urged to insure that immigration provisions, including those contained in the Latino and Immigrant Fairness Act, are included in the final Appropriations bill.

This Week in New York…

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

Solidarity with Israel: JCPA Chair Len Cole and Associate Vice Chair Martin Raffel leave Tuesday on an emergency solidarity mission to Israel coordinated by the UJC and Conference of Presidents. JCPA will be holding a briefing from Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon , October 19^th following a scheduled meeting with PM Barak. Stay tuned for details.

Hail to the Chief: We welcome Hannah Rosenthal, new JCPA Vice Chair, to New York. Hannah begins work today at the helm of JCPA. Her email address is hsrosenthal@thejcpa.org.