by Michelle Doyle
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Office of Government Liaison
Members of Congress recently
left Washington, DC to return to their home
districts for last-minute campaigning in
anticipation of the November elections. Although
they had set a target adjournment date for October 8th,
they were only able to leave for a recess period at
that time because of unfinished business.
Legislators return to Capitol Hill on November 15th
for a “lame duck” session following the elections.
The business they are taking up is completion of
appropriations and any bills that have passed both
the House and the Senate and have been sent to a
Conference Committee to finalize a single bill that
will be sent to the President for his signature.
One issue that was taken care
of in the last minutes before adjournment was
passage of the Homeland Security appropriations
bill. Those of you who were at the CCFM conference
in New Orleans last spring may recall that an issue
of interest to us at the time was a bill that would
provide grants and loans to “high risk, nonprofits”
to protect against international terrorist threats.
Although the stand-alone bill was not successful,
sponsors were successful in inserting funding for
this purpose into the Homeland Security
appropriations bill. CCFM was one of a group of
Catholic organizations signing a letter to the
Senate to encourage inclusion of this funding.
The Conference Agreement,
passed on October 9th, appropriates $25 million to
protect nonprofit groups that have a high risk of an
international terrorist attack. Because this is an
appropriations measure, the implementation is not
spelled out. The next step will be work with the
Department of Homeland Security, Office for State
and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness,
to determine how this program will be implemented.
CCFM played an important role in securing funding
for this program, along with a broad coalition of
religious and other nonprofit organizations.