Federal Issues, 11/18/17 update

USCCB's Action Center

• Help Persecuted Christians/Religious Minorities in Middle East
• Tell Congress to support disaster relief for houses of worship
• Support the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act: Contact your Representative and Senators today!

USCCB's and CRS' Catholics Confront Global Poverty / Action Center 

[We can ensure safety for refugees, as well as their host communities.  As our noble efforts at assistance must not be hijacked, this blogger believes that our communications MUST specifically state that contraceptives/abortifacients MUST be excluded from "assistance."]
• Speak up for the 1% that does a world of good.
  
• Use Your Voice to Combat Human Trafficking
• Support Families By Extending TPS
  
• Urge Our Nation to Care for our Common Home

USCCB's Justice for Immigrants' Action Alerts 

• Action Alert: Urge Continued Protection for Haitians While Their Country Continues to Recover
• Protect funding for poverty-reducing international assistance in the international affairs budget
  [We can ensure safety for refugees, as well as their host communities.  As our noble efforts at assistance must not be hijacked, this blogger believes that our communications MUST specifically state that contraceptives/abortifacients MUST be excluded from "assistance."].
• Extend TPS for the countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti
• Migration Campaign Action Alert: DACA
• Support for Refugees and the U.S. Resettlement Program
• Action Alert to Support DREAM Act of 2017
• Action Alert: Urge Congress to Continue to Protect Trafficking Victims
• Stand with Refugees Action Alert
• Action Alert to DHS: Extend TPS for Haitians
  
• Voice Your Support for Vulnerable Immigrants and Refugees
• Easter Recess In-District Meetings: JFI Asks
• Phone-in Fridays
• Please Support the BRIDGE ACT and DACA Youth
• In Solidarity with Refugees
• Creating a Culture of Encounter

USCCB's Marriage Unique for a Reason

• "The USCCB continues to support the First Amendment Defense Act, the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act, and the Healthy Relationships Act in Congress." (USCCB, 11/3/17)

Pa Catholic Conference's Current Alerts
(two federal)

• Reauthorize CHIP
• No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion
  "Urge our Senators to support H.R. 7 to permanently protect our tax dollars from paying for or promoting elective abortions."

National Center on Sexual Exploitation

• On EWTN News Nightly (9/20/17), the National Center on Sexual Exploitation's Haley Halverson explained why Congress must amend Communications Decency Act, Section 230.
  
  Kudos to Brian Fitzpatrick, who is joined by fellow U.S. Representatives from Pennsylvania Barletta, Brady, Evans, Kelly, Rothus, Shuster, and Smucker as co-sponsors of HR 1865 (Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017), while Senators Casey and  Toomey are co-sponsors of S 1693 (Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act)
• "'Expeditious passage of H.R. 1865 Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (FOSTA) and S. 1693 Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) will move the country closer to striking a blow against the online havens that facilitate sex trafficking'" (National Center on Sexual Exploitation, 9/7/17). 

Human Life Action Action Alerts

Current Action Alerts

• Call for Public Comments on the HHS Contraception / Abortifacient Mandate
  Last Updated: 11/21/2017
• Urge Congress to Enact the Conscience Protection Act of 2017!
  [As per a 9/20/17 email from Human Life Action: "This is 'appropriations season' on the Hill. That means Congress must pass funding legislation for Fiscal Year 2018.... Last Thursday, the House of Representatives approved HR 3354, Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, 2018. It includes the full text of the Conscience Protection Act (CPA) of 2017! It also includes other provisions which we have taken action on such as the nullification of the DC law that legalized assisted suicide and the DC Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act (RHNDA), a DC law....There are many other pro-life provisions (both longstanding and new) in the funding bill as well, such as a prohibition on funding elective abortions for detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and against funding for research involving human fetal tissue from abortions....Of the new provisions, our top priority is to ensure that the CPA is included.... rather than finalizing the FY 2018 appropriations legislation by the end of the fiscal year (September 30), both the House and the Senate passed a Continuing Resolution to fund the government at its current levels with current policies until December 8, 2017....continue contacting your members of Congress...."]
• Assisted Suicide is Not Healthcare
• Urge Senators to Pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

Previous Action Alerts

• Vote Expected Soon on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act
Last Updated: 09/29/2017
• Urge Senators to Protect Life and Liberty of Conscience in Health Care Reform Bill
  Last Updated: 06/23/2017
• Urge Your Senators to Disapprove Planned Parenthood Title X Funding Rule
  Last Updated: 03/13/2017
• Contact the President and Vice-President Today and Urge Them to Support Religious Liberty!
  Last Updated: 02/03/2017
• Follow Up for Vote on The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 7)
  Last Updated: 01/26/2017
• Urge Support for the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act
  Last Updated: 01/19/2017
• 44th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
  Last Updated: 01/04/2017
• Urgent Action Needed on Contraceptive Mandate
  Last Updated: 09/09/2016
• NIH PROPOSES TAXPAYER-FUNDED RESEARCH ON ANIMAL-HUMAN CHIMERAS
  Last Updated: 09/06/2016