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The United Methodist Church’s public policy arm announced Wednesday its top seven legislative priorities for 2008, saying that it believes the faith community can offer a much needed voice to the debates.
Issues being taken up this year cover a wide spectrum of topics, from health care and poverty to the environment and war. The chosen priorities all support the emphasis of the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) Board of Directors.
“They (priorities) either are objectives that we think can be accomplished this year, or issues that are so important that they need to be emphasized regardless of our hopes to accomplish them this year or not,” explained Mark Harrison, director of GBCS’s Peace with Justice Program.
Among the priorities for this year is the issue of reducing global warming pollution. GBCS says that Congress’ action in 2007 to increase fuel efficiency standards as part of its energy bill is not enough. GBCS urges Congress to pass a comprehensive global warming legislation that reduces emissions and protects the vulnerable from both the result of global warming and the potential price hike from the legislation.
The ministry also expressed support for the bill “Climate Security Act of 2007” (S.2191), a bipartisan effort to reduce U.S. global warming pollution.
Additionally, protecting children’s health is another GBCS top priority this year. The Methodist body will advocate on behalf of children who lack access to healthcare and push for policy to curb the tobacco industry from luring children to be “life-long smokers” and the alcohol industry from encouraging “underage and binge drinkers.”
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To combat these problems, GBCS will also urge Congress to support stricter regulation on tobacco by the Food and Drug administration, fund the “STOP Underage Drinking Prevention Act,” and reauthorize the “State Children’s Health Insurance Program.”
Increasing affordable housing in 2008 is another key goal.
“As the housing crisis across the country deepens, GBCS remains committed to passage of the ‘National Housing Trust Fund,’” said John Hill, director of Economic and Environmental Justice.
He explained that the “National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act” (S.2523) provides local communities with resources necessary to increase housing opportunities for people in lower income households.
Other policy priorities include the reauthorization of President Bush’s AIDS funding, which expires at the end of 2008; supporting the “Second Chance Act” for ex-offenders and their families; rallying behind the “Global Poverty Act” to develop a comprehensive strategy to further the U.S. foreign policy objective of reducing global poverty; and ending the war in Iraq.
The General Board of Church and Society is one of four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church. Its primary areas of ministry are Advocacy, Education and Leadership Formation, United Nations and International Affairs, and resourcing these areas for the nearly 35,000 local churches in the denomination.
