USCCB committee chair: protect programs for poor, extend unemployment benefits

December 19, 2013

Praising the recent bipartisan federal budget agreement as “an important first step,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami called for the protection of federal anti-poverty programs.

“I continue to urge wise bipartisan leadership in targeting this limited sequestration relief by drawing a circle of protection around programs that protect poor and vulnerable people at home and abroad, advance the common good, and promote human life and dignity,” said the new chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. “Targeted properly, this funding can also provide some certainty to charitable and social service organizations planning their budgets, and hopefully create more jobs with decent wages.”

“The recent welcome decline in unemployment levels hides the reality that millions of long-term unemployed workers continue to suffer from an economy that does not produce enough decent work,” he added. “For most of these families, jobless benefits are the only source of support. I am disappointed that vital unemployment support for this population was not extended, and I hope Congress will do the just and decent thing by protecting these jobless workers as they search for new work.”

 

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Further information:

• U.S. Bishops’ Domestic Justice Committee Chair Urges Congress To Use Limited Sequestration Relief To Protect Poor And Vulnerable People (USCCB)