When 300 peace/justice and social ministry directors from U.S. dioceses and organizations met in Washington Feb. 22-25 under USCC auspices, they visited Senators and Representatives with a short list of lobbying priorities. CTA staff participated as usual, and brought back specific information about key legislative issues, both domestic and international, which CTA members and regional affiliates may choose to address.

On the home front, as welfare reform proceeds at the state level with unsettling results for the nation's poor, the U.S. Congress can help by passing bills to raise the minimum wage, increase food stamps, and extend child care.

Minimum wage

At the current minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, a single parent with two children working full time earns $10,700 -- fully $2,600 below the poverty line. Just to reach the poverty line, the wage should be $6.65. The Fair Minimum Wage Act sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. David Bonior (D-MI) would move in that direction, with a $1 an hour increase in 50-cent increments in January 1999 and 2000. The minimum wage isn't mainly for teenagers: 75 percent of minimum wage workers are adults, 60 percent of them women. Many of the people moving from welfare to work in the 50 state programs will be receiving the minimum wage. It deserves to be a living wage so their families can live with dignity. (USCC contact: Tom Shellabarger, 202 541-3189.)

Food stamps

Nearly one million legal immigrants lost access to federal Food Stamps under recent welfare reform. Of these noncitizens, nearly two-thirds are women, one-sixth are children, and one-sixth are elderly. Families are forced to choose between food and rent, or clothing, or electricity. Catholic Charities and migrant/refugee programs have been swamped with requests for food. Private charity cannot make up for the loss of publicly funded food stamps totaling $3.7 billion over five years. Restoring food stamps to legal noncitizens is a top legislative priority of the U.S. Bishops and Catholic Charities. (Contact Lisa Carr at Catholic Charities USA, 703 549-1390).

Child Care

The $4 billion in the 1996 Child Care Block Grant to the states only scratched the surface. Of U.S. women with children under 6, 62 percent are in the paid labor force. For women exiting the welfare rolls for jobs, child care is critical. The USCC/Catholic Charities USA legislative objectives are more government-assisted child care for the neediest families, and the expansion and refundability of the Child Tax Credit. (Contact Sharon Daly at Catholic Charities USA, 703 549-1390).