Letter to Senate on FY 2012 Budget Resolution, May 5, 2011

Letter from Bishop Stephen E. Blaire, Chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, Chairman, Committee on International Justice and Peace to Senate on FY 2012 Budget Resolution, May 5, 2011

On behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, we write to address the moral and human dimensions of the ongoing budget debate in the Senate and the nation.  In light of growing deficits, Congress faces difficult choices about how to balance needs and resources and allocate burdens and sacrifices. We welcome the efforts of those who have offered serious plans and encourage other leaders to do the same.  These choices are economic, political, and moral.  This important national discussion requires wise bipartisan leadership, clear priorities, and moral clarity. 

We write as pastors and teachers, not experts or partisans.  We wish to express our prayers and gratitude to you and other leaders for your generous service to our nation.  We also wish to clearly acknowledge the difficult challenges that the Congress, Administration and government at all levels face to get our financial house in order: fulfilling the demands of justice and moral obligations to future generations; controlling future debt and deficits; and protecting the lives and dignity of those who are poor and vulnerable. 

We welcome the kind of bipartisan action that prevented a federal government shutdown and averted the hardships that would have come with failure to reach agreement on the FY 2011 continuing resolution. We are particularly grateful for three essential elements of the bipartisan agreement: expanded funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Fund, which is a matter of justice for poor children; restoration of the prohibition on the use of federally appropriated funds for abortions in the District of Columbia; and the fact that spending cuts to programs that serve poor and vulnerable people in our nation and around the world were significantly less than originally proposed. We hope this agreement will lead to more bipartisan cooperation to defend human life and dignity and offer opportunity and help to those most in need.

Letter-to-Senate-on-FY-2012-Budget-Resolution-2011-05-05.pdf