House Apologies for Slavery and other Racial Justice News

This week there have been a number of compelling news items on racial justice topics. Take a look:

"House Issues An Apology For Slavery"
Washington Post

The House yesterday apologized to black Americans, more than 140 years after slavery was abolished, for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow" segregation. The resolution, which passed on a voice vote late in the day, was sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), a white Jew who represents a majority-black district in Memphis. (Click Title for Complete Article)

"U.S. Blacks, if a Nation, Would Rank High on AIDS"
The New York Times

If black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with the AIDS virus, the Black AIDS Institute, an advocacy group, reported Tuesday. The report, financed in part by the Ford Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation, provides a startling new perspective on an epidemic that was first recognized in 1981. (Click Title for Complete Article)

"Study Sees Racial Bias in Traffic-Stop Searches"
Chicago Tribune

Civil rights groups called Thursday for ending the state police practice of searching vehicles during routine traffic stops, citing new statistics that show black and Hispanic motorists are searched more often even though drugs or other illegal items turn up more frequently among white drivers.

Foreclosure Bill Includes Funds for Homeless Education

The Foreclosure Prevention bill (H.R. 3221) passed by the Senate on Saturday includes an amendment that will help children affected by the foreclosure crisis stay in school and get educational assistance.

The amendment authorizes funds for school districts through the McKinney-Vento homeless education program to help ensure that students who are forced to move from their homes do not also have to leave their schools.

"It is unfair to let these children float from one unfamiliar school to another through no fault of their own and against the will of their parents," said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., one of the amendment’s sponsors.

"When they are abruptly uprooted from the schools where they have formed a connection to the teachers, learning material and classmates, their development can be severely stunted."

A recent report by First Focus and The Brookings Institution found that nearly 2 million children will be directly impacted by the mortgage crisis.

The legislation, which also passed through the House last week, has moved to President Bush’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law this week.

YWCA USA Washington Update

Supplemental Spending Bill Signed Into Law

On June 30th the President signed into law the supplemental spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to the war funding, the bill provides an extension of unemployment benefits, a delay of six Medicaid regulations, funding for disaster relief, and funding for veteran’s education benefits. Specifically, the bill will provide up to 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits to workers who have exhausted their 26 weeks of unemployment benefits and will provide a full-four year college education to veterans.

Congress Takes Action on Housing

During the week of July 7th the Senate continued work on the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (H.R. 3221). The bill includes a number of important provisions that address the housing needs of low-income individuals including the creation of an affordable housing trust fund, and a provision allowing tax exempt housing revenue bonds to be used for Single Room Occupancy units (SRO's). These provisions are important to the YWCA USA as local YWCAs provide housing, including SRO units, for low-income women. Once the Senate passes the bill it will be sent to the House.

Child Tax Credit Now Moves To Senate

On June 25, 2008 the House passed the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 (H.R. 6049) which would allow more working poor families to be eligible for the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Currently, middle- and many upper-income families receive a $1,000 CTC for each child age 17 and under when they file their federal income taxes. In addition, some working families who do not owe federal income taxes but have minimum earnings of $12,050 receive at least a partial CTC. Because of the minimum earning requirement, many families do not qualify for the CTC. In addition, each year the minimum amount needed to qualify for the CTC is adjusted (raised) for inflation. Thus, each year more and more families are deemed ineligible for the CTC.

H.R. 6049 would allow more families to be eligible for the CTC as it lowers the minimum amount necessary for receiving CTC from $12,050 to $8,500 and removes the inflation adjustment. In the Senate, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) has introduced a bill with a $10,000 minimum.

Victim of Crime Act Funding Sees Increase but Need Remains

In a win for advocates and survivors of crime, both the House and Senate have voted to raise the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) fund cap. The Victims of Crime Fund (VOCA) is a source of funding for victim assistance programs and victim compensation programs which is entirely made up of money collected from federal criminals through penalties, fees and fines. In 2000, Congress limited (capped) the amount of money that could be removed each year from the fund and since 2006, the VOCA cap has been lowered every year. This year, House Appropriations Committee approved increasing the cap to $650 million while the Senate Appropriations Committee approved increasing the VOCA cap to $635 million. While advocates applaud these initial steps in the right direction we will continue urging Congress to restore the cap to 2006 levels.

Early Education and Violence Against Women Funding

On Thursday, June 26, 2008 the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor-H bill) appropriations bill by a vote of 26-3. The bill provides $154.9 billion dollars to fund programs in the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education; $9.5 billion dollars more in funding than requested by the President.
Under the bill critical programs that address violence against women and the need for early education have been given increases over the Fiscal Year 2008 level (FY08).· Head Start is funded at $7.102 billion for FY09 or $223 million dollars above the FY08 level; · the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) program that supports victim services at local battered women’s shelters and domestic violence programs is funded at $125 million or $2.4 million dollars above the FY08 level;· the National Domestic Violence Hotline has been fully funded at $3.5 million; and·the Rape Prevention and Education program is funded at $43 million dollars or $1.2 million dollars above the FY08 level.

The next step is for the full Senate to vote on the Senator Labor-H bill. On the House side, the House Appropriations Committee has yet to complete its work on their Labor-H bill.
Violence Against Women FundingOn Wednesday, June 25, 2008 the House Appropriations Committee approved the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) Appropriations Bill for FY09. The House CJS bill provides $56.9 billion dollars to fund programs in the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and related agencies. Under the bill, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) programs received $435 million or a $35 million dollar increase over FY2008. The increase in funding provides additional money for the STOP (Services, Training, Officers, Prosecutors) Grant Program, the Legal Assistance to Victims Program and the Rural Grant Program, the transitional housing program, the Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) as well as other programs focused on serving targeted populations. The next step is for the full House to vote on their CJS bill.
On the Senate side, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved their Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) Appropriations Bill for FY09 on June 23, 2008. The Senate CJS bill provides $57.9 billion to fund programs in the Departments of Commerce, Justice and related agencies. Under the bill, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) programs received $415 million or $20 million less that the House CJS bill. However, similar to the House bill the increase in funding provides additional money for the STOP (Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors) Grant Program, the Legal Assistance to Victims Program and the Rural Grant Program, the Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) as well as other programs focused on serving targeted populations. The next step is for the full Senate to vote on their CJS bill.

Supreme Court Rules in Key Cases

In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of Patrick Kennedy v. State of Louisiana that an individual who commits the rape of a child rape cannot be sentenced to death.
In the decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth Amendment categorically bars the use of capital punishment for the rape of a child regardless of any circumstances including physical or psychological harm to the child, age of the victim, perpetrator history, or violent nature of the event(s). The decision was based on the case of Patrick Kennedy who was convicted of brutally raping his stepdaughter and was sentenced under Louisiana state law to death for his crime.
The majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy was supported by Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Steven Breyer.

Groups who work with and advocate for child victims of sexual assault urged the court not to support the death penalty for child rapists arguing that it would inflict more harm on the child victim and might prevent victims and their families from coming forward if a known family member or friend is the perpetrator.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the dissenting opinion and was supported by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Presidential candidates Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama both expressed disappointment with the courts decision. According to Associated Press, “the decision resonated in the presidential campaign, too, where both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama objected to it. Obama said there should be no blanket prohibition of the death penalty for the rape of children if states want to apply it in those cases. McCain called the ruling, ‘an assault on law enforcement's efforts to punish these heinous felons for the most despicable crime.’”

The Patrick Kennedy v. State of Louisiana ruling follows a previous Supreme Court case which ruled that an individual who commits the rape of an adult woman cannot be sentenced to death.
In addition to the Patrick Kennedy v. State of Louisiana case, another Supreme Court case will impact women and girls who are victims of violence. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Giles v. California that an individual on trial for a crime has the right under the Sixth Amendment to confront witnesses against them and that death of a witness does not undermine this right. The decision was based on the case of Dwayne Giles who was convicted of murdering his then girlfriend, Brenda Avie, by shooting her six times.

During the trial, a police officer testified that Ms. Avie informed him of Mr. Giles’ previous history of domestic violence, including threats to kill her. The judge in the case allowed the police officer’s second-hand testimony even though Mr. Giles was unable to confront Ms. Avie directly about the allegations, as is allowed under the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause, because Ms. Avie was a victim of murder as a result of Mr. Giles actions. The Supreme Court disagreed and instead ruled that that the police officer’s testimony about the history of violence and fear of death was inadmissible because it violated the Sixth Amendment right of Mr. Giles to confront Ms. Avie directly about the allegations.

The majority opinion was written by Justice Antonin Scalia and was supported by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The minority opinion was written by Justice Steven Breyer and supported by Justices Anthony Kennedy and John Paul Stevens.As a result of this ruling, advocates who work with domestic violence victims should be more aggressive in documenting the abuse. Documentation can help prove in a court of law that domestic violence clients 1) suffered physical harm, threats, intimidation and other consequences of seeking help from providers, police, or the courts, 2) if the abuser had/has a history of retaliation in situations where the victim sought help (which would prove his intent to prevent the victim’s to speak out about the abuse, including testifying at a trial), and 3) if the abuser has a history of, or has engaged in, attempting to isolate the victim from family, friends, the community, service providers, or other opportunities to get help.

Half In Ten Campaign: Take Action for Low-Income Families

Yesterday, Senator John Edwards spoke to over 1,000 young people at the Campus Progress National Conference in Washington, DC. Senator Edwards asked these 1,000 young activists to pledge their support for Half In Ten and find 10 friends to do the same. Watch him call on these students to form the core of a movement to change this country forever. To grow this movement, we need you, too.

As we build this movement, there are specific changes that we can make today to reach our goal of reducing poverty by half in ten years. Yesterday, Senator Edwards discussed one of these: the need to expand the Child Tax Credit. Current law denies the CTC to millions of poor children and their families because they earn too little to owe federal income tax. By lowering the minimum earnings from the current $12,050 to $8,500 for 2008, families of more than 13 million children will become newly eligible to receive the credit or receive an increased amount.
During these tough economic times, helping our lowest-income families should be a top priority. The House of Representatives has begun to address this need by approving H.R. 6049, which expands the CTC to all families who make at least $8,500 a year. But it’s looking like the Senate might not go as far as the House and would leave over 1.5 million low-income children out entirely or give their families a smaller refund.

We must all voice our support for real change to the CTC. Add your name to this petition urging Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) to:

• Expand the CTC to the children who need it most, allowing those families making $8,500 a year to access the credit, and
• End the annual increases in required earnings that deprive low-income families and children from this needed help.

Starting today at East Harlem’s Yorkville Common Pantry, Senator Edwards is heading out on the road, learning from citizens affected by poverty, rallying with community activists, and putting pressure on elected officials. Together, we can build a movement to cut poverty in half, but we need you—educating yourself on the issues, bringing your friends and family into Half In Ten, and urging elected officials to take action—to make the concrete changes that can pull families out of poverty.

Thanks again for your support!
The Half In Ten Team

Half in Ten plans to reduce poverty in the United States by 50 percent within 10 years. Under the leadership of Senator John Edwards, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF), the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN), and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), have joined forces on the campaign to elevate and sustain a focus on the situations facing the poor and middle class today,build and strengthen an effective constituency to demand legislative action on poverty and economic mobility, advance specific legislative and policy proposals that will deliver real benefits to struggling American families. For more information on how to reduce poverty in America, see From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half by the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty.

Fuel prices have big impact on the poor

A letter to the editor can be an effective tool to highlight the YWCA mission and to draw attention to priority issues-- especially when they are conspicuously not addressed by mainstream media. YWCA Milwaukee Executive Director Paula Penebaker recently responded to a May 16th cover story in Business Journal of Milwaukee describing how businesses are affected by rising fuel costs.

Fuel prices have big impact on the poor
originally published in The Business Journal of Milwaukee, Friday May 30, 2008

After having read your May 16 cover story on the impact of growing fuel prices on business, I felt compelled to offer a perspective on how the problem affects the poor.

If a poor person is fortunate enough to own a vehicle, it probably isn't the most fuel-efficient car on the road. If they earn $8.50 an hour ($340 gross a week) and have to spend $45 from their already meager salary for a tad more than 11 gallons of gas, how can they expect to make ends meet?

The 87 percent of their remaining gross wages has to cover the bare essentials of housing, utilities and food. This is a conundrum many of your readers will fortunately never have to contemplate, but is very real for a significant number of city residents.

In late 2004, the question was posed to Department of Workforce Development management relative to the amount of funding to support the W-2 program, "What happens if oil reaches $85 a barrel?" The response was something akin to, "We'll have to come back to the drawing board."
Today, funding available via the W-2 program barely supports the static caseload of hard-to-serve job seekers. As fuel prices continue to rise and jobs are lost as a result, funding to support those who will undoubtedly return to the program is nowhere in sight and we have yet to return to the drawing board.

I ask that your readers consider how the problem affects the poor among us, those who are expected to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and take care of themselves. We advocates for the poor can best serve them, sometimes by giving voice to their problems.

Paula Penebaker, YWCA Greater Milwaukee

House and Senate Appropriations Committees Pass Funding Increases for VAWA and VOCA

The House Appropriations Committee passed their Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) bill with $35 million in increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) programs at the Department of Justice and a $60 million increase for the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Fund. This is a huge increase in funding over FY 08 and even more funding than VAWA and VOCA received last week when the Senate Appropriations Committee passed their CJS bill.

The House bill increases VAWA from $400 million (in Fiscal Year 2008) to $435 million. This includes increases for several key programs:

· The STOP (Services, Training, Officers, Prosecutors) Grant Program was increased to $178 million
· The Legal Assistance to Victims Program and the Rural Grant Program were both increased to $41 million each
· Transitional housing received $20 million
· The Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) received $15 million
· The House passed a $60 million increase to the VOCA cap, providing a total of $650 million. This is a large and much needed funding increase for VOCA.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed their version of the CJS bill with $15 million in increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) programs bringing the total to $415 millio at the Department of Justice and a $45 million increase for the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Fund.

This included increases for several key programs and critical funding for new programs:
· The STOP (Services, Training, Officers, Prosecutors) Grant Program was increased to $162.9 million.
· The Legal Assistance to Victims Program was increased to $42 million.
· Rural Grants were increased to $42 million.
· The Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) received $12 million.
· $45 million increase to the VOCA cap, providing $635 million in crucial funds.

To learn more about VAWA programs click here.

What happens next?
Next the full House and Senate must vote on the bills that were passed out of committee. After the House and Senate pass their separate bills, they must be reconciled into one final bill that is passed by Congress and signed by the President. It is possible that Congress will not finish the Appropriations process this calendar year, and may delay the process until a new President is inaugurated in 2009.

For an explanation of the Budget and Appropriations process and timeline click here.

Your legislators need to hear that they did the right thing by supporting these increases. Those who serve on the House and Senate Appropriations committees played a key role. Click the name of each legislator below to visit her or his congressional website. Use the contact form to send a thank you note for their work to maintain and expand funding for sexual and domestic violence.

If your reps aren’t listed below, fear not! There will be more opportunities to advocate for all of these measures to be funded at the maximum possible level as the federal budgeting process continues.


House Appropriations Committee Members from GLA
David R. Obey, Wisconsin, Chair
Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
Peter J. Visclosky, Indiana
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois
Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, Michigan
Tim Ryan, Ohio
Ralph Regula, Ohio
David L. Hobson, Ohio
Joe Knollenberg, Michigan
Ray LaHood, Illinois
Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois

Senate Appropriations Committee Members from GLA

Herb Kohl Wisconsin

Richard Durbin Illinois

Gratitude to the National Network to End Domestic Violence for suppling the information included in this update.