Washington Wire
August, 2002 Vol. 4, No. 4

Congress has adjourned for its summer recess and the nation’s capital has become very quiet. This affords us the opportunity to bring you up-to-date on the progress the OU/IPA Washington Office has made over the last two months on our key issues as well as our recent programmatic activities.

KEY VISITS TO WASHINGTON

Since the last issue of Washington Wire, the OU/IPA Washington Office has facilitated several key visits by other senior OU leaders with policymakers. In June, Rabbi Weinreb traveled here to meet with Mr. Elliott Abrams (National Security Council Senior Director for Democracy & Human Rights) to discuss Mideast issues as well as Chris Gersten (Principle Deputy Asst. Secretary for Families & Children in the Dept. of Health & Human Services) to discuss opportunities for the OU to collaborate with HHS in some of its family-oriented program efforts. Also in June, Dr. Jeff Lichtman, director of NJCD-Yachad, came to DC for meetings arranged with senior congressional and executive branch officials involved in policies affecting people with disabilities. Among the topics discussed were the reauthorization of federal special education funding programs and grant opportunities with the Departments of Labor and H.H.S.. Finally, in late-July, a delegation of ten senior OU lay and professional leaders came to the capital to meet with Dr. Condoleeza Rice (National Security Advisor to the President) to discuss current issues in U.S. policy toward Israel, as well as U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and senior officials of the White House Office of Homeland Security to discuss concerns with regard to the safety and security of American synagogues. The discussions were very productive and have fostered further follow-up discussions on each of these important subjects.

LEGISLATIVE ISSUES

Workplace Religious Freedom Act
We continue to work toward securing greater protection for the religious needs of employees in the workplace. Such protections are needed to secure the ability of employees to observe religious holidays and wear religious garb if not already allowed to do so by their employer. We are pleased to report that since having the bill introduced in the U.S. Senate in late May by Senators John Kerry and Rick Santorum, we have gathered 14 senators as co-sponsors to date; this is the largest number of cosponsors WRFA has ever had and they include a broad bipartisan range of members. In June, we held a press conference which served as a catalyst for more senators being interested in the measure. We are now strategizing with our coalition partners as to how to move the measure toward a floor vote in the fall

Education Policy
We are working with key Hill staffers and Administration officials as they prepare to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (‘IDEA’) – the federal government’s funding mechanism for special ed. programs. Given the frequent disparities in funding and programs provided to special needs children in parochial schools vs. those in public schools, this is a high-priority issue for us to work on in the education policy arena this year and next. Toward that end, Dr. Jeff Lichtman – director of the OU’s Yachad/Nat’l Jewish Council for the Disabled – recently traveled to Washington to join with us in meetings with senior Administration officials who will be guiding this policy formulation.

Also on the education front, we continue to work with congressional allies on a federal education expense tax credit. Thanks to our efforts over the past year (along with coalition partners) President Bush’s proposed budget for FY’03 contains an allocation for a federal education tax credit proposal. We are currently working intensely with key Administration staff and congressmen to structure this proposal in a way that will directly benefit our day school families and also have sufficient political appeal that it might be passed into law. We anticipate a bill introduction in early June. For a look at pending proposals to date, see - http://www.ou.org/public/Publib/edsavings.htm

“Faith-Based Initiative”
Legislation designed to implement the President’s plan to open federal social service grant programs to participation by religious organizations passed the House of Representatives last summer continues to await Senate action. The Senate proposal, dubbed the ‘CARE Act’ is a compromise measure sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Rick Santorum (R-PA) that contains important tax incentives to increase charitable giving in the U.S., increased funding for federal social welfare grant programs, and new rules that will help ensure that religiously affiliated charities are treated on equal terms with secular charities by federal grantmakers. We had hoped for a Senate vote prior to the August recess, but that did not happen; we hope for such action in the fall.

JUDICIAL DOCKET

Readers are no-doubt aware of the fact the in late June, the Supreme Court declared that school voucher programs, properly constructed, are not a violation of the federal constitution’s Establishment Clause. This is a great victory for those who have toiled in this field for decades. The five-justice majority essentially held that so long as the state-funded vouchers were provided to parents who were free to independently choose whether to utilize those vouchers for the public, private or parochial school of their liking, the fact that government funds would end up at religious schools was not prohibited.

CONGRESSIONAL INTERN PROGRAM

The end of July brought to an end a successful year for the participants in the OU-IPA Washington Internship program. This year’s group of 43 interns, drawn from across the country, worked in a wide array of offices across the political spectrum. Highlights of the program included a meeting with Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Jay Lefkowitz, a Shabbos afternoon discussion at the home of Congressman Peter Deutsch, a meeting with OU Board Member and former Senate Staffer, Dr. David Luchins and two very successful Shabbatonim in Silver Spring and Potomac. Work has already started on next year’s program and we look forward to welcoming another group of interns to Washington. Please visit our website at http://www.ou.org/public/interns/ for additional information.

OFFICE RELOCATION

In late-June, the OU/IPA Washington Office relocated from the Rhode Island Avenue headquarters of B’nai B’rith International (which has been sold) to quarters within the new Hillel International Center at the corner of Eighth & H Streets in downtown DC. Please note our new contact information above.
 

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