Washington Wire Vol. 2, No. 3 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE On the eve of the congressional July 4th recess, legislators are already looking ahead to the August recess and a fall session cut short for electioneering - recognizing that there is little time left for legislative business. Nonetheless, it looks likely that the U.S. Congress will take up some key OU/IPA domestic affairs issues. Efforts to pass a version of the Religious Liberty Protection Act are about to shift from behind the scenes to the Senate floor. Intensive efforts and negotiations with the offices of Senators Hatch and Kennedy, as well as key Administration offices, have produced a bill designed to address the most serious current threats to religious liberty rights in the U.S. The measure - tentatively titled the 'Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act,' will restore a higher level of religious liberty protection for synagogues, churches and other houses of worship who are often harassed by land use and zoning authorities, as well as prisoners who often need special consideration for their religious needs. While this targeted measure does not deliver the breadth of protection once covered by RFRA, or even the RLPA passed by the House last year, political realities have dictated that we accept this targeted measure or accomplish nothing in this arena for the foreseeable future. We expect this measure to be taken up by the Senate in July and will need your support to ensure its passage. Inasmuch as the Orthodox community can be properly characterized as 'family oriented,' we have spent some time encouraging Congress to repair the tax code's unfair treatment of married couples. According to the Treasury Department, approximately 25 million families pay higher income taxes because of marriage. The families that suffer this unequal treatment are lower to middle income families, with two working parents; the higher-earner of which makes between $20,000 and $75,000 per year. The House previously passed a broad measure to address this issue - one that entails a number of provisions that would give tax relief to many Americans beyond those who merely suffer this unfair treatment. The IPA has not taken a position on specific approaches to this issue, but voiced the importance of ensuring that public policy does not penalize marriage and that couples with one working spouse are treated as fairly as dual income couples. After efforts to pass such a measure were stalled by Senate Democrats in April, we expect the Senate to try again in July. More
on this topic... Efforts by the bipartisan group of senators to have the Senate take up the Pain Relief Promotion Act already passed by the House last year continue. Negotiations between supporters and opponents continue. In early June, the Orthodox Union wrote to Senate Majority Leader Lott to encourage him to place this measure on the Senate's calendar; we are working with other coalition partners to obtain a meeting with Mr. Lott to press this issue personally. We are working with PRPA's lead Democratic sponsor - Joe Lieberman, to produce a letter to Minority Leader Daschle, signed by all Democratic cosponsors askingthat he too support bringing this measure to the floor for a full and fair debate. For additional information and background on the PRPA, visit the Public Policy Library section of the IPA website -- http://www.ou.org/public/Publib. OU Endorses Death Penalty Moratorium Effort Pursuant to a vote by the Union's board of directors, the OU has signed-on to efforts to enact a moratorium upon executions of prisoners sentenced to death. The effort to enact such a moratorium has been building for several months, since Illinois Governor George Ryan imposed such a moratorium upon executions in his state in light of findings that several innocent individuals had been put to death. Days after the board of directors vote, OU representatives met briefly with Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) to discuss his proposed legislation addressing this issue; the Senator expressed an eagerness to have the Union endorse his approach and we are working with his staff to refine the legislation. More
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