Previous Legislative Priorities
2011 Legislative Priorities
2010 Legislative Priorities
2009 Legislative Priorities
2008 Legislative Priorities
2007 Legislative Priorities
The General Board of Church & Society seeks implementation of the denomination’s Social Principles and other policy statements on Christian social concerns by The United Methodist Church’s highest policy-making body, General Conference. Each of the board’s ministry areas selected a primary and secondary priority. Priorities are selected based on two criteria:
- current issues related to the Social Principles, and
- anticipated actions in the U.S. Congress.
Each priority includes a call to action. Please take a moment to contact your representatives regarding these important issues.
To take action, visit our Action Center today!
The legislative priorities for 2012 are:
Ensure highest foreign-aid funding to overcome poverty and malaria;
Protect Health for all;
Fully fund international family planning;
Fully fund efforts to combat human trafficking;
Just, humane immigration reform;
End mass incarceration in the U.S. through reform of criminal justice system
A clean energy future; and
Address the jobs crisis.
Ensure highest funding for foreign aid to overcome global poverty
God’s spirit is always and everywhere at work in the world fighting poverty and disease. The federal budget deficit should not be balanced on the poor and vulnerable. 1.5 billion people live in extreme poverty: less than $1.25 a day. According to the World Health Organization, there were an estimated 225 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2009. An estimated 655,000 people died from malaria in 2010, mostly children in Africa. Advocacy efforts will focus on foreign-aid funding to address global poverty and malaria with special concern for Africa and Haiti.
Cut U.S. military spending/support funding for reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan
For more information, contact Mark Harrison at (202) 488-5645 or the Rev. Liberato Bautista, assistant general secretary, United Nations & International Ministry, at (212) 682-3633 ext.3112.
Protect health for all
A health-care system that is inclusive, accessible and available to everyone is a contemporary application of biblical themes for wholeness and abundant life. Passage of the Affordable Care Act moved the United States closer to health care as a “basic human right” (United Methodist Social Principle ¶162V).
Several important protections have already been enacted as the law rolls out through 2014 and beyond. More work must be done, however, to ensure we live completely into God’s vision for our world that no one is left out: We must ensure that people with low incomes have access to the essential safety-net programs of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, preserve Medicare for Seniors, ensure full access to treatment for people suffering from addictions and mental illnesses, and enact prevention policies for health and addictions.
Oppose repeal of the Internet gambling law
For more information about health-care reform, contact Cynthia Abrams at (203) 488-5636.
Fully fund international family planning
Reducing maternal and child mortality rates around the globe can be achieved, in part, by ensuring access to maternal-health information and services. Millions currently lack access to basic family-planning services that can save lives, prevent unplanned pregnancies and reduce the need for abortions. Members of Congress will be encouraged to increase U.S. funding for international family planning including full funding for the U.N. Population Fund, which provides family-planning and AIDS-prevention information. This is an effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goal #5 calling for improved maternal health in the world.
Fund Violence Against Women’s Act in the U.S.
For more information, contact Linda Todd at (703) 282-6254.
Just, humane immigration reform
In responding to the scriptural call to welcome the sojourner, we call on Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which will provide a pathway to legal status for immigrant youths. We also call on Congress to pass legislation that will reunite immigrant families and eliminate the backlog of family visas. We call on the President to end all deportations that pull families apart.
End mass incarceration in the U.S. through reform of criminal justice system
For more details, contact Bill Mefford at (202) 488-5657.
End mass incarceration in the U.S. through reform of criminal justice system
Our Social Principles call us to practice Restorative Justice and “urge the creation of a genuinely new system for the care and restoration of victims, offenders, criminal justice officials, and the community as a whole.” The U.S. criminal-justice system with the highest incarceration rate in the world, mass incarceration and the criminalization of communities of color is in direct contradiction to our call for restorative justice, and are a matter of racial and economic justice.
Advocacy efforts will call for an end to mass incarceration through sentencing reform, through ending prison privatization and incarceration for-profit, and through communities of healing and restoration for individuals and their families returning home following incarceration.
For more information, contact Laura Markle Downton at (202) 495-2956.
Address the jobs crisis
Our Social Principles affirm the right of every person to a job at a living wage. The ongoing economic crisis in the United States has left millions unemployed and millions more underemployed. We will advocate for legislation to protect those out of work and create opportunities for all who seek employment.
Prioritize needs of those living in poverty during budget and tax debates
For more information on this priority, contact John Hill at (202) 488-5654.
A clean-energy future
As United Methodist congregations continue to lead us toward a clean-energy future through conservation, efficiency and renewable energy efforts, we call on Congress to strengthen, not rollback efforts to ensure clean air in our communities and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Protect vulnerable populations from toxic exposures and environmental degradation
For more information on this priority, contact John Hill at (202) 488-5654.
Fully fund efforts to combat human trafficking
Anywhere from 12 to 27 million people are held in forced labor, bonded labor, or forced prostitution throughout the world. Through such forms of human trafficking and others, modern-day slavery prevails today. As people called to liberate the oppressed, we will advocate for the reauthorization and full funding of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. We support its implementation to prevent cases, protect victims and at-risk populations, persecute perpetrators, and build partnerships globally to combat human trafficking.
Advocate for the right of all to a quality education
For more information on this priority, contact Joe Kim at (202) 488-5649.
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