The White House released the 2006 budget today. It includes funding cuts for many social service programs. The funding cuts would be a small slice out of the federal budget -- $2.3 billion, or 0.56 percent, out of the $412.7 billion requested for fiscal 2005 for domestic programs and homeland security that is subject to Congress's annual discretion.

From www.agapepress.com

On the Center for American Progress' website, there is a letter to Congress signed by over 60 religious leaders from 16 states. The letter calls on Congress to examine the budget as an inherently moral document and offers six specific questions that should be asked to determine whether the budget's provisions are fair, just and promote the common good. This is a critical issue at a time when President Bush's new budget calls for a slashing of social service programs, many of them the same faith-based programs that he advocated for during the election.

The sponsors of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 - Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Russell Feingold (D-WI) and Representatives Christopher Shays (R-CT) and Martin Meehan (D-MA) - filed an amicus brief on Monday, January 24 in a case in which EMILY's List, a federal political committee, is urging a federal court to throw out a key allocation rule adopted by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in 2004. The Campaign Legal Center joined the congressional sponsors on the amicus brief opposing the EMILY's List suit. For more information, please visit the Campaign Legal Center's website.