Greetings,

June 27, 2007

Contents:

1. Victory for Fuel Economy Standards
2. U.S. House Passes Fiscal Year 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations with Historic Increases to Fight Poverty
3. Statement on 'New' Senate Immigration Bill from LIRS President Ralston H. Deffenbaugh Jr., June 20, 2007
4. House Passes Increase in Social and Humanitarian Aid for Colombia

Victory for Fuel Economy Standards

On Thursday June 21st, the Senate passed, by a vote of 65 to 27, an energy bill late that would, among other things, require an increase in fuel mileage requirements for passenger cars and trucks for the first time in more than two decades. 

An amendment sponsored by Senators from car-manufacturing states that would have weakened the fuel savings mandate failed to come to a vote, and the bill that passed on Thursday would require that car manufacturers work to raise the average fuel economy of their vehicles from the current average of about 25 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.  To gain enough votes to prevent a filibuster, about a dozen lawmakers from both parties hammered out a deal that included the higher standard but omitted explicit requirements for further increases in efficiency after 2020.

The House Energy and Commerce committee is set to begin deliberations on its own energy bill this week: Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vowed to bring an energy bill to the House floor before the August recess.

U.S. House Passes Fiscal Year 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations with Historic Increases to Fight Poverty

On June 22, 2007, the House of Representatives passed the fiscal year 2008 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill that increased poverty-focused development assistance by more than $2 billion over current spending levels.

Specifically, the bill includes:

• $4.15 billion for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This meets the President's request for the 15 PEPFAR focus countries. Bilateral AIDS programs in non-focus countries are flat-lined.
• $550 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. In addition to $300 million from the Labor HHS Appropriations, this brings the total House allocation to the Global Fund to $850 million.
• $1.8 billion for Millennium Challenge Account. This falls short of the President's request of $3 billion and may prevent the MCA from signing new compacts with several qualified countries.
• $103 million for bi-lateral TB programs.
• $350 million for bi-lateral malaria programs. This cuts the President's request by $15 million.
• $750 million for education programs, an increase of $200 million over 2007 spending levels.

All offered amendments to cut poverty-focused assistance were defeated. The Senate is expected to act on this bill in July.

Statement on 'New' Senate Immigration Bill from LIRS President Ralston H. Deffenbaugh Jr., June 20, 2007

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) urges senators to oppose the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1639) unless the Senate fundamentally improves it.

LIRS commends Senate leaders for offering provisions that would enable legal status for many of the nation's 12 million undocumented immigrants and reduce the current family visa backlog. These would be constructive one-time changes—but the bill's future impact would be devastating to immigrant families. Furthermore, instead of providing a workable, comprehensive fix to our broken system, the current bill would perpetuate its brokenness. To be truly comprehensive and workable, immigration reform must promote family unity, preserve human rights and worker rights, bring people out of the shadows, and provide a path to permanent legal status. In its current form S. 1639 would not create a future system that fulfills these principles. The proposed legislation fails in numerous ways.

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House Passes Increase in Social and Humanitarian Aid for Colombia

Lutheran World Relief applauds the positive steps taken last week by the U.S. House of Representatives toward a more constructive U.S. policy regarding Colombia.  The 2008 Foreign Operations Bill includes a change in the makeup of aid to Colombia, which will increase money for alternative crop development, judicial and police reforms, and human rights protection in Colombia and decrease the amount of funding for military efforts.

For the first time, provisions are included in the Foreign Operations Bill that require the U.S. State Department to certify that Colombian armed forces are not violating land and property rights of Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.

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