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Client: Catholic Charities USA
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The work of the Federal Legislation Clinic on behalf of Catholic Charities USA from 1995 to 1998 is outlined below. Related documents are linked beneath each introductory section. You can obtain copies of many of these documents by contacting the Clinic.
1. Non-Profit Charitable Organizations: Exemption from Immigration Verification The Federal Legislation Clinic assisted Catholic Charities USA in its work with several Members of Congress and the Administration to exempt "nonprofit charitable organizations" from the harsh new immigration verification provisions passed in the Welfare and Immigration Acts of 1996. During debate on the immigrant benefits provisions, Senator Grassley and Senator Kennedy sponsored an amendment in the Senate Judiciary Committee to exempt charities from the requirement to verify immigrant status and sponsor deeming information. The amendment ultimately was passed and was signed into law. The Welfare Act requires the Attorney General to draft regulations to establish a verification system for governmental and nongovernmental institutions that deliver services to immigrants. Although the Grassley-Kennedy amendment exempts charities from this regulatory system, the Clinic has been instrumental in monitoring these regulatory interpretations and ensuring that they comport with the intent of the legislative exemption. See Documents . 2. Reinstating Public Benefits for Immigrants Last year, the Federal Legislation Clinic was successful in assisting Catholic Charities USA in its work to reinstate Supplemental Security Income benefits to immigrants who lost those benefits as a result of cuts in the Welfare Act of 1996. In addition, the Clinic helped to heighten the focus on certain groups of immigrants that were treated particularly unfairly by this legislation, such as Amerasian and Haitian refugees and Hmong veterans of the Vietnam conflict. This year, we are building on this effort by working to reinstate Food Stamp benefits for immigrants. These benefits were also denied in the 1996 Welfare Act. In particular, the Clinic has prepared materials and attended meetings with staff from Catholic Charities USA to ensure that hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants and their families who rely on Food Stamps will not be forced to wait in soup kitchen lines for daily sustenance. See Documents . 3. Guaranteeing Reasonable Accommodations in the Naturalization Process for Immigrants with Disabilities With the passage of the 1996 Welfare Act, naturalization has become particularly important for immigrants because noncitizens now face losing many federal benefits. Yet, the naturalization process remains inaccessible for many immigrants who are most in need of these benefits - immigrants with disabilities. INS officers, swamped with an enormous backlog of applications, often fail to grant reasonable accommodations for immigrants with disabilities, in violation of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Without these accommodations, immigrants with disabilities cannot become naturalized citizens. Catholic Charities USA, with the legislative support of the Federal Legislation Clinic, has been working with the INS to ensure that immigrants with disabilities have an equal opportunity to become naturalized citizens. Congress recently amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow elderly immigrants and immigrants with disabilities to be exempted from certain testing requirements of the naturalization process. Exemptions such as these are fairly narrow and sometimes confuse the issue of reasonable accommodations. To remedy this confusion, the Federal Legislation Clinic has prepared several documents that interpret these statutory exemptions and reconcile them with the reasonable accommodations requirement. See Documents . 4. Preserving Guarantees in the Medicaid Program Throughout the past few years, the Federal Legislation Clinic has supported Catholic Charities USA in its battle against assaults on the Medicaid program. In 1996, Republican Governors proposed a block grant that would have stripped beneficiaries of much of the guaranteed services on which they now rely. As a result of the dedication of many coalitions, organizations, and individuals, the campaign against this outright repeal of Medicaid ultimately was successful. In 1997, however, the Clinic was called in to assist Catholic Charities USA in fending off a "per capita cap" proposal that would have resulted in many similar substantial cuts to the Medicaid program. Most recently, Catholic Charities USA has been faced with problems related to an increase in the utilization of managed care for Medicaid populations. Although this form of health care delivery is being used more and more, the Federal Legislation Clinic and Catholic Charities USA have remained steady in our focus on preserving the most essential medical care guarantees for those in need. See Documents . 5. Protecting the Safety of Children in Foster Care and Adoption The Federal Legislation Clinic provides legislative assistance to Catholic Charities USA in its work to ensure that the safety of children is paramount when determining whether to terminate parental rights or remove children from potentially abusive home environments. Too often, children languish in foster care or abusive situations because child protective authorities neither provide services for families to care for their children adequately, nor move for termination of parental rights in those situations in which children cannot be safe in their homes. For these children, the result is growing up shuffling from home to home with no prospects of permanency. Last year, the Federal Legislation Clinic completed detailed analyses of several legislative proposals to make explicit the interest of children in having a permanent family-type placement in a timely manner. Congress eventually passed an adoption bill promoting this interest, and the Clinic continues to work with Catholic Charities USA to ensure that the regulatory interpretation of this adoption bill is consistent with the best interests of children. See Documents . Contributions to charities have been the subject of several pieces of legislation throughout the past few years. Although there have been legislative efforts to encourage private giving by providing tax incentives, a constant concern has been that Congress would fund these tax cuts by reducing essential safety-net services to those in need. The Federal Legislation Clinic has assisted Catholic Charities USA by monitoring these legislative initiatives and providing detailed analyses of pending bills. See Documents . In addition to these issues, the Federal Legislation Clinic has performed numerous other tasks, as needed, for legislative projects of concern to Catholic Charities USA. These issues include juvenile justice, contracts between charities and government entities, community empowerment, housing, and social security issues. See Documents . Revised June 26, 2003 (ML) |
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