Last week, during Pope Benedict XVI's visit, the House of Representatives passed the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2007 (H.R. 2634) with strong bipartisan support. On Thursday, April 24, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will have a hearing on debt relief before beginning a review of the Senate version of the bill (S. 2166). Read More...

Candidate debates have been announced in 7th Congressional District, co-sponsored by the Indiana Catholic Action Network. Read More...

Millions of children go hungry in this country and millions die every year overseas. To help end this situation, Bread for the World is sponsoring a conference on Saturday, March 29, at North United Methodist here in Indianapolis. Read More...

The session ended in the same manner as the entire session could be characterized - agreement regarding property tax and much disagreement regarding the immigration issue. Property tax reform was the central issue for everyone and immigration, while important to some was not an area on which consensus could be reached. For ICC these issues ended as we desired. Property tax reform included consideration of the effects on low income families and the poor; immigration law is the responsibility of the Federal government.

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Background: Representative Heath Shuler (D-NC) has introduced the Secure America with Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act. The legislation (H.R. 4088) has 112 cosponsors, approximately half Democrat and half Republican. In the Senate, Senator Mark Pryor (R-AR) and Senator Mary Landrieu introduced identical legislation prior to the Thanksgiving recess (S. 2368) To date, there are no cosponsors.

The SAVE Act is an enforcement-only bill that would expand the Basic Pilot program for employers to verify the status of their immigrant workers and increase resources for both border and interior enforcement, including an expansion of detention space. The legislation would also authorize funds to train state and local authorities to enforce immigration law. It does not include a legalization program, a worker program, or reforms to family immigration. Read More...