October 25, 2005

Speaking October 25 at a press conference at the Capitol with members of Congress and faith community leaders, Bishop John Bryson Chane of Washington declared: "No organization should be asked to choose between providing homes for those in need or enabling citizens to participate fully in our democracy."

Participants called upon the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert (R-IL), to remove provisions from the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005 (H.R. 1461) that would prohibit faith-based and non-profit groups that receive federal affordable-housing money from using separate funds to engage in voter registration and get out the vote activities. H.R. 1461 would create an Affordable Housing Fund to assist very low-income families by requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to contribute part of their after-tax profits to the fund.

"Speaker Hastert can either remove these egregious provisions or at least ensure that they are voted on by the full House," explained Maureen Shea, director of government relations for the Episcopal Church.

In a letter to Hastert last week, Chane and the Rev. Kwasi Thornell, chair of the National Concerns Committee of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, noted: " In supporting the Affordable Housing Fund in H.R. 1461, we are acting upon a resolution passed at our 2003 General Convention that reaffirmed our commitment to providing affordable housing for the poor."

"As a church," they said, "we have also acknowledged the use of the political process as an act of Christian stewardship and recognized that a faithful commitment to voting is an extension of our baptismal covenant to ‘strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being.'"

"It is highly ironic that at the very moment when we have seen in he starkest of terms the great need for affordable housing, important legislation to meet that need is encumbered with language that undermines our democracy," noted Chane.

Other groups opposing the restrictive language in the bill include the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, the Children's Defense Fund and the NAACP.

Press conference participants included Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), ranking Democratic member of the House Financial Services Committee; Reps. Joseph Baca, Emanuel Cleaver, Rosa DeLauro, Paul Kanjorski, and Mel Watt; John Carr, secretary for social development and world peace, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Larry Minnix, president and CEO of American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

Episcopal News Service