Title: ELCA Council Transmits Report on Poverty, Welfare Reform
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 16, 1999

ELCA COUNCIL TRANSMITS REPORT ON POVERTY, WELFARE REFORM
99-15-100-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A progress report on the ministries of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) with women and children
living in poverty was placed on the agenda of the ELCA's 1999 Churchwide
Assembly. The ELCA Church Council voted to "receive and transmit" the
report.
     The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the
legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The
council met here April 9-12. Assemblies are held every other year; the
next is August 16-22 in Denver.
     The 1993 Churchwide Assembly accepted a wide range of recommendations
in a strategy document, "A Plan to Listen and Act," on the church's
ministry with women and children living in poverty. That assembly asked
the ELCA Division for Church in Society to bring progress reports annually
to the Church Council and biennially to the Churchwide Assembly.
     This assembly report deals specifically with "new and emerging
systematic changes represented in welfare reform." It said "many women and
children living in poverty may eventually escape poverty's hardships and
limitations while others will be pushed to the limit of survival."
     The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act
"changed welfare from an entitlement program for eligible families to a
block grant program with a lifetime limit of assistance to poor families
funded by a fixed amount of support," said the report. The act "cut $54
billion over six years from anti-poverty programs," it said, including $27
billion from the Federal Food Stamp Program and more than $20 billion from
Assistance to Legal Immigrants.
     The ELCA's progress report is based largely on a June 1998
consultation exploring the consequences of budget cuts and other actions
meant to move people off the U.S. welfare roles and into the workforce.
"While we recognize the need for welfare reform, we have considerable
concerns about the direction of current policy," it said.
     The report includes eight recommendations, each with specific action
steps. The report asks the ELCA to "advocate for changes in welfare to
work that recognize and respond to the need for education and job training
for women, children and families" and to "seek the advice of immigrants and
refugees to develop humane and compassionate policies to replace the
current anti-immigrant provisions of welfare reform."


For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html