Category Archives: Front Page

Five Key Tax Reforms Needed to Build Back Better

Five Key Tax Reforms Needed to Build Back Better

Audrey Carroll
September 9, 2021

Right now, Congress is beginning markups of the Build Back Better bill. This recovery package offers once-in-a generation opportunities to invest in our families and communities and achieve the common good. We can fully finance critical policies that prioritize the needs of Black, Brown, AAPI, and Native American families and communities if the ultra-wealthy and tax-dodging corporations pay their fair share.

 

The Build Back Better Plan will be paid for by raising taxes on corporations and those earning over $400,000/year. Congress must responsibly finance a recovery package by reforming our federal tax code. Here are NETWORK’s key tax reform priorities for a faithful recovery in the Build Back Better plan:

Raise the corporate tax rate to at least 28%.

The 2017 Trump tax law cut the corporate tax rate from its long-standing level of 35% all the way down to 21%, far below what corporations had ever lobbied for. Raising it back to 28% will raise nearly $900 billion, enabling us to better invest in our families and communities.

Curb offshore corporate tax dodging.

The current tax code encourages corporations to outsource jobs and shift profits to tax havens because it taxes the foreign profits of U.S. firms at about half the domestic rate. The Build Back Better plan’s proposed reforms will take a big step to curb offshoring, raising more than $1 trillion, by doubling the tax rate on offshore profits and implementing reforms to stop shifting profits offshore to tax havens.

Tax wealth like work.

For people earning more than $1 million a year (the richest 0.3% of taxpayers), the plan will close the loophole that lets them pay a tax rate on the sale of stock and other assets that is almost half the top rate that workers pay on wages — 20% rather than the current 37%.

The plan also will close a loophole (called “stepped-up basis”) that lets millionaires and billionaires go their entire lives without having to pay federal taxes on most of their income or wealth. Taken together, these two loopholes allow billionaire Amazon chief Jeff Bezos to pay a tax rate similar to a public school teacher.

Restore the top individual tax rate.

The Build Back Better plan will restore the top individual rate to 39.6%, its rate before the Trump tax cuts. No one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more tax.

Crack down on tax evasion by the wealthy.

Years of deep cuts to the IRS that resulted in much weaker tax enforcement of the wealthy and corporations must be reversed. The Build Back Better plan will invest in strengthening IRS enforcement and information technology and increase reporting of income to catch wealthy tax cheats.

An underfunded IRS focuses its audits on the regular taxpayers who can’t afford to fight back with expensive tax lawyers; an underfunded IRS also can’t offer robust customer support when regular taxpayers have questions or problems. A fully funded IRS has the resources to assist regular taxpayers with live customer support services while going after the biggest tax cheats.

Our communities need public investment in housing, paid family and medical leave, health care, and broadband technology that is racially, economically, and environmentally just. By reforming our tax code, we can afford much needed social programs that will help all people and families thrive.

Team Democracy: Go for the Gold, Pass the For the People Act

Team Democracy: Go for the Gold, Pass the For the People Act

Meg Olson
August 25, 2021

In the weeks following the Senate’s 50-50 vote which filibustered further consideration of S.1, the For the People Act, NETWORK members, activists, and supporters raised their voices and showed up for our democracy. Under the banner of “Team Democracy,” hundreds of people called on the Senate to find a way to pass the For the People Act to protect the right to vote.

o Brentwood, Rockaway, Hempstead, and Albany NY

In Long Island, New York, Catholic women religious from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood along with Mercy and Dominican Sisters gathered to pray, sing and deliver a letter signed by 3,685 Catholic Sisters nationwide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office. The letter urged Senator Schumer “not to let minority opposition prevent the Senate passing the For the People Act any longer.”  Read the full text of the “Nuns’ Letter.”

At additional events in Rockaway, Hempstead, and Albany, New York, members of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood and Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet (Albany Province) organized gatherings to rally for the For the People Act with fellow members of their congregations.

o Cleveland, Ohio

The Cleveland NETWORK Advocates Team went to Cleveland Metroparks Zoo where they handed out flyers and stickers in support of the For the People Act. The Sisters of St. Joseph in Cleveland also organized a public witness in support of democracy reform.

o Northern Virginia

In Northern Virginia, NETWORK members showed up to canvass at the Herndon, McLean, Falls Church, Reston, and Alexandria farmers markets. At the markets, they engaged local voters in conversation about the importance of passing democracy reform legislation before the end of the summer.

o Indianapolis, IN

In Indianapolis, Catholic Sisters and other concerned Hoosiers rallied to support federal democracy reform near the Indiana State Capitol Building. The “Carry the Torch of Democracy” rally was cosponsored by Faith in Indiana, Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis, Pax Christi Indianapolis, Indianapolis Urban League, Hoosier Action, Sisters of St. Francis of Oldenburg, Sisters of Providence, Common Cause Indiana, ACLU of Indiana, League of Women Voters Indianapolis, Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, and Our Revolution Indiana. Re-watch the livestream of the rally here.

Following the rally, six Catholic Sisters delivered a copy of NETWORK’s “Nuns’ Letter” signed by 3,685 Catholic Sisters across the country to Senator Mike Braun’s office.

o Monroe, MI

In Monroe, the IHM Sisters and the Stronger Together Huddle held a Vigil for Democracy in front of the IHM Sisters’ Senior Living Community. They also organized a “Relay to the Ballot Box” in downtown Monroe where participants carried symbolic “ballots” and had to get through “hurdles” along the way.  At each hurdle, participants received a “For the People” pass to get through, representing the ways in which the For the People Act would preempt restrictive state-level voting laws. Finally, the participants reached the ballot box near City Hall and the event concluded with music, short speeches, and prayer.

o Philadelphia, PA

On Saturday, August 21, 2021, NETWORK activists organized a Carrying the Torch of Democracy Rally at Independence National Park in Philadelphia, PA. The rally was cosponsored by Common Cause of Pennsylvania, Our Mother of Consolation Parish, St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Catholic Peace Fellowship, Sisters of St. Joseph, Sisters of Mercy, Chestnut Hill College, Colonial Area Anti-Racism and Social Equity Alliance (CAARSEA), and Indivisible Philadelphia. Catholic Sisters, local elected officials, and activists spoke about the need to pass S.1 the For the People Act. Re-watch the livestream of the rally here.

View images from all of the Team Democracy events below:

Team Democracy: Go for the Gold, Pass the For the People Act

Due Process Denied: New Report from Kino Border Initiative and NETWORK

New Report from Kino Border Initiative and NETWORK

Trey Espinosa
August 25, 2021

“Due Process Denied,” a new joint report from Kino Border Initiative (KBI) and NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, documents patterns of abuse by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency in the Nogales sector.  The purpose of this report is to provide a snapshot of what occurs at the border and to press for external oversight to end CBP’s systemic culture of abuse of migrants.

The report details 35 cases of complaints against CBP agents. The abuses range from migrants being denied due process, such as not given an opportunity to seek asylum or destruction of documentation, to outright physical violence. The victims are men, women, and children and all from Latin America or the Caribbean. Almost all of the abuses documented here are in the Arizona sector but both Kino and NETWORK can say with confidence that this snapshot is the latest of numerous reports highlighting CBP’s systemic pattern of abuse which violates U.S. laws and regulations, as well as international law all along the border.

All of the immigrants who were interviewed in this report came to the United States hoping to escape persecution or violence in their home countries. Many of them directly told the CBP agents that they are desperate to evade abusive partners, organized gang activity, extortion, and/or political strife. However, none of them, were referred to an Asylum Officer of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as is required by law.

As members of Congress continue to push for increased funding for CBP and the Biden administration increasingly relies on CBP to do the work of asylum officers and trained Health and Human Services (HHS) employees, this report demonstrates that CBP is not the appropriate agency to afford migrants the due process guaranteed to them by law; rather, it is woefully inadequate in such a role. The Biden administration and Congress must exercise all their powers and initiate external oversight mechanisms over CBP that will end impunity and change the systemic culture of abuse within the CBP.

Trey Espinosa is a summer volunteer on NETWORK’s Government Relations Team. Trey is originally from Louisville, KY and is in grad school at University of Maryland studying public policy.

New Tool: Build Your Own Budget

New Tool: Build Your Own Budget

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP
August 11, 2021

Our tax code and our federal budget are moral decisions with ramifications for our families and communities. Right now, the recovery package Democrats are working to pass through budget reconciliation process will make bold investments in a more just future. We can afford this by reforming our tax code to ensure that the wealthiest people and big corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

A more just tax policy not only creates a more equal society, which is better for everyone (even the wealthiest among us), it also ensures we have the revenue we need to make bold investments in a more equitable and hope-filled future where everyone can thrive.

During the second part of NETWORK’s new “Tax Justice for All” workshop, participants re-envision a tax code that makes the wealthiest people and corporations pay their fair share. After setting tax policy, participants use those federal funds to invest in the common good.

Now it’s your turn. Choose your own tax and spending policies with our tax justice calculator. Select the Tax Policies you would implement in the left column and your Spending Policies on the right, then scroll down to the bottom of the page to find a chart that reflects your total revenue and total spending.

BYOB: Build Your Own Budget with NETWORK

If you haven’t attended Tax Justice for All: Unveiling the Racial Inequity of the U.S. Tax Code, NETWORK’s new two-hour workshop looking at the U.S. tax code and economic inequality, be sure to sign up for an upcoming workshop:

Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Approved by Senate Committee

Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Approved by Senate Committee

Gina Kelley
August 6, 2021

On August 3rd the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee approved the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (S.1486) with bipartisan support. We thank the group of Republican and Democratic Senators who voted to move this common sense legislation to the Senate floor for a vote.

In NETWORK’s letter of support to the committee, we urged them to vote yes on this critical bill because it modernizes current law and closes the gaps in protections afforded to pregnant workers. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) recognizes the dignity of work and life as it would open doors for gainfully employed women who choose to bring new life into the world.

Pregnant workers are routinely denied basic, temporary accommodations to ensure a healthy pregnancy. These accommodations are often as simple as a stool to sit on, a break from lifting heavy boxes, schedule changes, and protection from dangerous conditions. These accommodations are especially important for women in jobs requiring physical activity or exposure to hazardous environments. In lieu of reasonable accommodations at the workplace, many pregnant workers face undue pressure to take a leave of absence, which may jeopardize their livelihood. The PWFA takes critical steps to ensure healthy pregnancies and economic securities for pregnant workers and their families.

NETWORK Lobby urges the Senate to schedule a vote quickly and send the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to President Biden’s desk.

Read NETWORK’s letter of support here. 

Passing a Faithful Recovery Package to Build Anew

Passing a Faithful Recovery Package to Build Anew

Allison Baroni
August 4, 2021

On July 13, 2021, the Senate announced that it had reached an agreement on a $3.5 trillion recovery package to be passed through the budget reconciliation process. This package, which is based on President Biden’s Build Back Better vision, together with the $1 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the gross inequity and lack of federal investment in our communities and infrastructure.

Congress has a responsibility to meet the moment, respond to the needs and demands of the people, and make a once in a generation investment in our public infrastructure. To do so, Congress must include the following priorities in a bold, faithful recovery package:  

  • Ensure any national paid family and medical leave program has progressive wage replacement, job guarantees and anti-retaliation language, inclusive definitions of family, and centers women of color in all decisions to ensure racially equitable access.  
  • Make the new Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit expansions permanent and ensure all immigrants, regardless of legal status, can access the Child Tax Credit and human needs programs.  
  • Establish a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants including Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, and essential workers.  
  • Enact a set of federal standards for Unemployment Insurance (UI) including mandatory 26 weeks of benefits, adequate replacement wage levels (i.e. 75% of wages up to 2/3 of the state’s average wage), and ensure that unemployed workers’ access to benefits is racially equitable. 
  • Provide resources for multi-year rental assistance and address the ongoing unmet need for affordable housing by building affordable housing units. 
  • Make the broadband subsidy permanent to increase access to health care and other critical needs in communities across the country. 
  • Close the Medicaid coverage gap for non-expansion states and provide Medicaid to people who are incarcerated. Finance health expansions by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. 

As always, we will hear critiques that these priorities are too costly. Yet the human cost of not making these needed policy changes is far higher than $3.5 trillion could ever be. Far from a simple policy decision, the choice to include or reject these policy priorities has far-reaching consequences for the lived experiences of those in the United States. For every refusal to include these policy priorities, families in the U.S. face dire circumstances and decisions. 

 Behind all the political rhetoric, lies a simple and important question that we as a nation must answer: who are we beholden too? In Pope Francis’s most recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, he reminds us of the answer to that question. Reflecting on the story of Cain and Abel, he writes:  

“Cain kills his brother Abel and then hears God ask: ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ (Genesis 4:9). His answer is one that we ourselves too often give: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ (ibid). By the very question he asks, God leaves no room for an appeal to determinism or fatalism as a justification for our own indifference. Instead, he encourages us to create a different culture, in which we resolve our conflicts and care for one another.” (57)   

We are at a tipping point. As our nation races toward devastating income inequality, inadequate access to health care, and a dearth of quality affordable housing and living-wage jobs, the breadth and depth of the policy response necessary can at times seem daunting. It can be all too easy for us to turn away from the task, to absolve ourselves of our responsibility to one another.  

But, as Pope Francis says, if we are to build a culture of care, it must be done. Congress cannot afford to pretend that bold and immediate action is not necessary to improve and protect the lives of everyday people: the neighbor whose home is in danger of flooding, or the one who never had one to begin with. The parent struggling to pay childcare and the relative unable to access health care.  

These everyday struggles are the result of policy choices. The question facing Congress can be reduced to this: Will we choose to be a nation that refuses to take care of its own, one that accepts poverty as inevitable? Or will we challenge that lie, asserting that no cost is too high to take care of each other? If we listen honestly to God’s question to Cain, we will find that there is only one answer! 

 

Allison Baroni is a rising senior at Villanova University where she studies Peace and Justice & Theology. Allison is a member of the NETWORK Government Relations team this summer. 

Recovering Together: Creating a Pathway to Citizenship

Recovering Together: Creating a Pathway to Citizenship

Achieving an Equitable and Inclusive Recovery through Budget Reconciliation
Ronnate Asirwatham
August 3, 2021

This week, Democratic Congressional leadership continues debating what will be included in the $3.5 trillion recovery package. The transformational recovery package will be passed through the budget reconciliation process, which only requires 50 Senate votes for a bill to pass and become law. This provides a unique opportunity to create a pathway to citizenship for millions of our undocumented community members that cannot be missed.

We are calling on all Senators to support including a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, farm workers, and essential workers in the recovery package.

With a simple majority vote, Democrats can finally deliver a pathway to millions of undocumented people who have lived and worked in the United States under the fear of deportation for too long.

It is a moral failure that today in the U.S. millions of immigrant workers are considered “essential” and “deportable” at the same time. Congress has a moral imperative to provide a pathway to citizenship for immigrant essential workers and their families through the reconciliation process.

A pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS holders, farm workers and other essential workers has overwhelming bipartisan support. Now is the time to extend a pathway to citizenship to millions of our neighbors.

Take Action

Call your Senators at 888-738-3058. Tell them to support including a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, farm workers, and essential workers in the recovery package.

We Need A More Just and Humane Immigration System

We Need a More Just and Humane Immigration System

Mercy Adoga
August 26, 2021

At NETWORK, we are advocating for a more just and humane immigration system especially at our southwestern border for all immigrants including Haitian, Afro-Caribbean, and African immigrants. 

However, some of the Biden administration’s actions do not support such a system. On August 2nd, President Biden indefinitely extended Title 42 of the U.S. Code to prevent asylum seekers from coming to our borders . This is a flagrant violation of U.S. asylum laws, treaties, and the Constitution. The Biden administration’s misuse of Title 42 to expel asylum seekers puts all expelled immigrants especially black immigrants in grave danger of gang violence, kidnappings, and separates families. Since Biden took office in January of this year, NGOs have tracked at least 6,356 kidnappings, sexual assaults, and other violent attacks  against people blocked at ports of entry or expelled.

President Biden also unveiled a blueprint that has been created for a fair, orderly, and humane immigration system. the Department of Homeland Security has followed up with proposed administrative regulations to flesh out the blueprint. NETWORK welcomes some of the proposed regulations such as those that will expand the categories of asylum seekers eligible to have their cases decided before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). These interviews allow asylum seekers to present their claims in a less traumatizing, non-adversarial setting and will contribute to reducing the immigration court backlog. 

However, both the blueprint and proposed regulations allow the government to expand its use of expedited removal, provide only an immigration court “review” rather than an actual hearing, and end the essential life-saving safeguard of asylum office reconsideration of negative credible fear determinations.

These are harmful policies that have been tried, tested, and failed. NETWORK and other organizations have written to the Attorney General the reasons why expedited removal should not be used. These policies frequently lead to the unlawful deportation of people seeking asylum, who are often denied the chance to request protection by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers.

A new NETWORK and Kino Border Initiative joint report provides a snapshot of the CBP abuse at the border. All 35 cases recorded in this report say they asked for asylum but the CBP denied them their right to pursue their asylum cases and expelled them instead.  The Administration’s choice of a deterrence policy over a just and humane one will needlessly subject families to abusive treatment and inhumane conditions in CBP and ICE detention cells as the government seeks to deport them

NETWORK Recommendations

At NETWORK we recognize that the current immigration processes occurring at the southwestern border are detrimental to immigrants. We would like to spread awareness about the dangers while also proposing potential solutions to address some of the concerns surrounding the immigration system. 

Asylum seekers should enter into a welcoming, timely, and effective system rather than being subjected to rushed and inefficient screening and adjudication procedures. We ask for: 

  1. The right to seek asylum restored at all points of entry at our southern border 
  2. End the misuse of Title 42 at the U.S. Mexico border
  3. Improve the fairness of asylum office interviews and refer asylum seekers for full asylum interviews at their destination locations without the use of expedited removal — a fundamentally flawed process that endangers refugees   
  4. Ramp-up case support initiatives and funding for legal representation, use legal parole authority and do not send people seeking U.S. refugee protection to immigration jails while their asylum cases are adjudicated.
  5. Support faith and community-based welcome organizations to provide welcome and temporary care in border towns and in the interior of the U.S. 
  6. End immigration detention. 
  7. Ensure that all asylum seekers have the right to legal representation not only legal orientation programs.

We hope that taking these steps among others will lead to a more timely, just, and effective immigration system that positively affects all immigrants including those who are Haitian, Afro-Caribbean, and African. 

Welcome to NETWORK’s Summer Immigration Education

Welcome to NETWORK’s Summer Immigration Education!

Mercy Adoga
July 31, 2021

This summer NETWORK offers a series of educational videos providing information about the United States’ Immigration system. In this video series, NETWORK’s Government Relations Director Ronnate Asirwatham will be discussing various topics surrounding the U.S Immigration system such as Title 42, MPP (Migration Protection Protocols), the difference between the asylum process and refugee process, and more. To learn more, please watch the videos below.

 

 

Mercy is a graduate student. She is one of the summer volunteers at NETWORK this year and has been working on the Summer Immigration Education and Advocacy Initiative.