Letter urges Congress to lift restrictions on legal services for poor

Published: 2005-12-05

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pax Christi USA has joined with 30 other Catholic and faith-based organizations in calling on Congress to remove restrictions on how the federal Legal Services Corp. assists low-income Americans. Since 1996, a rider to the appropriations bill funding the Legal Services Corp. has prohibited local groups that receive funds from the agency from pursuing cases involving challenges to welfare laws or regulations, civil lawsuits on behalf of prisoners and some immigrants, and several other matters, even if the cases are fully financed from other sources. The funding is allowed only if the cases are handled by an organization "physically and financially separate" from the entity funded by the Legal Services Corp. -- a stipulation that the letter signers said also threatens faith-based organizations receiving funding under other federal programs. "The core values of our faiths teach us to care for society's most vulnerable members," said the organizations' Nov. 29 letter to Reps. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., and Alan B. Mollohan, D-W.Va., chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the House Appropriations subcommittee that handles appropriations affecting the Legal Services Corp.

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