FCNL in the News

“That stuck with me,” said Moix, general secretary for Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker peace and equality organization that is among Faiths United for Democracy’s national partners. “I’m certainly sobered by the realities we are facing as a nation and trying to be prepared for whatever might happen at my individual polling station and in the broader electoral environment.”

For many families, September is back-to-school season. Teachers return to the classrooms, parents breathe a sigh of relief and kids head back to school. For Native American communities, though, the start of a new school year can also bring up memories of separation, pain and heartache inflicted on Indigenous children and families through what were called Indian boarding schools.

This past spring, I led a group of young Alaskans to Washington, D.C. We traveled across the continent to attend a youth conference organized by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a nonpartisan Quaker advocacy organization. We joined hundreds of young people from across the nation and lobbied Congress to pass a bill that would create a Truth and Healing Commission on the Indian Boarding School Era. Months after returning from Washington, I once again urge the Alaskan Congressional delegation to work together and ensure passage of the bill this Congress session.

Space on the calendar – as well as an election – may be standing in the way of long overdue progress and justice for millions of Native Americans who continue to suffer the consequences of past abuses in boarding schools.

The people of Gaza aren’t starving. They are being starved. Over 2 million Palestinian civilians are facing a man-made humanitarian catastrophe, with famine and disease spreading due to a lack of aid access. At the same time, the Biden administration and Congress are withholding all U.S. funding for the largest aid operation in Gaza: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Bridget Moix, general secretary for the group, added that cutting of funding was “simply unconscionable” because the U.S.—as the Israeli military’s largest international funder—bears responsibility for the “horrific violence and a massive humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. “UNRWA is the backbone of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip,” said Moix. “U.S. funding should be restored immediately.”

A new report from the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) assessing all 30 AUMFs passed by Congress going back to 1789, finds the 2001 AUMF the only one in history without any clear and specific limits regarding who it will be used against, where it will be used, what actions can be carried out, or how long the authorization will remain active.

In early August, approximately 500 Quakers from more than 50 countries gathered in South Africa for our World Plenary Meeting, last held in 2016. As the leader of the oldest registered religious lobby in the world, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, I welcomed the opportunity this international gathering provided to ask fellow Quakers how U.S. policy is impacting their communities and how advocates like me can pass on their messages to American policymakers.

This year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees anticipates more than 130 million people will experience forcible displacement or statelessness, a tragedy exacerbated by renewed violent conflict and atrocities, persecution, human rights violations, and climate and environmental disasters. The Americas are also experiencing unprecedented migration. As Congress navigates record-breaking human suffering, the conversation needs to center on effective solutions that both prevent forced migration and respond to displacement and resettlement needs. The United States can lead the world with conviction on proven humane migration solutions that uphold national prosperity and community interests.

As the UN gears up to launch a massive polio vaccination drive, Hassan el-Tayyab — the legislative director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a nonprofit — said the inability to deliver basic necessities could compound the health crisis. “A 10-month-old baby in Gaza is now paralysed in one leg: This is the first polio case in Gaza in 25 years. This is a massive threat,” el-Tayyab told Al Jazeera.