FCNL made important progress during the 115th Congress, despite the prevailing hyper-partisanship.
The mission for peace, justice, and sustainability is essential for all humanity, regardless of political views.
Thanks to your faithful advocacy, four bills that FCNL staff and grassroots advocates relentlessly advocated for were signed into law during the last Congress:
- The Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 establishes the prevention of genocide and other atrocities as core national security interest and moral responsibility of the United States.
- The farm bill, or the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, reauthorizes funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It helps more than 40 million Americans put food on the table.
- The FIRST STEP Act of 2018 reforms the federal prison system and seeks to reduce recidivism. The full name of the law is The Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person. *The PREPARE Act of 2017 created an interagency council to establish government-wide goals to deal with extreme weather. It stands for Preparedness and Risk Management for Extreme Weather Patterns Assuring Resilience and Effectiveness.
These laws were not passed just within one session of Congress. The reality is our work goes beyond a session of Congress—it includes persistent advocacy that stretches across decades. We keep one eye on what’s right in front of us and one eye on the horizon. We work for change that takes years of sustained, persistent effort to achieve.
Read the rest of this article, and the full Washington Newsletter for January/February 2019, below.
