c. 1998 Religion News Service

Catholic bishops oppose `most favored nation’ status for China

(RNS) A top official of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging Congress to refuse to renew China’s”most favored nation”trading status.”A strong vote to deny MFN to China should strengthen the administration’s commitments to putting human rights at the top of the China agenda and send a strong signal that the status quo is not acceptable,”Archbishop Thomas McCarrick of Newark, N.J., said in a letter delivered to members of the House on Monday (July 20).

McCarrick is chairman of the bishops’ international policy committee.

McCarrick, who visited China earlier this year, acknowledged that President Clinton had raised issues of religious liberties and other human rights issues during the president’s trip to Beijing in June. But McCarrick said little has changed since Clinton’s visit.”Indeed, the continued arrest and detention of democracy advocates there only point up the necessity for unrelenting official U.S. firmness on issues of human rights and religious freedom, McCarrick said.

The House could vote on renewing China’s trade status with the United States as early as Wednesday (July 22).

Opponents have generally conceded the MFN status will not be revoked but are using the debate over the issue to send a message to China that the United States is concerned about that country’s human rights and religious freedom policies.”We are not going to take away MFN,”said Rep. Frank Wolf, D-Va.”The Senate would never go along with it and the president would not sign it. We know that. But this is an opportunity for every member of the House to vote their conscience.”

Clinton vetoes education savings tax breaks

(RNS) President Clinton has vetoed legislation that would have provided tax breaks to parents saving money for education, including for private and religious school tuition.

The bill would have expanded existing savings accounts for higher education so tax-free withdrawals could be used for education expenses from kindergarten on up.

In vetoing the bill, Clinton said it would use the $3 billion lost in taxes to fund tax benefits for richer families while doing”virtually nothing for average families.””By sending me this bill, the Congress has instead chosen to weaken public education and to shortchange our children,”he said in his veto message issued Tuesday (July 21).

Clinton’s action was criticized by a host of groups, including the National Catholic Education Association, the Family Research Council and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

The Catholic group said the veto would harm poor families trying to escape the nation’s public schools.”Mr. Clinton’s latest veto maintains a `Berlin Wall’ surrounding families who live in poverty and yearn to escape to a better future that only a good education can provide,”said Leonard DeFiore, president of the NCEA.

Nathan Diament, director of the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs, said his group was disappointed with the veto of a bill that was”a small but meaningful effort to give parents greater resources to educate their kids and prepare them for a brighter future.” The bill passed both the House and Senate with less than veto-proof majorities. It was an alternative to Clinton’s five-year, $12 billion education program to build schools, hire teachers and expand after-school programs.

House backs funds for National Endowment for the Arts

(RNS) The House has turned back calls by the religious right and other conservative groups to end funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

The House voted 253-173 Tuesday (July 21) to provide $98 million to the embattled arts agency, as members said the NEA has been reformed in recent years.”I now think that we should give the NEA a chance to work under new guidelines and mandates of law that now govern the agency,”said Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., a onetime NEA critic who in the past has opposed NEA funding.

Shutting down the arts agency has been a top priority of the Christian Coalition and other conservative advocacy groups.

But People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group, hailed the House vote.”For years, the far right has tried to use lies and innuendo to kill an agency that is supported by a majority of Americans,”said Carole Shields, PFAW president.”Because of the courage of moderates of both parties in the House, the NEA will continue to enrich the quality of life for most Americans, boost local economies and brighten our schoolchildren’s classrooms,”she said.

Just a year ago, the House voted 217-216 to kill the agency but the Senate and White House stepped in to restore funding.

Critics contend the agency has funded pornography and other indecent and blasphemous arts projects. Supporters argue such excesses are either minor or under control.”It’s time to stop holding the NEA a political hostage,”said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., a strong supporter of the agency.”We owe this to the agency, to the artists, and, most important, to our constituents.”

Clinton signs bill to protect sites on Underground Railroad

(RNS) President Clinton signed into law Tuesday (July 21) a bill aimed at preserving the slave escape route known as the Underground Railroad.

The law authorizes the National Park Service to spend $500,000 a year to link the sites of the Underground Railroad, produce educational materials and enter into partnerships to commemorate the 19th-century route used by slaves fleeing the South for freedom in the North.”This law will help us to preserve and commemorate the important, but often overlooked, history of the Underground Railroad,”said Rep. Bob Portman, R-Ohio, one of the sponsors of the legislation.

Portman’s great-great grandparents were Quakers and abolitionists who lived in a farmhouse near West Milton, Ohio, that harbored freedom-seeking slaves, the Associated Press reported.

Senate acts to protect children from Internet pornography

(RNS) The Senate on Tuesday (July 21) approved two provisions intended to keep children away from smut on the Internet. The provisions were added to a spending bill for the Commerce, State and Justice departments, currently being debated by the Senate.

One of the provisions would require schools and libraries receiving federally subsidized Internet hookups to install screening software on computers that would prevent children from accessing Web sites containing indecent material.

The other would require Internet companies to use PIN numbers or access codes to assure only adults are admitted to pornographic and other sites deemed”harmful to minors.” The American Family Association, a faith-based conservative advocacy group that fights pornography, hailed as”major steps”the effort to keep Internet pornography from children.

MJP END RNS