Praying for Our Leaders in Government
Executive Branch: Pray for the President and his Administration
President Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, to a virtual summit the U.S. is hosting on April 22-23 intended to strengthen support among top greenhouse gas-emitting countries in addressing climate change.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced that the U.S. aims to cut solar energy costs by 60 percent by 2030, and the department has established a $128 million fund to reduce the cost of deploying solar energy and hastening development. The goal includes concentrating solar-thermal power projects that power engines or turbines with the energy captured from the heat of sunlight.
Pray for God to direct the president and members of his Cabinet as they work on issues relating to caring for the planet and the environment both here and abroad.
Legislative Branch: Pray for Senators and Representatives in Congress
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he is hoping for an “enormous” infrastructure bill. He also suggested an “infrastructure bank” paid for with revenues, potentially a value-added tax, that would be used for “rebuilding America.”
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is proposing tax increases that are even larger than the ones the president is considering. He said his legislation would raise the corporate tax rate to 35 percent, which is where it was prior to President Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul.
Pray for members of Congress as they consider revenue sources to help offset the enormous spending of relief packages and upcoming infrastructure bills.
Judicial Branch: Pray for Supreme Court Justices and Federal Judges
The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case with ties to a Kentucky abortion law when it schedules its caseload in the term that begins in the fall. The case before the Court addresses whether or not the state attorney general can try to reinstate and maintain a law that a federal judge found unconstitutional.
In a case involving Hawaii’s restrictions on openly carrying firearms, an en-banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Second Amendment does not guarantee an unfettered, general right to openly carry arms In public for individual self-defense, and therefore Hawaii’s firearms-carry limitation is lawful. Judge O’Scannlain stated that the majority holds that, while the Second Amendment may guarantee the right to keep a firearm for self-defense within one’s home, it provides no right whatsoever to bear, i.e., to carry, that same firearm for self-defense in any other place.
Pray for the nation’s judiciary and especially for the Supreme Court as abortion and gun issues, along with other Bill of Rights matters, come before them.
