Praying for Our Leaders in Government
Executive Branch: Pray for the President and his Administration
When speaking on the administration’s plan to remove U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the U.S. had fulfilled its mission to end al Qaeda’s ability to strike at the U.S. and that there had been a “deliberate and informed process” leading to the complete troop withdrawal.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said raising the federal gasoline tax is not being considered as part of the infrastructure package, rather an increase in corporate tax rates will pay for the package. She said the president “does not believe that paying for this historic investment in rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure and creating millions of jobs should be on the backs of Americans.”
Pray for the president’s administration as policy decisions are made on foreign and domestic matters.
Legislative Branch: Pray for Senators and Representatives in Congress
Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are working on bipartisan legislation to increase the minimum wage. “We are negotiating a minimum wage proposal which we would ultimately take to our group of 20 and see how they would react to it and go from there,” they told reporters. No immediate details of the plan were released.
Bipartisan legislation was introduced in the Senate that would make it easier for companies to install broadband along existing infrastructure, such as federal highways, to help increase Internet access in rural America. The Accelerating Rural Broadband Deployment Act would ensure the cost of installing broadband internet is not too high and it would increase transparency in the broadband infrastructure license awarding process.
Pray for members of Congress to work together with more bipartisan cooperation for the benefit of the American people.
Judicial Branch: Pray for Supreme Court Justices and Federal Judges
U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn in Dallas expressed astonishment at the way some attorneys have dressed for remote court hearings and how they have not treated the proceedings with the same respect they do in-person hearings. “I had to issue a standing order for our court telling lawyers that baseball caps, whether turned the right way or the wrong way, and T-shirts were not the appropriate attire for a court proceeding conducted remotely,” she said. “It was shocking to me that people felt at liberty to show up like a slob, to put it bluntly.” She also critiqued the messy backdrops or difficult lighting attorneys had chosen for their virtual appearances.
The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that Wisconsin Governor Evers can exclude members of a conservative think-tank from attending press briefings and keep them off his email list sent to other reporters, upholding a ruling from a lower court. It said the governor’s actions did not violate the policy institute’s constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of the press, and equal access.
Pray for federal judges and attorneys as they navigate remote hearings during the waning pandemic.
