Praying for Our Leaders in Government
Executive Branch: Pray for the President and his Administration
President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron held a phone call last week to discuss “ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts” in response to Russia’s military buildup along Ukraine’s border. The call was ahead of a meeting the French president was to have with Vladimir Putin.
In a legal opinion from the Interior Department, President Biden’s administration has decided that contested minerals beneath a portion of the Missouri River belong to three tribal nations, and not to the State of North Dakota.
Pray for discernment for President Biden and his advisers as they continue to monitor the Russia-Ukraine tensions.
Legislative Branch: Pray for Senators and Representatives in Congress
A group of ten senators, most of whom represent New England, has asked Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to restrict the amount of liquified natural gas that U.S. producers ship to lucrative overseas markets such as Europe, even while President Biden’s administration works to shore up energy supplies for the allies on the continent.
Representative James Comer of Kentucky has initiated an investigation into a grant from President Biden’s administration for the construction of a plant to make solar power panels in India.
Pray for members of Congress as they seek to avert a government shutdown as budgetary negotiations continue.
PRAY FOR CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES
A hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee discussed ongoing fraud and price gouging that has been prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The FTC has received nearly 700,000 reports of fraud since the start of the pandemic,“ Committee Chairman Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut reported. “Approaching $700 million lost at each new phase of the pandemic, consumers have been intimidated with more sophisticated scams.” He said the problem has become a national challenge as there is a significant lack of enforcement at the federal level.
Pray for the members of the Senate Commerce Committee as they promote the enforcement of federal law and potentially strengthen it against fraud and abuse of pandemic funds.
Judicial Branch: Pray for Supreme Court Justices and Federal Judges
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is considering a police union’s constitutional challenge to a D.C. measure prohibiting the union from negotiating over disciplinary rules. The union contends the prohibition violates the Constitution.
The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a conclusion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that constructing the Mountain Valley Pipeline is unlikely to jeopardize endangered species. This poses another setback for the 300-mile pipeline project a week after the court invalidated federal approval for it to cross the Jefferson National Forest to transport natural gas across 11 counties in West Virginia before crossing into Virginia.
Pray for the judges of the federal appeals courts as they consider cases and issue rulings that often have a national impact.
