Praying for Our Leaders in Government
Executive Branch: Pray for the President and his Administration
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra appeared at a budget hearing on Capitol Hill to defend a memo he released advocating for federal funding to be used for teenage transgender surgeries.
President Joe Biden announced a ban on unlicensed kits for the manufacture of “ghost guns” at home as part of his effort to reduce the proliferation of untraceable firearms. The rule applies to all ghost guns, regardless of how they were made, which can include 3D printing as well as kits. The Justice Department will require federally licensed dealers to take any non-serialized firearm into inventory to serialize them.
Pray for wisdom for the president and his administration as they make decisions regarding restrictions of constitutional rights and health care.
Legislative Branch: Pray for Senators and Representatives in Congress
Representative Lance Gooden of Texas wrote the IRS commissioner urging him to enact reforms to stop the rampant corruption in the charitable sector that has been occurring. Congressman Gooden highlighted an anti-fossil fuel nonprofit group taking foreign cash and the Black Lives Matter group that refused to answer basic questions about its finances.
Representative Elaine Luria of Virginia is among a number of House members expressing concerns about a looming Iran nuclear deal as President Biden’s administration continues efforts to revive the agreement from President Obama’s tenure. In a statement and at a press conference, some legislators raised concerns about the negotiations while others expressed opposition to reviving the 2015 deal that exchanges sanctions relief for limits on Iran’s nuclear program.
Pray for members of Congress as they are on their spring recess, and as many of them travel to Eastern Europe to meet with leaders and Ukrainian refugees.
PRAY FOR CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES
Members of the House Administration Committee raised questions about proposals to prohibit legislators from trading stocks. The committee’s tepid response to the idea suggests a potential struggle to craft legislation, even as a congressional stock trading ban has widespread public support.
Pray for members of Congress to have integrity and cease profiting from inside information in advance of public disclosures.
Judicial Branch: Pray for Supreme Court Justices and Federal Judges
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court reinstated a rule that curtails the power of states and Native American tribes to block pipelines and other energy projects that can pollute rivers, streams, and other waterways. The action does not interfere with the plans of President Biden’s administration to rewrite the rule.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision and recognized class-action status of high school girls in a Hawaii Title IX athletic civil rights case. Four girls from Hawaii’s largest public high school are seeking class-action status in a lawsuit against the Hawaii Department of Education and Oahu Interscholastic Association to eliminate gender-based inequity faced by female athletes.
Pray for members of the Supreme Court who still have many opinions to write and even cases to hear as the end of their current term draws near.
