Faith-based lobbying groups unite to fight payday lenders

For the second straight year, faith-based lobbying groups are uniting to fight payday lending and will seek laws to restrict it when the General Assembly convenes next month.

"We have all come together under the belief that this is a social justice issue, because it's preying on poor and vulnerable people," said Ann Rasmussen of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

The center, whose members include mainline Protestants, Jews and Muslims, shares its opposition to payday lending with the Virginia Catholic Conference and The Family Foundation, which represents many conservative Christians.

The three organizations are the most influential faith-

oriented groups lobbying the legislature. Each promotes and challenges an array of bills according to its own agenda for public policy. Each group also has a network of supporters who can be alerted quickly to lobby legislators on specific bills.

Payday lending is one of the rare issues that is a priority for all three groups.

"Faith groups are frequently called upon to save borrowers from their payday debt," according to the interfaith center. Virginia Catholic Conference director Jeff Caruso said payday lending traps families "in a circle of debt."

Del. Glenn Oder, R-Newport News, has proposed HB12, which would cap annual interest rates on payday loans at 36 percent. In the last session, several bills that would have imposed the cap or banned payday lending failed to pass.

As they did last year, the Catholic and interfaith groups also will fight any proposal to expand the death penalty. And they plan to push for a state housing trust that would help create affordable housing.

The Virginia Catholic Conference's special issues include pushing to restore funding for sexual-abstinence education that was eliminated this year by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

The group, which is the public policy advocate for the two Catholic dioceses in Virginia, also wants to stop Medicaid-funded abortions.

For the first time, the interfaith center's priorities include restoring the civil rights of felons, including the right to vote, via an amendment to the state constitution.

SJ7, filed by Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, proposes an amendment that would allow the legislature to restore rights for nonviolent felons who have completed their sentences, including probation.

The center also will push prekindergarten programs for children, subsidized child care for low-income households, energy conservation and lower interest caps on car title loans.

The Family Foundation will push for legislation to bar groups that provide abortions from also presenting sex education programs in schools.

Planned Parenthood is one such group, said Victoria Cobb, the foundation's president.

The foundation also wants a new law that would underscore court rulings that allow religious topics to be part of student schoolwork.

It is lobbying to have sexual-abstinence funding restored, and will campaign again for legislation requiring that pregnant women be offered an ultrasound view of their fetus before deciding whether to have an abortion.

Cobb said her group will oppose any initiatives to add sexual orientation as a protected class in the state's hate crimes and discrimination laws.

The foundation plans to fight HB36, filed by Del. James M. Scott, D-Merrifield, which would add sexual orientation to the categories protected from discrimination by the state's fair housing law.

The foundation scored a major victory in recent years by successfully lobbying legislators to back a referendum on a constitutional amendment that prohibited same-sex marriage. Voters approved the measure in 2006.

But the group expects a chillier legislative reception after last month's election put Democrats in the majority in the Senate.

"We will walk into a liberal-controlled Senate and face a hostile opponent," the foundation stated this month. "2008 will be a big challenge for our pro-family agenda."

The General Assembly power shift may bode well for the interfaith center's priorities, Rasmussen said. But she said the center's issues often don't tie in to partisan politics.

Caruso said his Catholic priorities are rarely influenced by political affiliations.

"Our agenda, it can't be categorized in terms of liberal or conservative, or left or right," he said. "It's a very diverse range of issues."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com