Praying for Our Leaders in Government
Executive Branch: Pray for the President and his Administration
The Department of Homeland Security announced it will begin phasing out a program that requires some asylum-seekers to spend months in Mexico-the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy—in a quick and orderly manner.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency and its joint terrorism task forces are “actively” investigating individuals deemed national security threats and suspected terrorists who entered the U.S. after being evacuated from Afghanistan last year, while admitting the bureau does not know where they are located at any given time.
Pray for officials in the varied departments of the Executive Branch who are dealing with matters involving immigration.
Legislative Branch: Pray for Senators and Representatives in Congress
Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey said the U.S. must learn from its mistakes with Ukraine to come up with the best strategy to support Taiwan. He emphasized, “A clear lesson from the war in Ukraine is that authoritarian leaders have been emboldened in recent years by dysfunctional democracies and hesitant international institutions,” adding “the United States needs less ambiguity to guide our approach to Taiwan.”
Among the stops House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made during her trip to Asia was at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two countries where she committed to the denuclearization of North Korea. In a joint communique with South Korean Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo, she said, “We agreed to support the efforts of the two governments to achieve practical denuclearization and peace through international cooperation and diplomatic dialogue, based on strong and extended deterrence against the North.”
Pray for members of the House of Representatives as they are expected to return Friday to vote on the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Senate.
PRAY FOR CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES
The secretaries of state of New Mexico and Michigan testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee saying they had been threatened after recent elections. They called on Congress to protect election workers from being harassed while doing their jobs.
Three scientists testified at a hearing held by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight that stronger oversight is needed on gain-of-function research to make sure the research that is supposed to prevent pandemics is not what is causing them.
Pray for members of the congressional committees as they address the matters surrounding elections as well as science and research concerns.
Judicial Branch: Pray for Supreme Court Justices and Federal Judges
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that a charter school’s dress code that required skirts for female students was in violation of Title IX –a federal law protecting students in public schools from gender-based discrimination. The school, which opened in 2000, endeavored to teach students from kindergarten through 8th grade to promote “traditional values.”
A federal appeals court upheld a federal rule that expanded exemptions for short haul drivers and provided more flexibility for a 30-minute break for long haul truckers. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rule increased the degree to which truckers should make use of an hours-of-service exemption, although critics said it would increase fatigue-related crashes.
Pray for America’s federal judges and the wide range of matters they hear and issue rulings on.
