ELCA Federal Advocacy: Faithful Witness in a Critical Season
Lutheran Disaster Response leaders on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., advocating for positive policy reforms for disaster response and recovery.
The ELCA Witness in Society federal advocacy office is tracking a busy and consequential season in Washington, with urgent attention to hunger, health care, housing, immigration, education, voting rights, disaster recovery, international food aid, care for creation and peace.
For Lutherans in Arizona, these are not abstract federal debates. They touch food pantries, border communities, congregations, campus ministries, shelters, public schools and neighbors struggling to meet basic needs.
A central concern remains the 2026 Farm Bill and the future of SNAP, the nation’s largest anti-hunger program. ELCA advocacy staff are monitoring congressional action as lawmakers debate nutrition, agriculture, rural development, conservation and international food aid. New federal requirements and cost shifts could make it harder for states to administer SNAP and harder for eligible families to access food assistance. As Lutheran ministries report rising need, LAMA joins the call for a Farm Bill that supports both farmers and hungry families.
The team also raises concern about efforts to tighten access to Medicaid, TANF and other anti-poverty supports. These programs serve many of the poorest families in our communities, including children, seniors and people with disabilities. In Arizona, where AHCCCS is a lifeline for many families, federal choices that affect health care access deserve close attention.
Housing is another major federal priority. ELCA advocacy has supported bipartisan housing legislation that would expand affordability and housing supply, renew rural housing programs, update manufactured housing policy and strengthen disaster recovery. Congress has also advanced the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act as part of a larger housing package, which would help make Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding more reliable and timely after disasters. For Arizona communities facing housing instability, extreme heat and disaster risk, these investments matter.
ELCA advocacy is also tracking changes in education, civil rights enforcement and voting access. Proposed federal restructuring could affect protections for students with disabilities and historically marginalized students. Meanwhile, efforts to make voter registration and participation more difficult remain a concern, especially for women, rural voters, low-income communities, marginalized communities and members of Tribal Nations.
Immigration and refugee policy remain urgent as well. ELCA advocacy continues to raise concerns about large increases in immigration enforcement funding without sufficient protections, oversight or accountability. For Arizona Lutherans, this is close to home. Border communities, immigrant families, asylum seekers and congregations engaged in accompaniment ministry know that humane policy, due process and family unity are matters of faith and neighbor love.
Internationally, ELCA advocacy continues to engage food aid, humanitarian response, global health and peace. The Senate Farm Bill draft would extend vital international food aid programs, including Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition. ELCA advocacy is also monitoring global health response capacity and the humanitarian impact of conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.
Taken together, these wide-ranging topics remind us that budgets, agency decisions and legislation are moral documents. They reveal whose needs are seen, whose burdens are shared and whose voices are heard. LAMA’s public witness is rooted not in partisanship, but in love of neighbor — especially neighbors who are hungry, unhoused, uninsured, displaced, excluded, disabled, endangered or unheard.
As Congress moves through the coming months, we encourage Arizona Lutherans to stay informed, pray for public servants, contact members of Congress, attend town halls, request meetings during district work periods and share what our congregations and ministries are seeing in local communities. Faithful advocacy is one way we live out our baptismal calling in public life: seeking justice, peace and the well-being of all.
2025-26 ELCA Federal Policy Priorities for the 119th Congress