U.S. Bishops to Vote on Strategic Plan With Restructured Committees, Smaller USCCB Staff

USCCB smaller?! Yeah, right!

The restructuring has been recommended by the Committee on Priorities and Plans, chaired by Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe, NM. The committee, which is responsible for strategic planning, aims to create a more focused, smaller and less costly conference. The process follows a report from the USCCB Task Force on Activities and Resources that called for "a mechanism for Conference-wide strategic planning, implementation and assessment." Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington chaired the task force that produced the report adopted by the bishops in November 2004.
The restructuring involves reducing the current 68 committees, subcommittees and task forces of bishops to 34. Staff offices corresponding to the committees will be restructured, contributing to a 16 percent or $1.9 million reduction in the annual diocesan assessment toward the USCCB yearly budget. The conference budget for 2007 is $139 million, with $11.9 million, or nine percent, coming from the ssessment. The rest of the budget comes from national collections, government contracts, foundation grants and sales/royalties.