Domestic Weekly Update May 18, 2010
New and Urgent in This Week’s Update
Latest from Washington, DC
Organizational Updates
Empower Yourself by Staying Informed through Local VITA Programs (May Action)Amidst a time when misinformation runs rampant throughout our media outlets, it is important that we keep a sense of perspective on the issues that matter most. As the primary generators of revenue for our federal government, taxes are one of the issues that remain a hot button topic in the political arena and have recently been subjected to an unprecedented amount of criticism from news stations and political groups who believe Americans are paying far too much in taxes. However, based on a USA Today article released last Monday, these positions seem to be based more on perception than truth. After analyzing federal data over the past several decades, researchers found that Americans paid their lowest levels of taxes in 2009 since the 1950s. This is in stark contrast to reports we hear about government spending on social programs draining the pockets of ordinary Americans. This finding may be partly due to Americans buying fewer things and thus paying less sales tax, but the article also attributes this decrease to a series of tax changes pushed through by the Obama, Bush and Clinton administrations. The author highlights a progressive tax rate “that slashed income taxes for poor and middle-class families” as one of the primary factors easing the tax burden on Americans. This a great example of why we need to stay informed on U.S. tax policy. There will always be opponents to our stance on expanding and extending low-income tax credits, but the more data we have at our disposal, the more convincing our argument can be. An excellent way to gather data and stories about low-income tax credits, and the focus of our May 2010 RESULTS Domestic monthly conference call, is reaching out to your local Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Community VITA programs offer free tax help and related financial services to low-income individuals and families. Without these effective resources, 400,000 underserved taxpayers would miss out on the potentially life-changing benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC). Reaching out to VITA coordinators will not only help us become better prepared to advocate for the EITC and CTC, it also helps the program itself. As mentioned on the May 8 domestic national conference call, guest speaker Julie Farwell mentioned that their VITA programs in Nebraska were serving only about ten percent of the people eligible for the program. This is not unusual. Despite the benefits it creates, VITA is still substantially underfunded. For example, 379 programs applied for over $30 million during the 2010 tax season, yet the VITA Program was only able to make awards to 147 of them with a median grant size of $56,000. To make matters worse, the president’s proposed FY2011 budget would cut funding for the VITA Grant Program from $12 million to $8 million. This will force significant cuts to services in an already underfunded program. Connecting with VITA sites in your area will help you see first hand the importance of this work and the need for more resources in the future. To date, eight RESULTS groups have already connected with their local VITA program using the NCTC website. The RESULTS group in San Fernando, CA has even booked a VITA representative to present at their next group meeting on June 2, as has the Des Moines, Iowa, group. Now it’s your turn! Reach out to your local VITA Program and empower yourself and your group to be better informed, more powerful advocates. The success stories and community-specific data you gather from your VITA meetings will leave you more prepared for communication with members of Congress about the importance of the EITC, CTC and VITA. TAKE ACTION: Take the May Action. Contact a VITA site coordinator in your area and see if you can set up a meeting between him/her and your RESULTS group. Use the National Community Tax Coalition to get connected to a site near you. The action sheet has a link to the NCTC website, where you can click on a “Find a VITA site” button and it will take you to a quick form to fill out. Once NCTC has your information, they will send you an e-mail with a local VITA contact. You can also try to locate a VITA site through the IRS by calling (800) 906-9887 or checking their website VITA site list (note that this is not a complete list of VITA sites). If you are not finding any local contact information, you can also call 211 from local phone; some communities provide VITA information on their 211 line. In addition, local community action programs may be able to help. If you were not on this month’s conference call, you can listen to it on our Conference Call page of the RESULTS website and our RESULTS Musings blog. Set Up Face-to-Face Meetings During Memorial Day Recess and at the International ConferenceCongress will be on recess May 31 through June 4 for the Memorial Day recess. This is a great time to set up face-to-face meeting with representatives and senators while they are back home in your states. Use this opportunity to thank members of Congress to talk about the importance of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC). Hopefully you’ll have talked to your local VITA site coordinator and will have stories and statistics to share with them. Also, if you are attending the conference, please make sure to request meetings with your representatives and senators as soon as possible. The best way to secure a face-to-face meeting is to schedule it early. In addition, Meredith Dodson will be speaking with group leaders and other conference attendees individually in the coming weeks to help you prepare for Hill meetings at the conference. To date, she has helped conference attendees prepare for 60 meetings on Capitol Hill. To help Meredith schedule a time with your group, please send her some available dates and times to meet at: dodson@results.org. TAKE ACTION: Contact the schedulers for your representatives and senators to set up a face-to-face meeting while they are back home for the recess and in Washington, DC during the conference. See our Activist Milestone: Meet Face-to-Face with Your Member of Congress for tips on scheduling and planning your meeting. You can also download and edit this sample letter to send to their office or use our online alert to help set up your meetings. Be sure to customize your request to the subjects you plan to cover. Once you get a meeting scheduled, please contact Meredith Dodson (dodson@results.org) to schedule a time to help you plan your meeting. Also, when you schedule your Hill meetings for the conference, please let Lisa Marchal know (lmarchal@results.org) the following info: 1) Name of member, and if it is a face-to-face, 2) the name of the staffer that will be attending, 3) date, time, location, and who will be attending (include if this is a global, domestic, or joint meeting), and cell phone for key contact person. This information is to help with tracking all the meetings taking place at the conference. Lisa can also be contacted at (317) 489-9173. Tell House Members to Pass Jobs/State Assistance BillThe House of Representatives will be voting on a very important bill this week that will help create jobs and provide critical financial assistance to states. H.R. 4213, The American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes and Preventing Outsourcing Act extends unemployment insurance benefits (UI) and COBRA health insurance coverage benefits until the end of the year (these expanded benefits are scheduled to expire in two weeks), as well as TANF emergency benefits. Also, the bill extends the increased federal contribution to state Medicaid programs. This additional Medicaid funding was passed as part of the economic recovery bill last year and has helped prevent cuts to state Medicaid programs at a time when more people are turning to Medicaid for help. The bill would extend the funding for six months, through June 2011. The House is expected to vote this Thursday. Some Blue Dog Democratic representatives are undecided on whether to support the bill. However, as our friends at the Coalition on Human Needs report:
TAKE ACTION: Please call your representative TODAY toll free at (877) 442-6801 and urge him/her to vote YES on H.R.4213. When calling, you can say:
If you cannot call, you can also use our online e-mail alert to contact members of Congress about the bill. Thanks to the CHN and Jobs for America Now for background and content and to AFSCME for the toll-free number. Sign Up for RESULTS International Conference TODAY — Important Deadlines Today and FridayThey say that in politics and advertising, repetition is the key to swaying public opinion. Based on that assumption, register for the 2010 RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund International Conference today! Each day, the conference gets more and more exciting. Last week, we confirmed new speakers for the conference. Here is the list of speakers so far:
Oh by the way, register for the 2010 RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund International Conference today! It’s important to register as soon as you can. As you know, this year’s conference is June 20–22 at the Washington Marriott Hotel at Metro Center in Washington, DC. However, we can only hold our block of rooms until THIS FRIDAY, MAY 21. After that, we cannot guarantee that the hotel will have rooms available and at the current discounted rate. But you can easily avoid that headache if you register for the 2010 RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund International Conference today! Also, if you are a college student wanting to attend the conference, the deadline to apply for our Campus for Change program is TODAY. TAKE ACTION: Register for the 2010 RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund International Conference today! Go to our International Conference page for conference and hotel registration forms, conference schedule, a helpful checklist for attendees, and more. The conference is only a month away and it won’t be the same without you. Please note that the evening reception on June 22 has been changed to 5:30−7:30 pm ET. We are asking members of Congress to speak during the timeframe of 5:45-6:30 pm The RESULTS website has resources where you can learn how and download the invitation templates so you can invite your members of Congress to speak. RESULTS Fundraising UpdateThank you to everyone who is already responding to our RESULTS Domestic fundraising campaign. Already several groups have stepped up to help in this effort to raise $50,000 by the end of the year. As shared on the May 8 national conference call and in last week’s weekly update, this campaign is to raise resources to help maintain our existing domestic work and help us build a strong domestic presence in the future. In addition to staff level efforts to secure funding from major donors and charitable foundations, we also need your help. Here are 3 ways you can be involved:
Thank you so much for all that you are doing, and the effort you’ll put into this campaign. You prove every day that with the right strategy, the right timing, and the right commitment, in the words of anthropologist Margaret Mead “a small group of thoughtful, committed citizen can change the world.” Attend the RESULTS Chicago Fundraiser This Sunday. The afternoon of Sunday May 23, 2010, the Chicago-area RESULTS groups will host an event to benefit both RESULTS and Partners in Health with featured speaker U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky. Congresswoman Schakowsky, Ann Clark from Partners in Health, and Cynthia Changyit Levin of RESULTS will highlight how aid organizations, Congress, and everyday people can work together to end poverty in Haiti and around the world. Note: Admission and silent auction will benefit RESULTS Educational Fund. A voluntary financial appeal will be made for Partners in Health after the speaking program. Admission is $35 at door $15 for students with valid student ID. Learn more at the RESULTS Chicago web page. Another Successful Houston Fundraiser. An estimated 350 people attended the RESULTS fundraiser last Friday evening in Houston, TX. One attendee said it was the largest crowd she’d seen at this annual event. We are still tallying the amount raised and will update you on the final amount in the coming weeks. In the meantime, thank you to everyone who helped plan this event. Their tireless efforts again led to raising critical resources that will help continue the critical work of RESULTS. Our gratitude to them, to guest speaker Muhammad Yunus, and to everyone who contributed important financial resources to our work. Way to go Houston! For New Activists: Join Important Training Calls This Week and NextTo help those of you lobbying at the International Conference for the first time or anyone wanting to learn (or re-learn) the basics of grassroots lobbying we have some great training calls coming up this week and next. First, join us this Thursday night for a Lobby 101 Training call with RESULTS staff members Ken Patterson and Meredith Dodson. Learn the basics of lobbying members of Congress and get your questions answered!
Then on Wednesday, May 26, long-time RESULTS volunteer and regional coordinator Allison Gallaher will give her wildly popular and very effective training on researching your members of Congress. Learn how to learn about your members of Congress before you meet with them in Washington, DC, or back home. Note that you will want to be in front of a computer with internet access for this call.
These calls will be very helpful in preparing new activists for their meetings with members of Congress and their staff. Whether you are attending the RESULTS conference or now, anyone is welcome to join these calls. Sign Your RESULTS Groups onto Tax and Child Nutrition LettersThank you again to all the RESULTS groups who have already signed onto the Coalition on Human Needs letter urging Congress to preserve and build upon low income tax credits for working families and students. This letter will send an important message to Congress—put low-income working families and students at the top of the congressional agenda. If your group has not signed on yet, there is still time. Go to the CHN sign on page to list your group. The deadline to sign on is this Friday, May 21. Please note, when the form asks if you are authorized to sign on behalf of your organization, check YES. If you do not check YES, your local group will not be added to the list. Also, thank you to all of you who called your House members the last several weeks to sign onto the McGovern/Emerson child nutrition letter asking for $10 billion over ten years in new child nutrition funding. 221 House members signed the letter. Congratulations to your hard work in getting these signatures. But let’s not stop there. From our friends at the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), join national, state and community-based organizations on a sign-on letter urging Senate leadership to build on the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (S.3307) by increasing $4.5 billion in new funding over ten years already allocated for child nutrition to $10 billion over ten years. Just as with the CHN letter, please read the letter and sign your group on via the online form provided. The deadline to sign on is May 28. Quick NewsEstate Tax Opponents Working on Another Cut. In the past, RESULTS has fought further cuts to the federal estate tax, which applies only to a small sliver of the wealthiest U.S. estates. Cutting the estate tax is fiscally irresponsible and further widens our already historic gap between the rich and poor. In 2010, the estate tax went into full repeal. Fortunately, the repeal lasts only one year; in 2011 it returns to the pre-2001 levels. Now a group of senators is working to prevent that from happening. Led by Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ), they want to enact a permanent cut to the tax (as compared to 2009 law), which would cost another $440 billion over ten years. Congress has much more important matters to deal with than enacting another tax cut for those at the very top. Use our online alert to tell your members of Congress that they need to get their priorities straight and start working on the needs of millions of working Americans, not the wants of a few super-wealthy families. Senate Files Cloture on Financial Reform. After weeks of debate, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on the Wall Street reform bill. This means that a vote to proceed to a final vote will take place later this week. It is unknown whether all Republicans will filibuster the bill, or if enough will support reform to garner the 60 votes needed to move to a final vote. AnnouncementsPlease Submit Your Group Planning Forms. Please complete your Group Planning Form and e-mail, mail or fax a copy to Meredith Dodson at the RESULTS DC office. Upcoming Events(Click to see a complete calendar) May 20: Lobby 101 Conference Call Training, 9:00 pm ET. (712) 432-3100, passcode 761262. May 23: Kitsap, WA fundraising luncheon, 1:00 pm PT. Contact Lene Hajek for details; (235) 857-5234, lnybyh@yahoo.com. May 23: Chicago, IL fundraiser, 4:00 pm CT. Go to http://resultschicago.ning.com/events/2010-results-fundraiser for details. May 26: Researching Your Member of Congress, 9:00 pm ET, (712) 432-3100, passcode 761262. May 31–June 4: Congressional Memorial Day recess. June 12: RESULTS Domestic National Conference Call, 12:30 pm ET. June 20–22: RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund International Conference, Washington Marriott Hotel, Washington, DC. July 10: Joint Domestic/Global RESULTS National Conference Call, 2:00 pm ET. RESULTS Contact InformationMain Office: (p) (202) 783-7100, (f) (202) 783-2818, 750 First Street NE, Suite 1040, Washington DC 20002. Domestic Legislative and Grassroots Support Staff: Meredith Dodson, (202) 783-7100, x.116 (dodson@results.org); Jos Linn, (515) 288-3622 (jlinn@results.org). The RESULTS Domestic Update is sent out every Tuesday over e-mail to RESULTS volunteers and allies all over the country. The purpose of these updates is to inform and activate RESULTS activists to take action on our domestic campaigns. |