RESULTS Weekly Update March 29, 2022

Quote of the Week

“We can afford to give our kids the basic resources to thrive.”

– RESULTS Bremerton, WA volunteer Donna Munro in a March 24 letter to the editor in the Eugene Weekly

Table of Contents

• FY23 appropriations work is underway. Don’t wait!
• The Child Tax Credit is the right tool for this moment
• Join National Webinar this Saturday with Phil Tegeler and Peter Sands
• Quick News on U.S. and Global Poverty
• Announcements
• Upcoming Events
• Grassroots Resources

FY23 appropriations work is underway. Don’t wait!

We are off and running on FY23 appropriations. Now is the time to make a plan of action.

But why appropriations? The appropriations process is the budgeting process during which we get a unique opportunity to push for our global health, education, and economic priorities. These dollar amounts can be transformative to the lives of individuals and families, and we get the chance to influence them. (Want to learn more? You can join a webinar on Wednesday, March 30, that will describe the appropriations process for you. Register today.) So don’t hesitate to get started!

Every member of Congress has a chance to weigh in on appropriations even if they don’t serve on the Appropriations Committee themselves. But in order for them to feel compelled to use their voices, we must use ours. Through both congressional “sign-on” letters and specific funding requests, we can ask our legislators to influence the full decisions of Congress and increase funding for global anti-poverty programs.

Our appropriations memos – the details of the funding levels we’re requesting – and a House letter for maternal and child health and nutrition are now available for your action-taking. Ask your members of Congress to weigh in specifically with the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee (SFOPS) of Appropriations. Don’t hesitate, as offices are already starting to set internal deadlines for receiving these requests (with SFOPS subcommittee deadlines to receive legislator requests expected as early as the end of April). Moreover the House letter on maternal and child health and nutrition has an updated close date of April 18. Look for additional information as the appropriations process moves along and more sign-on letters become available for signature. And share this online action alert with others so they can take action during appropriations as well.

TAKE ACTION: Our complete FY23 appropriations funding ask memos are online, as is the beginning of our set of sign-on letters, namely the bipartisan House letter for maternal and child health and nutrition led by Reps. Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Young Kim (R-CA). Read more about our funding asks and this House letter on the RESULTS blog, and check back to this blog regularly, as it will also provide an on-going tracker of letter signatures. You can submit funding requests today, asking your legislators to weigh in on those specific numbers with the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of Appropriations via the support you’ll get from our memos. You can also click on the House letter to find the text and signing instructions. Questions? Contact Crickett at [email protected] or other RESULTS staff.

The Child Tax Credit is the right tool for this moment

This week, it was reported that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is starting to reach out to Senate colleagues about passing a new economic recovery package this spring. This is the opportunity we have been pushing for since the Build Back Better Act, with its extension of the 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) provisions and new money for housing, stalled in the Senate (due to Sen. Manchin’s and Senate Republicans’ opposition to it). Make no mistake. It won’t be easy, but it can happen if we continue to pressure senators that the CTC is the right tool for families facing higher costs. Here are the facts:

Extending the CTC would offset rising costs for food, rent, and fuel. A recent analysis by Moody’s shows that inflation is costing American families an average of about $300 in new costs. CTC payments made in 2021 averaged about $444 per month per household, significant enough to ease the current strain on family budgets.

Families spent their CTC payments on basic needs. Data shows that families receiving the CTC payments in 2021 spent the majority of those funds on food, utilities, housing, clothing, and education. This is due in part because the payments were targeted to help those most in need of assistance.

The CTC does not cause inflation. There is no evidence that the increased CTC in 2021 contributed to rising costs. As noted by CBPP, the expanded CTC “would generate little or no inflationary pressure at a time when much larger fiscal stimulus is ending as the Rescue Plan, CARES Act, and other COVID-19 relief spending and tax cuts expire.”

The CTC payments lifted millions of children out of poverty. For the six months the CTC payments went out last year, 3-4 million children were kept from poverty each month. Tragically but not surprisingly, when the payments stopped, 3.7 million children fell back below the poverty line.

The expanded CTC is the right tool for this moment. Extending the provisions and resuming the monthly payments (which can be done within weeks of congressional action) will help families struggling to afford basic necessities, keep the economy on the path of recovery, and lift millions of children out of poverty. Let’s do our part to make it happen.

TAKE ACTION: As Congress begins work on a possible economic recovery package, continue to get media published calling on them to include an extension of the 2021 Child Tax Credit with full refundability and monthly payments. Remind your members of Congress by name that the CTC is the best tool to help families with higher costs. The March 2022 U.S. Poverty Action Sheet has background and resources to help you, including a draft letter to the editor on the CTC (there is also one on expanding rental assistance). You can also use our updated tax (and housing) media alerts to submit letters online. If you need help with drafting or submitting your letters, please contact RESULTS staff.

Join National Webinar this Saturday with Phil Tegeler and Peter Sands

Please be sure to join us on Saturday, April 2 at 1:00 pm ET for the RESULTS National Webinar. We are excited to welcome two outstanding guest speakers. First, Phil Tegeler, president and executive director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) will join us. April is National Fair Housing Month, so we will cover fair housing principles as we continue to lobby members of Congress on addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crises. Then, Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, will join us to contextualize the Global Fund’s work in this time of pandemic, framing the opportunity we have when the replenishment happens later this year. We’ll close out with new tools for engaging new people and some exciting announcements. Here is the agenda for the webinar:

• 1:00-1:30pm: U.S. Poverty section with Phil Tegeler
• 1:30-2:00pm: Global Poverty section with Peter Sands
• 2:00-2:30pm: Grassroots actions and inspirations

TAKE ACTION: Please register for this Saturday’s National Webinar. Once registered, you will receive login information later this week via e-mail (please check your junk or spam folders if you have not received anything by Friday afternoon). You can also access the webinar slides (and later the recording) on our National Webinars page.

Quick News on U.S. and Global Poverty

Media hooks of the week. To help you in your media advocacy, here are suggested media “hooks” this week to use in letters to the editor:

• U.S. Poverty: President Biden released his FY2023 budget proposal this week. In it, he called for continuing the enhanced Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit to help families lower costs. Use news of the release of the budget to call on Congress to extend the 2021 CTC and EITC provisions.
• Global Poverty: World TB Day was March 24, a great reminder that the U.S. must show strong leadership ahead of the replenishment for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria happening in the U.S. later this year. But the story hasn’t gone cold yet. You can use our March 2022 Global Poverty Action Sheet to empower your fellow advocates to write to your local paper while World TB Day is still on our minds. You can also find powerful hooks in a recent article co-authored by Dr. Madhukar Pai, our guest on the Global Poverty Policy Forum held on March 17 which focused on the intersection between the COVID-19 pandemic and the tuberculosis crisis.

President Biden releases FY23 budget proposal. Earlier this week, President Biden released his budget request to Congress. The request is not final but provides a blueprint that would form the initial framework for how much Congress will spend on different government programs and agencies, including some of our policy priorities. On housing, there is a proposal to increase additional rental assistance to at least 200,000 households. Their budget documents also include a “deficit-neutral reserve fund” to account for a future agreement on the economic package that Congress is currently negotiating, and reiterates the Administration’s support for the CTC and EITC along with housing investments.

Encouraging Global Fund news. Upon release of its budget this week, the White House gave an indication of support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through its signal that it wants $2 billion in funding for FY23 as part of a three-year replenishment pledge later this year of a full $6 billion. Read more on our blog.

Announcements

Join Grassroots Anti-Oppression Working Group call tonight. Join us for the next open forum of the RESULTS Grassroots Anti-Oppression (AO) Working Group tonight, March 29 at 8:30 pm ET. In this open forum, volunteers and staff work together to advance RESULTS’ anti-oppression values, create, and share opportunities for on-going learning. Have questions or want to get involved? Register here.

Demystify the appropriations process! The appropriations process is how Congress funds the government on an annual basis. Knowing how to influence this process is essential to ensuring that programs addressing poverty are well-funded. Join us on Wednesday, March 30 at 8:30 pm ET to learn how you can influence the appropriations process to fund the programs RESULTS cares about. Register here to join the webinar.

RESULTS Grassroots Board Member nominations are open. Ever thought of serving on the RESULTS Board? We have one Grassroots Board Member opening this year and now is the time to submit your name or the name of someone you know to fill it. Find out more about nominations and what’s involved in serving on the Board on our website starting next week. Please send nominee’s full name, along with email address and phone number, to Jesse Marsden Marsden at [email protected]. If you have questions, please contact Lindsay K. Saunders at [email protected]. Nominations close May 2. The Board election will take place later this spring.

Register for April 9 Diversity and Inclusion 101 training. As part of our work to dismantle systems of oppression, we have a goal of having all RESULTS volunteers attend our “Diversity and Inclusion 101” training in 2022. The next open session is Saturday, April 9 at 10:30 am ET, with additional offerings over the next few months. Seating is limited for each session so register for an upcoming session today. If you’re unable to attend a session you registered for, please cancel your registration to allow others to participate (see instructions in your confirmation e-mail). Note: We apologize for those who registered for the March 24 session, which was canceled due to illness. If you registered for that session, please register for one of the other upcoming sessions.

Remember to report your action-taking! As we finish the month of March, catch up on the first quarter of the year. Have you recorded all of your action-taking for the first three months of 2022? Click through to our reporting forms –  quick and easy!

Upcoming Events

Congressional schedule. The House and Senate are in session this week.

Unless otherwise noted, registration ends one hour prior to the start of all webinars and trainings.

Tuesday, March 29: Grassroots Anti-Oppression Working Group, 8:30 pm ET. Open forum. Register here.

Wednesday, March 30: The Appropriations Process: Show Me the Money!, 8:30 pm ET. Join us to learn how you can influence the appropriations process to fund the programs RESULTS cares about. Register here.

Saturday, April 2: National Webinar with Phil Tegeler and Peter Sands, 1:00 pm ET. Register here.

Saturday, April 9: Diversity and Inclusion 10 – Implicit Bias, Microaggressions and Understanding of Systemic Racism and Oppression, 10:30 am ET. Register here.

Thursday, April 14: Global Allies Program (for RPCVs): Ending Poverty with RESULTS, 8:30 pm ET. Register here.

Tuesday, April 19: U.S. Poverty Free Agents, 1:00 pm and 9:00 pm ET. If you are interested in joining, contact Jos Linn for more information.

Tuesday, April 19: Together Women Rise partnership webinar, 8:30 pm ET. Register here.

Thursday, April 21: U.S. Poverty Monthly Policy Forum, 8:00 pm ET. Register here.

Thursday, April 21: Global Poverty Monthly Policy Forum, 9:00 pm ET. Register here.

Monday, April 25: Global Poverty Free Agents, 7:00 pm ET. If you are interested in joining, contact Lisa Marchal for more information.

Thursday, May 12: Quarterly Call-in with Grassroots Board Members, 9:00 pm ET. Join via Zoom or by phone at (301) 715-8592, Meeting ID 922 0921 5298, passcode 985046.

Saturday, June 4-Sunday, June 5. RESULTS International Conference. Keynote speaker: Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker. More information soon on this virtual event.

Grassroots Resources

Learn about the RESULTS Experts on Poverty.

Find actions and volunteer resources on our Volunteers Hub, including our anti-oppression resources. To join the RESULTS listserv for more RESULTS conversation, send an email to [email protected].

Remember to please report your recent advocacy successes in lobby meetings, media, and outreach activities. Also, use our Volunteer Information Form to add or edit volunteer info and to sign up for updates and alerts.

If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for the RESULTS/REF Board, please e-mail Lindsay Saunders at [email protected]. View Board minutes and Annual Reports.

RESULTS Staff directory and job postings.