RESULTS Campaigns Weekly Update April 27, 2021
Quote of the Week
“COVID-19 doesn’t recognize national boundaries. This pandemic is truly a case where we can and must help ourselves by helping others.”.”
– RESULTS Houston volunteer Claudia Morgan in a April 14 letter to the editor in the Houston Chronicle
Table of Contents
- Global Poverty Campaigns Update
- U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update
- RESULTS Announcements
- Upcoming Events
- Grassroots Resources
Global Poverty Campaigns Update
IMPORTANT ACTION Take a survey to help strengthen anti-oppression and equity work at RESULTS.
Got Twenty Minutes? Submit our Senate sign-on letters and appropriations requests
On to the Senate! You have done remarkable work on the House appropriations requests and sign-on letters, and we’ll be celebrating that – as well as your marvelous comprehensive work on our First 100 Days Campaign – on our May 1 National Webinar this Saturday at 1 pm ET. (Don’t forget to register!)
Now we have two Senate appropriations sign-on letters that are open for signatures. One letter is on maternal/child health and nutrition and the second is on the Global Partnership for Education/basic education. As you may remember, these letters are vital tools for reinforcing the appropriations requests that you all have been making, so we want the signature lists to be robust. Find all the letters on our regularly updated fiscal year 2022 (FY22) appropriations sign-on letter blog post.
And don’t let up on appropriations requests in the Senate. The Senate State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of Appropriations (SFOPS) leadership doesn’t have a deadline yet to hear from other senators about their development assistance spending priorities for FY22, so we want to stay ahead of the game. Submitting appropriations requests doesn’t have to be tricky. Here are some tips:
- Go to your senator’s website and search for “appropriations.” Many offices have forms and deadlines on their websites. If you find forms, send them to Dorothy Monza ([email protected]) and Crickett Nicovich ([email protected]) along with the deadline for having them filled out. They will fill them out and return them to you to send to the foreign policy aide along with our appropriations request sheets.
- If you don’t find forms on the website, call the foreign policy aide for your senator and ask what the deadline is for submitting SFOPS appropriations requests to their office. Also, ask if they have forms to fill out or if you can just submit our request sheets. If you don’t know who the foreign policy aide is, call the office and ask, or contact the Grassroots Impact staff.
- Follow your call with an e-mail to the foreign policy aide, including any unanswered questions about deadlines and forms, along with our appropriations requests. Explain why these funding levels are important (drawing on the request sheets or laser talks for your explanation).
- Alternate calling and e-mailing until you get a clear response on the procedure for submitting the appropriations requests and find out whether your senator will include our requests in their submission. Remember, if they have forms to fill out, we can help. Send them to Dorothy Monza ([email protected]) and Crickett Nicovich ([email protected]) along with the deadline for having them filled out.
- Please let Lisa Marchal ([email protected]) or Ken Patterson ([email protected]) know if you have questions.
Got Another Fifteen Minutes? Get meetings with your members of Congress
It’s the final days of the First 100 Days Campaign! And what a journey it’s been! You all have done incredible work. Our goal has been to meet with 100 percent of the Senate and 75 percent of the House during the campaign (which ends April 30). So far, we’ve reached 80 percent of the Senate and 35 percent of the House. There’s roughly 3 days left of the campaign. Book meetings with your representatives and senators now so that we can reinforce our appropriations requests and sign-on letters. We’ve got appropriations request memos and companion laser talks on global nutrition, tuberculosis, and education to assist you. You can also find the FY22 appropriations sign-on letters (and track our progress on them) on our blog.
To help you get your meetings scheduled and to help you make your requests, use our draft meeting request letter, meeting request laser talk, and campaign request sheets available on our Lobbying support page.
TAKE ACTION: Book meetings with your legislators as soon as possible. You can ask your Action Network to reach out with Senate appropriations requests as well. And remember to report your meetings after they happen!
We need to support the Global Partnership for Education. “The education crisis brought on by COVID-19 threatens the historic progress made by communities globally to get millions more children in school. And the pandemic only worsens ongoing disparities in global education; decades of colonialism, resource extraction, and unjust global lending policies have created enormous barriers to education in dozens of lower-income countries.” Read more on our blog and get briefed on the critical need for support of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). You can also watch our policy forum on GPE from earlier this year.
U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update
QUICK ACTION Submit a letter to the editor on housing and child poverty
Got Twenty Minutes? Finish the First 100 Days strong and celebrate on Saturday webinar
This is an important week. As President Biden closes in on his first 100 days in office, so does our First 100 Days Campaign. You – our volunteers – have done an exceptional job. This year to date, you have had 270 lobby meetings with 35 percent of House offices and 80 percent of Senate offices. This is how you set the agenda with a new Congress. With more meetings set this week and in early May, we are in striking distance of hitting our goal of securing meetings with all 100 Senate offices. We need every one of them.
President Biden will address a joint session of Congress tomorrow, April 28 at 9:00 pm ET. In it, he is expected to unveil his American Families Plan, the second part of his overall economic recovery plan (the first is the American Jobs Plan released in March). The plan is expected to include extensions of the recent changes to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) through 2025, but not additional resources for rental assistance beyond the new 200,000 Housing Choice Vouchers the President included in his FY2022 budget request. We need him and Congress to do more. We want the EITC and CTC provisions made permanent and we want rental assistance available to all eligible renters. This is why your lobby meetings are so important. Pushing lawmakers on our requests can push Congress to enact legislation that meets the need.
TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes or more to continue your First 100 Days meetings with senators and representatives to talk about housing and tax credits). Our April U.S. Poverty Action, laser talks, and housing and tax lobby leave behinds provide everything you need to have a good meeting. When you get a meeting set, please contact RESULTS staff to help get you ready for meetings and then, after the meeting, please let us know what happened in our Lobby Report Form.
Also, please register for the RESULTS National Webinar this Saturday, May 1 at 1:00 pm ET. Our guest speaker will be Zach Tilly, Policy Associate at the Children’s Defense Fund. He will join us at the start of the webinar and talk about how expanding rental assistance can lift children out of poverty and benefit children generally. The webinar will also include updates and celebrations from the First 100 Days Campaign, getting ready for the RESULTS International Conference in June (including a special surprise that will be announced on Saturday), and our global poverty campaigns section. We look forward to you joining us. If you have not done so, please register for the webinar today (link information will sent Friday).
Got Fifteen Minutes? Use President’s speech for media this week
Tomorrow night, President Biden makes his first speech to a joint session of Congress since taking office in January. In it, he plans to outline his American Families Plan, the second part of his economic recovery effort. The speech will be broadcast on all the major networks and will garner a lot of media attention. Use the speech as a hook for a letter to the editor urging Congress and the President to take bold action on housing and child poverty this year.
TAKE ACTION: Using the President’s speech as a media hook, take fifteen minutes to submit a letter to the editor urging lawmakers to prioritize rental assistance and tax credits for workers and families in economic recovery legislation this year. Use our online media action (which will be updated Thursday, after the speech). Also, look for our May Action soon, which will also focus on using media to influence housing and tax policies this year.
QUICK NEWS ON U.S. POVERTY
Get help claiming the EITC and CTC. For recipients of the EITC and CTC, there are new resources from the Children’s Defense Fund on how to sign up for the Child Tax Credit monthly child allowance beginning this July. Also, if you need help filing your taxes to receive your EITC and CTC, find a VITA site near you, or go to https://www.getyourrefund.org/en for help with self-filing your taxes. The IRS also has free filing services for those with lower incomes.
Tax credits help rural Americans. The Center in Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has a new paper on how the EITC and CTC provisions passed in March will help rural communities. Also, if you missed the Brookings EITC event with former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on making the new EITC provisions permanent, you can view the recording online.
Resources for people facing eviction. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has resources to help renters understand and enforce their rights, including how to file a complaint with the CFPB or to report landlords who may be in violation of the CDC eviction moratorium. Also, the National Low-Income Housing Coalition maintains a list of local rental assistance programs around the country that may help prevent evictions.
New analysis on COVID-19 and women. Since last fall, the National Women’s Law Center has been analyzing data from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey to understand the pandemic’s impact on women, in particular women of color. Find their analyses here.
School meal waivers extended through next school year. The USDA has extended critical child nutrition waivers and flexibilities that help schools and child care programs provide food for children through the entire 2021–2022 school year. These waivers allow schools to provide meals even if children are not physically in school due to COVID-19. Relatedly, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA-2), Chair of the powerful House Rules Committee, will hold a hearing on the hunger crisis in America tomorrow at Noon ET.
Sign your local RESULTS group onto SAVE for All principles. RESULTS is part of the SAVE for All campaign, which works to promote fairness and equality for all. Show your support by adding your local RESULTS group to the list of SAVE signers – which helps show broad support as RESULTS staff meet with Congressional offices as part of the SAVE campaign. Use this form to add your RESULTS group.
RESULTS Announcements
Please take the anti-oppression survey. RESULTS in continuing to conduct an anti-oppression and equity survey to collect feedback from RESULTS volunteers on existing anti-oppression efforts. Your input is critical to identifying areas of growth in our anti-oppression work and will contribute to the improvement of your volunteer experience. We currently have 208 responses but need at least 291 for an accurate sample. By completing the survey, you help shape the future of our work. If you have not taken the survey, please take it today.
Want to lobby? Register for the RESULTS International Conference by May 1! The 2021 RESULTS International Conference, a virtual event June 12-13, is fast approaching. While the Conference promises fabulous agenda with amazing speakers such as Clint Smith, it is all a precursor to hundreds of powerful lobbying for the end of poverty during Advocacy Week starting June 14. Our annual lobby efforts in conjunction with the Conference is a powerful experience in influencing policy and building relationships with your congressional offices. So, RESULTS can provide you the best preparation we can, if you plan to lobby during Advocacy Week, please register for the Conference by May 1. Soon after the deadline, we will contact you and other advocates from your state to set up “lobby prep calls” in May. Don’t miss our biggest event of the year – register today!
Last week for Grassroots Board Member Nominations. Ever thought of serving on the RESULTS Board? This is your last chance to submit your name or the name of someone you believe make a great Grassroots Board Member. Nominations are this Friday, April 30. Find out more about nominations and what’s involved in serving on the board on our website. Please email name(s) to Jesse Marsden at [email protected]. If you have questions, please contact Lindsay K. Saunders at [email protected].
Join “race and housing” book discussions in May. The RESULTS Grassroots Anti-Oppression Working Group is sponsoring a follow-up conversation from our March webinar on The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein. The focus of this webinar will be on the final four chapters. The Color of Law webinar is Wednesday, May 5 at 9:00 pm ET. Register today. Also, the RESULTS St. Louis (U.S. Poverty) group is hosting a discussion with Ben Austen, author of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and Fate of American Public Housing. The High-Risers event is free and will take place on Thursday, May 13 at 8:00 pm ET. Read more and register here.
Upcoming Events
Congressional schedule. The House and Senate are in DC this week. Submit your remote meeting requests today.
Saturday, May 1: RESULTS National Webinar, 1:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.
Wednesday, May 5: Second book discussion on The Color of Law, 9:00 pm ET. Focus will be on the final four chapters. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.
Thursday, May 13: Discussion of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and Fate of American Public Housing, 8:00 pm ET. Guest: author Ben Austen. This event is hosted by RESULTS St. Louis (U.S. Poverty). Register here.
Thursday, May 13: Quarterly Call-in with Grassroots Board Members, 9:00 pm ET. Join at https://tinyurl.com/QuarterlyGR. You can also dial in to (929) 436-2866, meeting ID 96338593060, passcode 1980.
Tuesday, May 18: RESULTS U.S. Poverty Free Agents Webinar, 1 pm or 8 pm ET. Contact Jos Linn at [email protected] for information on how to join.
Wednesday, May 19: Action Network Monthly Webinar, 8:30 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.
Thursday, May 20. U.S. Poverty Monthly Policy Forum, 8:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.
Thursday, May 20. Global Poverty Monthly Policy Forum, 9:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.
Monday, May 24: RESULTS Global Poverty Free Agent Webinar, 7 pm ET. Contact Lisa Marchal at [email protected] for information on how to join.
Saturday June 12 and Sunday, June 13: 2021 RESULTS International Conference. Registration is open. Please register by May 1 to participate in Advocacy Week following the conference.
Grassroots Resources
Learn about the RESULTS Experts on Poverty.
To update volunteer info (e.g., subscribe to the Weekly Update or action alerts, add new advocate information, update an existing advocate’s information or preferences), use our Volunteer Information Form.
Find actions and volunteer resources on our Current Volunteers page, including our anti-oppression resources.
Remember to please report your recent advocacy successes in lobby meetings, media, and outreach activities.
To join the RESULTS listserv for more RESULTS conversation, send an email to [email protected]
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.