RESULTS Campaigns Weekly Update February 23, 2021
Quote of the Week
“Millions of futures are at stake, and the cost of failure is too high.”
– RESULTS Dallas volunteer Hwa Young Lee in a February 14 letter to the editor in the Dallas Morning News
Table of Contents
- Global Poverty Campaigns Update
- U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update
- RESULTS Announcements
- Upcoming Events
- Grassroots Resources
Join us Saturday, March 6 at 1:00 pm ET for our RESULTS National Webinar with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). He will discuss the status of COVID relief in Congress and what they expect to work on next. Register to attend today.
Global Poverty Campaigns Update
QUICK ACTION Write Congress on prioritizing global health and nutrition in the latest COVID-19 relief bill.
Got Fifteen Minutes? Schedule First 100 Days Campaign lobby meetings
We are in the final push of Congress drafting the next COVID-19 relief effort. Your voice – and your congressional meetings – remain vitally important. Congress must respond to the global pandemic and mitigate the secondary impacts and economic shocks that deepen extreme poverty. Decades of progress enabled by U.S. leadership are in jeopardy as COVID-19 presents an urgent threat to the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Moreover, before the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in four children was stunted due to lack of adequate nutrition. COVID-19 has made this worse, threatening to double hunger and malnutrition globally to 265 million people.
It looks like the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees will have about $10 billion to work with for global COVID-19 relief. Your members of Congress can help decide how that money is spent. This week, ask your legislators to speak with leadership about including $4 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and $2 billion for anti-hunger efforts (with $500 million within that going to alleviate malnutrition).
To help you get your meetings scheduled and to help you make your requests, use our draft meeting request letter, request laser talk, and request sheets available on our Lobbying support page under “I want to request a lobby meeting.” You can also get support for scheduling your meetings via our current Action Sheet.
TAKE ACTION: Utilize our lobbying support materials to make your virtual lobby meeting requests. We’ve got the goal of meeting with 100 percent of the Senate and 75 percent of the House. So far, we’ve reached 25 percent of the Senate and 10 percent of the House. Let’s keep going! Join your fellow advocates in getting our First 100 Days Campaign online meeting map filled.
Take note that we have appropriations memos available so that you can begin to make appropriations requests of your members of Congress. We have memos on our tuberculosis, Global Partnership for Education, and nutrition requests. Check with offices on what their internal deadlines are for receiving these requests, and then submit the requests right away. We’ll be pivoting to appropriations work in earnest once COVID-19 relief work is done. Learn more about the appropriations process at our Appropriations 101 training webinar on March 3.
Got Another Fifteen Minutes? Write a letter to the editor on an emergency COVID-19 response
One more push on COVID-19 relief media! Can you write a letter today?
Why are we writing? Half to two-thirds of AIDS, TB, and malaria programs report service disruptions. And in projections of the impact of COVID-19 on disruptions to health and nutrition services from early 2020, severe malnutrition is the single biggest driver of increased child deaths. An urgent humanitarian response is required now.
Use our online media action alert to write to your local media outlets today. We need $4 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to strengthen health systems and the fight against infectious diseases and no less than $2 billion for anti-hunger efforts (with $500 million within that going to alleviate malnutrition).
TAKE ACTION: Write one more letter using our online action alert. In your letter, ask your legislators to speak to leadership about COVID-19 relief that includes $4 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and no less than $2 billion for anti-hunger efforts, including $500 million to address malnutrition.
Did you miss our issue brief on global education? Review the recording of our recent issue brief on our global education campaign and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). Consider reading the GPE Case for Investment as well.
Our COVID-19 relief work: a blog update. Check out our blog for the latest information on budget reconciliation, COVID-19 relief, our advocacy, and how they all fit together.
U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update
QUICK ACTION Tell Congress to pass more COVID relief
Got Fifteen Minutes? Push for a strong COVID bill as it moves forward this week
Congress is moving closer to passing a new COVID-19 relief bill. Yesterday, the House Budget Committee advanced it forward. Now, the bill moves to the House floor for a vote, which could come as soon as Thursday. Assuming the bill passes, attention will quickly shift to the Senate, which is expected to take the House bill straight to the Senate floor for debate and a vote.
The House bill includes $30 billion in rent and utility assistance, which will help prevent millions of evictions in the coming months. It also includes expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC), which would benefit 17 million low-income workers and 27 million children. In fact, the CTC expansion, which includes a higher credit, broader eligibility, and a monthly allowance option, could cut child poverty by half. And this is just the current bill. Congress’ next priority – a recovery package – could include housing and tax policies that reduce child poverty by two-thirds.
But it’s no time to rest. The current COVID bill can be weakened during the House and Senate floor debates. Letting that happen could hamper efforts to get bold policies passed in the recovery bill, not to mention hurting millions of Americans desperately needing help now. We must not let that happen.
TAKE ACTION: Take fifteen minutes to keep pushing for virtual lobby meetings with your Senate and House offices. Your message is simple: pass a strong COVID relief bill that includes rent and utility assistance, expands the EITC, and makes low-income children eligible for a larger monthly Child Tax Credit as a monthly allowance.
RESULTS volunteers have done 79 meetings so far, which is an excellent start, but we want to completely fill this map. Use the current Action Sheet and new sample meeting request to contact schedulers now (you can find scheduler names on our Legislator Lookup page). We have updated our lobby materials for you, including our housing/tax lobby “leave behinds” and laser talks. Once you get a meeting scheduled, please contact RESULTS staff to help you prepare.
Got Fifteen Minutes? Media keeps the conversation going
If there is one thing that RESULTS volunteers know how to do in addition to lobbying members of Congress, it is generating media. Last year, RESULTS volunteers generated over 725 pieces. Media is such an important part of your advocacy toolkit. It brings attention to the issues at hand and pushes them forward. It starts a conversation that can result in significant changes in policy. Last December, Congress passed a COVID relief bill with assistance for renters and hungry families. And we are on the verge of getting another one with even more help. If you think your letters to the editor last year about rental assistance and SNAP did not play a role, think again. Politicians pay attention to your local media, and sometimes respond directly to what you say.
Your media skills are needed again now. Congress is working on a new COVID deal that could have a tremendous impact on poverty. Your media can help push it over the finish line. It can also set the stage for future success, such as enacting housing and tax policies that reduce child poverty by two-thirds.
TAKE ACTION: Take fifteen minutes to keep the conversation going by submitting your own letter to the editor on COVID-19 and poverty. Use our media alert to personalize and send your own letter today. Remember to mention your members of Congress by name when urging them to act. Once published, please report your media and leverage it to maximize its impact.
QUICK NEWS ON U.S. POVERTY
New guidance on housing assistance. If you or someone you know is needing help with paying rent, the Treasury Department has issued new guidance on requesting emergency rental assistance (renters can “self-attest” eligibility, internet costs are allowable expenses, etc). Also, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has up-to-date information for homeowners and renters on relief options, protections, and key deadlines.
Sign onto eviction letter. The federal eviction moratorium has kept millions of people who otherwise would have been evicted stably housed but it has significant shortcomings that undermine its public health impacts. Sign your local RESULTS group onto a letter signed by over 2,000 organizations and elected officials, urging the Biden administration to extend, improve, and enforce the current CDC eviction moratorium until the end of the pandemic (it is currently set to expire on March 31). Read more from NLIHC here.
Read new post on COVID and the racial wealth divide. The Urban Institute has a new blog post “How Policymakers Can Ensure the COVID-19 Pandemic Doesn’t Widen the Racial Wealth Gap”. Read the post here.
RESULTS Announcements
Join discussion on The Color of Law. The RESULTS Anti-Oppression Working Group is hosting a new book discussion on The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein. Please join us to talk about this informative and profound work and that can help better inform your housing advocacy. The discussion is next Tuesday, March 2 at 9:00 pm ET. Register today.
Join appropriations training webinar next week. Learn more about the basics of the appropriations process, particularly as it relates to our global poverty campaigns. The webinar is Wednesday, March 3 at 8:30 pm ET. Register today.
“If not now, when?” That was the question posed by Loyce Pace, president of the Global Health Council and an opening guest for our First 100 Days Kickoff. It is a challenge to act that we gladly take on. Read our new blog post for more on why these 100 days are so critical, what’s at stake, and what’s possible.
Reflections on Black History Month. For the month of February, we will share a series of reflections from some of our staff and volunteers in the Black community. We are excited for their participation and to hear why advocacy is important to them.
Join RESULTS Madison hunger event on March 8. RESULTS Madison is hosting a virtual forum to discuss why food insecurity exists, its effects, and how we can help combat it. Speaking at the forum will be R. N. Fox, RESULTS Expert on Poverty; Francesa Hong, Wisconsin State Representative and restaurant owner; Helen Osborn-Senatus, The River Food Pantry Project Manager; LaShima Grosskopf, FoodShare Outreach Specialist at Second Harvest; and De’Kendra Stamps, FoodShare Outreach Program Director. The event is Monday, March 8 at 8:00 pm ET. Register today!
Learn how to support new advocates. Want tips on making sure your advocates feel welcome, enrolling them in shared leadership, and mentoring them in their advocacy? Come on along to our Supporting New Advocates to Grow webinar! We’ll be talking about best practices and great tips to help newer advocates thrive. The webinar is Thursday, March 11 at 8:30 pm ET. Register today.
RESULTS 2021 International Conference registration is live! The 2021 RESULTS International Conference will be held June 12-13, 2021, and like last year, it will be held virtually, followed by a virtual Advocacy Week. Register today! (register by May 1 to participate in Advocacy Week.)
RESULTS is hiring. RESULTS is seeking highly motivated individuals to fill various positions on our team. If you are interested, please check out the job postings online.
Please complete your group roadmaps. If you have not completed your 2021 Group Roadmaps, please do so as soon as possible. If you need assistance, contact Jos Linn.
Upcoming Events
Congressional schedule. Both chambers are in session this week. Submit your remote meeting requests today.
Tuesday, March 2: Book Discussion – The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, 9:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
Wednesday, March 3: Appropriations 101, 8:30 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
Saturday, March 6: National Grassroots Webinar, 1:00 pm ET. Register today Guest speaker: Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Registrations will be checked up to an hour prior to the webinar.
Monday, March 8: First 100 Days Office Hour, 4:00 pm ET. Bring your policy questions for your First 100 Days Campaign lobby visits. Join at tinyurl.com/2y6pqtcf, passcode 2030.
Thursday, March 11: Supporting New Advocates to Grow Webinar, 8:30 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
Thursday, March 18: Monthly Policy Forum: Housing and Taxes – Where to Next?, 8:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
Thursday, March 18: Monthly Policy Forum: Global Tuberculosis, 9:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
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.
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.