RESULTS Campaigns Weekly Update July 13, 2021

Quote of the Week

“American families are finally catching a break.”

–  RESULTS Bremerton, WA volunteer Diana Tyree-Eddy in a June 23 letter to the editor in the Kitsap Sun

Table of Contents

• Global Poverty Campaigns Update
• U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update
• RESULTS Announcements
• Upcoming Events
• Grassroots Resources

Global Poverty Campaigns Update

QUICK ACTION Tell President Biden to lead on global vaccination

Got Fifteen Minutes? Write or call President Biden about global vaccine access

The development of safe, effective vaccines against a deadly pandemic disease less than a year after it emerged is an extraordinary achievement, made possible by public investment in science and technology. It is unconscionable for rich countries to hoard the resources and know-how that could end the misery of Covid-19.

Effective vaccines can end this pandemic, but they’re not being produced fast enough to reach everyone who needs them. Nine out of ten people in low-income countries will not receive a single Covid-19 vaccination dose this year. Across the continent of Africa, just 1% of the population is fully vaccinated.

President Biden has the opportunity, authority, and obligation to lead a global effort to ensure communities everywhere have access to vaccines. Please call on President Biden to take action.

TAKE ACTION: Utilize our action alert to write or call President Biden today. President Biden must lead a global effort to bring together industry, governments, and global health institutions to urgently increase the supply of vaccines — and, if necessary, use his authority to compel companies to share lifesaving, taxpayer-funded innovation with the rest of world. Please write or call today.

Got Another Fifteen Minutes? Learn the latest regarding global vaccine access

Did you miss our national webinar on July 10 which highlighted global vaccine access? Enjoy the webinar playback and companion slide deck and learn more about this incredibly urgent topic in the global poverty campaigns section of the webinar. We simply have no time to waste. Following a devastating surge in South Asia this spring, many African countries are headed back into lockdown as the highly infectious Delta variant affects communities that have been denied access to vaccines. As Covid-19 spreads unchecked, dangerous new variants will inevitably emerge and threaten those who are already vaccinated. We must act.

TAKE ACTION: Watch the webinar playback and view the companion slide deck from the July national webinar. In the global poverty campaigns section of the webinar, learn more about global vaccine access so you can take action. We need President Biden’s leadership urgently to boost global manufacturing of vaccines, including using his authority to compel companies to share taxpayer-funded vaccine innovation with the world in order to ramp up manufacturing so that everyone will have access quickly.

QUICK NEWS ON GLOBAL POVERTY

Limited vaccine access in Africa will hold back progress. COVID-19 vaccines are not getting to many parts of the world that desperately need them. Check out this BBC piece on vaccine access in Africa. We must and can do better.

COVID-19’s impact on AIDS, TB, and malaria. Madeline Eliminowski of Friends of the Global Fight offers a guest post on how the pandemic has had an effect on our work to stem the tides of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

House and Senate Resolutions on global education. Has your representative cosponsored H.Res. 225, and have your senators cosponsored S.Res. 240 in support of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE)? This is a great request for a member of Congress who signed onto a global education appropriations letter or the GPE letters to the Administration. Check out the resolution cosponsor lists for H.Res.225 and S.Res.240 and contact your members of Congress if they are not yet on the resolutions. Thank them if they have already cosponsored.

U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update

QUICK ACTION Urge Congress to support housing and child well-being

Got Ten Minutes? Use media to highlight new CTC payments starting this week

This is an exciting week for families with children around the country. On Thursday, the IRS will start sending most American families their new Child Tax Credit (CTC) monthly payments. Most will amount to $250-$300 per month for each child under 17 to help with everyday expenses far too many families struggle to cover. These new monthly payments are part of the new expansion of the CTC passed in March. An estimated 39 million households will get the payments automatically, but parents of an additional 3.5 million children, who have not filed federal income taxes in the last two years, will need to sign up.

This is a great achievement and part of an historic expansion of the CTC that could cut child poverty nearly in half over the next year. We must make sure it lasts. The current CTC – along with long-overdue improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – will expire after one year. After years of passing tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy and large corporations (and then using the resulting loss of revenue to justify cuts to social services), it is long past time for Congress to give low-income workers and families a break. We must make these provisions permanent in recovery legislation this year.

TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to submit a letter to the editor highlighting the new CTC monthly payments and urge your members of Congress to make the new CTC and EITC provisions permanent. Use the July 2021 U.S. Poverty Action as a guide to sending letters on the tax credits (and housing, see more below). When published, please forward the letter to the tax aide for your members of Congress urging them to make the EITC and CTC provisions permanent this year. Also, please let RESULTS know; if you need help with your letters, please contact Jos Linn for assistance.

If you are interested in writing an op-ed on the tax credits, housing, or other issue, join our Op-ed Writing Workshop next Tuesday, July 20 at 9:00 pm ET. Learn more and register here.

Got Twenty Minutes? Keep pushing housing with lawmakers and in the media

On last weekend’s RESULTS National Webinar, guest speaker Ann Oliva of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities discussed how the Housing Choice Voucher program is effective in reducing poverty, homelessness, and domestic violence, while also advancing racial equity and child well-being. However, 16 million households do not receive housing assistance due to funding levels that have been declining over time.

This highlights the urgent need to secure more resources for HCVs in recovery legislation this year. Last week, House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA-43) released a statement that she had gotten assurance from President Biden that housing would be included in the reconciliation “recovery” legislation now being negotiated in Congress. This commitment is good news but also vague. It will take advocates like you to make sure Congress follows through and provides the resources to expand rental assistance to those who need it. Understanding the power advocates bring to this process, Rep. Waters then joined NLIHC’s national HoUSed webinar yesterday and issued a powerful call to action for activists to seize this historic opportunity to address our affordable housing crisis. Let’s answer her call.

TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes to pressure Congress into including guaranteed, multi-year funding for Housing Choice Vouchers in recovery legislation this year by:

1. Urging representatives and senators to sign onto the “Dear Colleague” housing letter (you can see who has officially signed on online). The deadline for senators to sign on has been extended to this Friday, July 16 (the House deadline is today). Contact the housing aide in your congressional offices urging them to sign on. If you get confirmation that your member of Congress is signing on, please contact Michael Santos at [email protected] with the relevant congressional staffer’s contact information.
2. Join the July 15 National Housing Call-in Day to tell Congress that housing is vital infrastructure and to urge them to include robust housing investments in any infrastructure or recovery package. When calling, urge your member of Congress to support guaranteed multi-year funding for Housing Choice Vouchers in the recovery reconciliation package.
3. Submit a letter to the editor urging Congress to expand rental assistance via Housing Choice Vouchers in recovery legislation this year. The July 2021 U.S. Poverty Action has a template letter you can personalize and submit to your local paper (you can also submit an LTE through the RESULTS website). When you get published, please send a copy to the housing aides for your members of Congress.
4. Listen to the recording and review the slides from the July National Webinar to better understand HCVs and why it is important Congress fully fund the program.

QUICK NEWS ON U.S. POVERTY

Sign your local RESULTS group on to campaign letters. RESULTS as a national organization has signed on to the following letters: SAVE for All Campaign, NLIHC’s HoUSed campaign, and Americans for Tax Fairness. To show support for anti-poverty policies from stakeholders at the state level, please also sign your local RESULTS group on them as well. A strong showing from state groups is influential when RESULTS policy staff meet with congressional offices.

Announcements

Final days to vote in RESULTS Board election. The deadline to vote for your next RESULTS Grassroots Board Election is this Saturday, July 17. Visit the RESULTS Blog for candidate bios, statement of intent, videos, and how to vote.

Join op-ed writing workshop on July 20. Join us for a workshop to help you start writing your first or next op-ed. The training is Tuesday, July 20 at 9:00 pm ET; register here. For this training, bring an op-ed idea or a draft first sentence of your op-ed to get started. We also recommend you listen to previous op-ed training at: https://results.org/resources/results-op-ed-101-training/.

Register for July Monthly Policy Forums. Our next U.S. and Global Poverty Monthly Policy Forums will be held on Thursday, July 22. Be sure to join us to learn the latest on our U.S. and global poverty campaigns. Register for the U.S. Forum at 8:00 pm ET and/or the Global Forum at 9:00 pm ET.

Ever thought about being a Regional Coordinator? Regional Coordinators are vital volunteer leaders in our network, helping to coach and support RESULTS groups around the country to be the best they can be. Ever wondered what Regional Coordinators do specifically and whether or not you’d be a good fit in the role? Come on along to a Regional Coordinator information session. This short, 30-minute session will offer a brief overview and time for questions. Register for the August 2 (8:00 pm ET) session or the August 5 (1:00 pm ET) session today! Can’t attend or want more information about the application process? Contact Lisa Marchal.

Volunteer celebration. At RESULTS, we love to highlight significant milestones our volunteers achieve. Last week, Phyllis AlRoy, a long-time volunteer from New Jersey, made calls and sent e-mails to her members of Congress about the Global Partnership for Education while at the same time turning 94 years old. Thank you, Phyllis, and happy birthday!

Upcoming Events

Congressional schedule. The Senate is in session and the House is doing committee work this week. Submit your remote meeting requests today.

Saturday, July 17: Last day to vote in RESULTS Grassroots Board Election. Read about the candidates and how to vote on the RESULTS Blog.

Tuesday, July 20: Op-ed Writing Workshop, 9:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.

Wednesday, July 21: Action Network Monthly Webinar, 8:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.

Thursday, July 22: U.S. Poverty Monthly Policy Forum, 8:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.

Thursday, July 22: Global Poverty Monthly Policy Forum, 9:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.

Monday, August 2: Regional Coordinator Information Session, 8:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.

Thursday, August 5: Regional Coordinator Information Session, 1:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends one hour prior to the webinar.

Note: There is no National Webinar and there are no monthly policy forums in August.

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.