RESULTS Campaigns Weekly Update July 27, 2021

Quote of the Week

“Let’s give every child on the planet the opportunity to learn to read.”

–  RESULTS NYC volunteer Joanne DiDato in a July 21 op-ed in the Staten Island Advance

Table of Contents

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

Global Poverty Campaigns Update

QUICK ACTION Write Your Local Media About Global Vaccine Access

Got Fifteen Minutes? Write a letter to the editor about global vaccine access

The development of safe, effective vaccines against a deadly pandemic disease less than a year after it emerged was made possible by using public investment in science and technology. We know that effective vaccines can end this pandemic, but they are not being produced rapidly enough or being distributed to everyone who needs them. In the U.S. we’ve vaccinated over 50% of the population, yet many low-income countries have a vaccination rate of about 1% because they don’t have access to the vaccine. When a representative group of likely voters was asked if the U.S. should help other countries struggling with COVID-19, if the U.S. should distribute vaccines globally, and if the U.S. should lead on ending the COVID-19 pandemic, the overwhelming majority of Americans, across parties, support all these measures. Will you write your local paper about the critical issue of global vaccine access and call on U.S. leadership to act?

TAKE ACTION: Use our action alert to contact your local paper about global vaccine access. If our country is to live up to our obligation as a world leader in times of crisis, we must build on the promises and progress we’ve made and ramp up our global COVID-19 response even more powerfully.

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

For most Americans, receiving the COVID-19 vaccination is a simple process. You walk into your local grocery store or health center and leave with your first vaccination in less than 30 minutes. Within weeks, the opportunity to reconnect with friends and family becomes reality.

Meanwhile, many low-income countries are imposing new lockdowns to stop a third wave of COVID-19 infections because they’ve been denied access to COVID-19 vaccines. And now they are dealing with the highly infectious Delta variant. Across Africa, just 1% of the population has been vaccinated, yet no world leader has proposed a solution. Everyone deserves to have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, no matter where they live.

President Biden must lead a global effort to bring together industry, governments, and global health institutions to urgently increase the supply and distribution of vaccines. If the U.S. doesn’t do it, who will?

TAKE ACTION: Utilize our action alert to write or call President Biden. (You can even use the alert to tweet!) The president 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 life-saving, taxpayer-funded innovation with the rest of world. Please write or call today.

QUICK NEWS ON GLOBAL POVERTY

Get global vaccine advocacy resources. 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. Additionally, check out our recent blog post which highlights the global vaccine access conversation we had with Rob Weissman, president of Public Citizen, during the July webinar. Read the recent press release on the global vaccines access letter we helped work on, as led by Reps. Krishamoorthi (D-IL-8), Malinowski (D-NJ-7), and Jayapal (D-WA-7) as well as Sens. Merkley (D-OR) and Warren (D-MA), to speed COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution. Finally, join Liz Jaff of Be a Hero as she interprets key data from Data for Progress that will help empower and enhance our advocacy messaging around global vaccine access, specifically with regard to COVID-19 vaccines. Listen to the recording and take a look at the data to glean information on powerful messaging approaches.

House and Senate Resolutions on global education. The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) replenishment will take place this week. Has your representative cosponsored H.Res. 225, and have your senators cosponsored S.Res. 240 in support of the Global Partnership for Education? 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. And take a look at the press releases by Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA-6) and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) on the letters we helped work on urging a bold U.S. commitment at the Global Partnership for Education replenishment.

House appropriations update. Our work on FY22 appropriations began back in February and was launched as part of the First 100 Days Campaign. During this campaign, we had over 300 meetings with members of Congress to help set a bold agenda against poverty. Our work continued March through June with our “Dear Colleague” letter work to build support for increased funding for global health and education. Our months of tireless advocacy are paying off! On July 1, the House Committee on Appropriations passed the FY22 State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) bill. Read our blog post for an update on how that bill shook out as we keep an eye on the Senate.

U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update

QUICK ACTION Urge Congress to expand rental assistance and the EITC/CTC

Got Twenty Minutes? Use media to highlight housing instability

The Coalition on Human Needs has reported that 35.8 percent of adults living in households that are not current on rent or mortgage say that eviction or foreclosure in the next two months is somewhat or very likely. On Saturday, the CDC’s national eviction moratorium will expire. With evictions likely to increase sharply when it does, the need for Congress to address long-term housing affordability will become all the more urgent.

The National Low-Income Housing Coalition’s latest Out of Reach report further highlights this issue. The report shows that this year’s “national housing wage”– the hourly wage one must earn to afford a modest rental home in 2021 – is $24.90/hr for a two-bedroom home ($20.40/hr for a one-bedroom). The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. The most affordable housing wage states are Puerto Rico ($9.72/hr), Arkansas ($14.60/hr), and West Virginia ($14.83/hr), while the most expensive are California ($39.03/hr), Hawai’i ($37.69/hr), and Massachusetts ($36.24/hr) (see your state here).

This data reinforces the vital importance that Congress use recovery legislation this year to expand the Housing Choice Voucher program, America’s largest rental assistance program. Keep pressure on Congress to act by submitting letters to the editor to your local paper today.

TAKE ACTION: Congress is deciding priorities for a new economic recovery package right now. Take twenty minutes to submit a letter to the editor today telling them that guaranteed, multi-year for Housing Choice Vouchers must be included. Use the July 31 expiration of the eviction moratorium or housing wage data from your state as a hook. The July 2021 U.S. Poverty Action has template housing and EITC/CTC letters you can use (as does our website). For an excellent overview about the anti-poverty impact of expanding rental assistance and the CTC, listen to the recording of last week’s U.S. Poverty Policy Forum.

Got Twenty Minutes? Follow up with housing and tax aides about our priorities

Did you know that RESULTS volunteers have had 550 lobby meetings in 2021? That’s more meetings than we had in all of 2020. Amazing work by all of you that has paid off with historic investments in reducing child poverty and keeping people housed.

But the crisis is not over. Millions of workers and families with children are getting a break this year with the new changes to the CTC and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), but those changes will disappear in 2022. And emergency rental assistance will not solve America’s affordable housing problem. That is why it is imperative that Congress address these issues now by making the EITC and CTC provisions permanent and include guaranteed, multi-year funding for Housing Choice Vouchers in economic recovery legislation this year. Recovery negotiations are happening now – please reach out to your members of Congress to remind them to support these important policies.

TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes to follow up with housing and tax aides – or reach out to them if you have not spoken to them lately – reminding their bosses to support expanding Housing Choice Vouchers and making the new EITC and CTC provisions permanent. Here are new resources to use as a reason to contact them this week.

Housing

• Tell House members, particularly Democrats, that Rep. Maxine Waters has introduced the Ending Homelessness Act (expands HCVs to all eligible renters over the next five years) and the Housing is Infrastructure Act (makes significant investments in building new affordable housing). Urge them to show support for low-income renters by co-sponsoring both bills.
• Share new research from Columbia University showing how expanding HCVs reduces poverty in their state (learn more from our July Policy Forum).
• Share data from NLIHC’s Out of Reach report on the gap between wages and rent in your state and new data from CBPP on how long it takes a family to receive an voucher in your state (see more below).

EITC/CTC

• Share data from Columbia University showing that the benefits of the new CTC expansion are valued at eight times the annual cost (learn more from our July Policy Forum).
• Remind tax aides that the new CTC monthly payments started this month and the number of children who are expected to benefit in your state (scroll down to the appendices for state data).

If you need help with outreach to aides, please contact Jos Linn.

QUICK NEWS ON U.S. POVERTY

ICYMI: Housing letter with 106 signers goes to House leadership. Last week, 106 representatives sent the “Dear Colleague” Letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-23) urging them to include expanded housing choice vouchers with guaranteed, multi-year funding in the upcoming economic recovery package. Senate sponsors are still working to get more signers. Huge kudos to all of you who reached out and urged your members to sign on.

New data on wait times for Housing Choice Vouchers. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities published an article last week on how inadequate funding for the Housing Choice Voucher program leaves households lingering in housing instability while they wait months and even years for a voucher. In Alabama, for example, families must wait five years to receive an HCV. Find data from your state or city and share it with your members of Congress.

Last week to sign EITC and CTC letter. Show your support for Congress making the new EITC and CTC provisions permanent by signing your local RESULS group onto an EITC/CTC sign-on letter. Your group’s endorsement helps bolster our message, particularly when staff are lobbying members of Congress in DC. Sign on today before the August 2 deadline (it was extended).

Announcements

Become a RESULTS Regional Coordinator. Regional Coordinators (RCs) are vital volunteer leaders in our network, helping to coach and support RESULTS groups around the country to be the best they can be. Have you ever considered becoming a Regional Coordinator? Do you know someone you could encourage to consider the role because you recognize their leadership potential? If you (or others) are interested in the application process for becoming a Regional Coordinator with RESULTS, or are simply interested in learning more about the role, sign up to attend one of our 30-minute information sessions on Monday, August 2 at 8:00 pm ET or Thursday, August 5 at 1:00 pm ET. Registration will end an hour before each session. If you cannot attend or want more information about the application process, please contact Lisa Marchal.

Join new training on building an equitable tax code. Join our friends at NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby, for a new virtual workshop “Tax Justice for All: Unveiling the Racial Inequity of the U.S. Tax Code.” This two-hour training (co-sponsored by RESULTS) will look at how the tax code currently disadvantages women and people of color, and invites you to reimagine a new tax code to build a just and inclusive society. The training will be offered several times in August and September. The first two opportunities are Monday, August 9 at 7:00 pm ET (register for the 8/9 training here) and Wednesday, August 11, 3:00 pm ET (register 8/11 training here).

Upcoming Events

Congressional schedule. The House and Senate are in session this week. Submit your remote meeting requests today.

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.

Monday, August 9: Tax Justice for All: Unveiling the Racial Inequity of the U.S. Tax Code, 7:00 pm ET. Presented by NETWORK. Register here.

Wednesday, August 11: Tax Justice for All: Unveiling the Racial Inequity of the U.S. Tax Code, 3:00 pm ET. Presented by NETWORK. Register here.

Thursday, August 12: Quarterly Grassroots Town Hall, 9 pm ET. Contact Lindsay Saunders with any questions or interest.

Tuesday, August 17: U.S. Poverty Free Agents, 8:00 pm ET. If you are interested in joining our U.S. Poverty Free Agents, contact Jos Linn for more information.

Note: There is no National Webinar and there are no monthly policy forums in August. There is also no Global Poverty Free Agents meeting in August.

Grassroots Resources

Learn about the RESULTS Experts on Poverty.

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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.

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