RESULTS Weekly Update April 22, 2025
Quote of the Week
“I’d rather see my tax dollars spent on food and medicine than weapons and war.”
– RESULTS Western North Carolina volunteer Danielle Shamel in an April 20 letter to the editor in the Winston-Salem Journal
(Is this newsletter too long; didn’t read (TL;DR) the whole thing? Scroll to the bottom for the most important points or the “TL;DR”)
Congress is still on recess. Meet with them and tell them to oppose reconciliation cuts.
Congress is on recess for another week. After the recess ends, they’ll move FAST on legislation that significantly impacts our priorities. Next, House and Senate committees will begin drafting reconciliation legislation. Reconciliation is where they’ve proposed deep cuts to SNAP and Medicaid. SNAP and Medicaid help millions of Americans escape poverty. Cutting them by any amount would be devastating. Cutting them to fund tax breaks for the wealthy would be unconscionable.
President Trump is expected to send a “rescission” package to Congress soon. This is a special budget move that lets the President ask Congress to cancel money that’s already been approved but hasn’t been spent yet. Congress can agree to this with a simple majority vote in both the House and Senate — no filibuster allowed. Some of the funding he may try to cut includes high-profile items important to RESULTS, such as global health and education funding. It could also include Head Start and childcare assistance. Even PBS and NPR funding could disappear! If Congress agrees, it would make the Trump Administration’s previous withholding of these funds official and could interfere with court efforts to reverse it. There’s nothing to do just yet, but please stay tuned for updates.
Reach out to your members of Congress in any way you can. Request lobby meetings. Attend town halls. Submit letters to the editor. Email congressional staff. Our Actions and Allies page has resources for lobbying and our Action Center has sample emails and letters. For personalized support, contact RESULTS staff today.
Feeling discouraged? Remind yourself that action matters. Read our new blog post on the power of deep advocacy to move the needle right now.
Dear Colleague letters need congressional signatures to fund the fight against global poverty.
We are well into the annual appropriations process for fiscal year 2026 (FY26). But the window of opportunity will close soon. Congress will decide soon what gets funded next FY, and we need to make sure it’s our global priorities.
RESULTS groups have already been submitting appropriations requests (Need help with this process? Come to appropriations office hours!) Members of Congress can also express support for programs they want funded by signing Dear Colleague letters. These letters are like a petition among member of Congress. We need as many signers as possible onto global anti-poverty Dear Colleague letters. These letters reiterate support for global aid programs in FY26 appropriations. With many signers, they can help us reverse the devastating cuts on foreign aid in recent months.
Urge your members of Congress to exercise their constitutional power of the purse. Contact your congressional foreign policy aides today. Ask them to ask their bosses to sign the global poverty Dear Colleague letters as soon as possible. Be sure to check our Dear Colleague page for new letters and updated deadlines.
Get more involved with RESULTS by donating, attending our 45th birthday webinar, and more!
Fuel our Urgent Needs Fundraising Campaign. RESULTS is rising to meet this urgent moment in the fight against poverty. You can help support this vital work. Join our 2025 Urgent Needs Campaign by hosting your own local fundraiser.
Celebrate RESULTS’ birthday with Sam Daley-Harris. Help us to celebrate our 45th year of work by joining the May National Webinar, Saturday, May 3 at 1:00 p.m. ET. RESULTS founder Sam Daley-Harris will join us to mark the occasion. Register today!
Have you heard of the RESULTS Fellowship? This 11-month cohort for advocates aged 20-45 offers a unique chance to hone powerful leadership and advocacy skills in the movement to end poverty. Applications are open for the 2026 cohort.
Advocating within our values. We have an Anti-Oppression Learning Community webinar coming up on April 25 at 12:00 p.m. ET. This gathering will feature Grassroots Board Member Allison Gallaher. Allison will lead us in a facilitated discussion reflecting on the role of race and privilege in shaping economic policy.
Putting MI skills into practice. Read about the power of Motivational Interviewing (MI) featuring Texas and Idaho advocates. Also, keep up your MI skills by joining our Motivational Interviewing Knowledge Network webinar on Wednesday, April 30 at 8:30 pm ET.
TL;DR (too long; didn’t read): Take action while Congress is on recess for the rest of this week. Ask lawmakers to sign our global poverty Dear Colleague letters. If you can, contribute to our fundraising campaign, explore the RESULTS Fellowship, and join for more learning opportunities.
Quick Links: Action Center, Events Calendar, April National Webinar slides and recording