U.S. Poverty Weekly Update May 2, 2017
U.S. Poverty Campaigns
Weekly Update | May 2, 2017
“I hope we can count on our members of Congress to listen to the people they were elected to represent. They need to protect Medicaid and reject this bad proposal.”
—RESULTS Action Network volunteer Janet McClenahan on an April 25 letter to the editor in the Idaho Press-Tribune
- Got Two Minutes? Call Congress to Oppose House Health Care Bill!
- Got Ten Minutes? Congratulations on a Fabulous 100 Days Celebration – Keep Up the Momentum
- Got Twenty Minutes? Invite Someone New to Our May 9 Webinar
- May Group Planning: Make 2017 a Year to Remember
- Quick News
- Upcoming Events
It’s back. The House is poised to again try to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Republican leaders in the House and in the White House are putting immense pressure on Republican moderates to support an amended version of the American Health Care Act (ACHA) and vote on it this week. This version is no improvement on policy; in fact, it’s worse. Not only does it still gut Medicaid, a critical support for nearly 100 million Americans, and drop health insurance for 24 million people, the bill would allow states to opt out of mandated coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, allowing insurance companies to charge much higher premiums for these patients. Make no mistake – this bill is cruel and wrong. We have to stop it again.
TAKE ACTION: Take two minutes to join the national health care call-in today to tell your members of Congress to protect Medicaid and oppose the ACHA! Call (877) 233-9025 and urge him or her to vote NO on the dangerous House health bill and any measures that dismantle Medicaid.. Once you call, share our blog post and urge other people you know to call too. If you cannot get through to their DC office, call a local office in your state, which you can find on our Elected Officials page. If you’d like to see a list of Republicans opposed or undecided on the bill, go here. Calls to all House members are important (even Democrats); assuming all Democrats vote against the bill, we need at least 23 Republicans to oppose it. Let’s make sure it’s not even close.
If you cannot get through today, call first thing tomorrow. If you cannot call, send an e-mail ASAP urging lawmakers to protect Medicaid.
Got Ten Minutes? Congratulations on a Fabulous 100 Days Celebration – Keep Up the Momentum
RESULTS’ first ever First 100 Days Campaign officially ended last week. And what a campaign it was. Since we launched it in January, RESULTS advocates have had over 100 face-to-face meetings with members of Congress, and 200 more with congressional aides. That's more than three meetings per day. On top of that, you've published 300 pieces of media – almost half of last year's record-breaking total in four short months.
As a result, you helped stop the House health care bill in March (and can again). You helped convince lawmakers to leave SNAP alone for the time being. You’ve started the conversation about tax reform and ensuring that if it’s done, it must be fair. You’ve also inspired countless new advocates and engaged them in the critical work of advocacy, many for the first time ever.
Dangerous threats persist and new opportunities need to be created. Use your First 100 Days success to keep the momentum going.
TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to make our First 100 Days success last by contacting House and Senate schedulers about setting up face-to-face meetings in May to discuss poverty in America (House: May 8-12; House and Senate: May 29-June 2). You can find scheduler names are on the RESULTS Elected Officials page. Once you make your request, please follow up until you get an answer. Once you get a meeting scheduled, please contact Meredith Dodson ([email protected]) to help you get ready and enter the meeting info at: http://tinyurl.com/RESULTSLobbyMtgs.
Note: The May 2017 U.S. Poverty Action will have more about what to discuss in your meetings. We will publish it once we know what the House does on health care this week.
Got Twenty Minutes? Invite Someone New to Our May 9 Webinar
Next week, RESULTS will debut our weekday evening U.S. Poverty National Webinar. This change came about because in recent years, new and existing advocates have found a weekend webinar to be an obstacle to getting or staying involved. Perhaps you’ve run into someone like that in your community. Or perhaps you didn’t even contact someone about getting involved because you knew Saturdays were bad for them. Here’s your chance to invite them back.
And right now, we need them. Health care for millions hangs in the balance, bad ideas for tax reform are in abundant supply, and attacks on SNAP and other critical anti-poverty programs are looming in the future. New voices mean new power. We’ve seen it work already in 2017, but that’s just the beginning. Use the webinar change to invite new people to join this movement.
TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes to reach out to people you know and invite them to attend the RESULTS U.S. Poverty webinar next Tuesday, May 9 at 8:00 pm ET. If you’re group is gathering together, invite them to listen with you. Or invite them to dial in on their own (login at: http://fuze.me/32255914 or dial (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32255914#). We’ll have more details about the webinar in next week’s Weekly Update.
We encourage as many of you log in/dial in as possible on Tuesday evening to hear the webinar live. If you cannot or if you group plans to meet at a later time to listen to the webinar, you’ll find the recording of the webinar on our National Webinars page. Also, we are now posting the National Webinar as a podcast (audio-only) which you can download from “RESULTS Media” in iTunes.
May Group Planning: Make 2017 a Year to Remember
When you look back on 2017, do you want to say you made the world a better place? You’ve already gotten a great start with the First 100 Days Campaign. But that success would not have been as potent without the group planning for the Campaign you did in January. Now it is time to finish the job.
The rest of 2017 will be pivotal for our U.S. poverty work. Threats abound to core programs that alleviate poverty in America. There may also be opportunities to build consensus around common-sense solutions to poverty. To help you, we have a new Group Planning Guide and Group Plan Summary form so your can finish your planning for the rest of 2017. We’ve also updated our online form where you can submit your plans: www.tinyurl.com/RESULTS2017Plans.
Let’s make 2017 a year to remember. Ensure that it happens by taking time in your May group meetings to complete your 2017 Group Plan Summary and submit it online no later than May 31, 2017. If you have questions, please contact Jos Linn at [email protected].
Quick News
Administration Releases Tax Proposal. Last Wednesday, the Trump Administration outlined some of their priorities for tax reform – a proposal that would cost an estimated $5 trillion over the next year. Our Emerson Hunger Fellow Ashley Burnside summarizes the proposal on the RESULTS Blog. Many in Congress are eyeing action on tax reform and this is a great time to speak out! See our April Action for tips for discussing tax reform with members of Congress and background, and use the upcoming Congressional recesses to tell lawmakers to oppose any tax reform plans that are not at least “revenue neutral” (i.e., does not reduce the revenue coming into the Treasury), does not address wealth inequality, and puts anti-poverty programs at risk. Want to take a quick action today? Send an email through our website.
Conference Early Bird Registration Expires Soon! Have you registered for the 2017 RESULTS International Conference yet? If not, what are you waiting for? This will be a huge event with great workshops, speakers, and conversation. And why not save a little money along the way. Right now, RESULTS volunteers can register for only $150, but that’s only good until May 15. Don’t miss out on the biggest event of the year at a great price. Register today!
Keep Pressure on Congress in the Media. Send a letter to the editor to your local paper urging Congress to protect Medicaid and/or telling them to only support a tax reform plan that is fair.
Nominate a Grassroots Volunteer to the RESULTS Board. We are now accepting nominations for the RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund Grassroots Board. Two seats will be open in July. Nominate someone you think would be a strong voice representing RESULTS volunteers (you can nominate yourself as well) to Jesse Marsden ([email protected]) no later than Sunday, May 28. Read more on the RESULTS Blog.
Upcoming Events
Go to the RESULTS Events Calendar to see a full list of RESULTS events. Also, find a list of the RESULTS U.S. Poverty staff with contact information on the RESULTS website.
Upcoming Congressional Recesses: House: May 8-12, May 29-June 2. Senate: May 29-June 2.
New Date and Time! RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar, Tuesday, May 9 at 8:00 pm ET. Participate at http://fuze.me/32255914 or (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32255914#. Listen to previous webinars on our National Webinars page.
RESULTS Introductory Call, Wednesday, May 10 at 9:00 pm ET. If you want to learn more about RESULTS, register for an Intro Call on the RESULTS website.
RESULTS U.S. Poverty Free Agents Calls, Tuesday, May 16 at 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm ET. To participate, login at http://fuze.me/32256018 or dial by phone at (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32256018#.
RESULTS International Conference, Saturday, July 22 – Tuesday, July 25, 2017. Washington Court Hotel, Washington, DC. Register today!
If you have a question, comment or suggestion for the RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund Board, please e-mail them to RESULTS Grassroots Board Member Vanessa Garcia at [email protected]. You can view the most recently published minutes from Board meetings on the RESULTS website, as well as download RESULTS’ most recent Annual Report.