CALL-IN DAY IN SUPPORT OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT
The historic 1965 Voting Rights Act must be reauthorized
in this Congress. The House Judiciary Committee under the leadership of Chairman Sensenbrenner promptly sent to the House
floor HR 9 The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of
2006 with overwhelming bipartisan support. House leaders, including Speaker Dennis
Hastert (R-IL) and Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), have been important allies in the effort to renew and restore the
Voting Rights Act and have indicated that they intend to bring H.R. 9 to the floor the week of June 19. Urge your Representative to support HR 9 without amendment.
ACTION NEEDED:
1) Using the toll-free number - 1-866-808-0065 - Call
your Representative TODAY and urge him/her to support the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act (H.R. 9) "as is," without
amendment. Given the voting problems that have been documented in recent elections, this legislation has continued importance
and is critical to helping ensure that no citizen's right to vote is infringed.
MOVEMENT ON THE MINIMUM WAGE
Last week brought a lot of promising news with regard
to the minimum wage. In the House, an amendment was added in committee to one
of the appropriations bills to raise the minimum wage to $7.25. This legislation
still awaits a floor vote and has caused considerable consternation for the House Republican leadership which opposes a minimum
wage increase. On the Senate side, we learned that Senator Kennedy plans on offering
his minimum wage amendment also (increasing the minimum wage to $7.25) to the Department of Defense authorization bill this
week. The vote on Sen. Kennedy's amendment will likely be very close, so your
activism is needed to help minimum wage workers get the raise they deserve!
ACTION NEEDED:
1) Call your Senators BEFORE Wednesday and urge them
to support Senator Kennedy's amendment to increase the minimum wage. The Capitol Hill Switchboard number is 202-224-3121 and
you can ask the operator to connect you to your Senators' offices.
2) Follow-up your phone call by sending a letter to
your Senate in support of Sen. Kennedy's amendment. A sample letter is available at our action website for you to edit send. (For most users, you will need to cut and paste the link into your web browser).
It has been 10 years since the last minimum wage increase
and during that time the value of the current min. wage ($5.15 per hour) has steadily declined. At a time of record corporate
profits and executive salaries, a full-time minimum wage worker makes only $10,700 per year. For additional information about
the minimum wage, please visit the Let Justice Roll website.
HARMFUL BUDGET PROCCES "REFORMS" UNDER CONSIDERATION
This week Congress is expected to vote on so-called
budget “reform” legislation. This legislation includes provisions
to adopt the line item veto and establish a sunset commission. The line-item
veto would give the President the authority to eliminate or make changes to federally funding programs that serve those most
in need, even if Congress votes to continue these programs. The sunset commission
would be an unelected group of individuals appointed by the President to determine which federal programs should be cut; their
decision could be made without public input and without the advice of experts and it is undemocratic. Both of these provisions threaten our system of checks and balances by granting the Executive branch an
enormous amount of power. With this power, federal programs like Medicaid, food
stamps, juvenile justice and education programs that serve the most vulnerable in our society would be severely threatened.
ACTION NEEDED:
Write your members of Congress to urge them to vote
against this legislation. A sample letter is available at our action website for you to edit and send.
For more information on the budget proposals, please view
our budget page. These proposals are complicated and arcane, but it is important to remember that the rules that govern the budget
process play a key role in funding decisions. A vote against this legislation is a vote for maintaining the current balance
of power and checks and balances in our democratic system. A vote against this
legislation is also a vote for maintaining the federally funded programs that serve those most in need.
REMINDER: NAC CONFERENCE CALL JULY 11th FROM 2-3PM
On July 11th the National Advocacy Center
will be holding the first in a series of educational conference calls for Good Shepherd Advocates. This first call will focus
on successful ways to integrate advocacy into agencies and communities and we have invited two speakers to share their experience.
NAC staff will moderate this discussion and provide additional resources and suggestions from our experience and what we have
learned from coalition partners.
In order to make sure that we have enough phone lines
available, we need all those interested in participating to RSVP by June 30th. Once we have the list of participants confirmed,
we will be sending out a detailed agenda, information on how to call-in, and some preliminary reading materials. Please e-mail me at aprevost@gsadvocacy.org if you would like to participate.
