June 26, 2006

REMINDER: RSVP FOR CONFERENCE CALL BY THIS FRIDAY

This is the final reminder about our first NAC advocacy conference call, which will take place July 11th from 2-3pm. Our speakers are now confirmed: Sr. Paulette LoMonaco and Sr. Sharon Rose Authorson will be sharing their perspectives on integrating advocacy into agency (Sr. Paulette) and community (Sr. Sharon Rose). The deadline to RSVP is THIS FRIDAY June 30th. We need you to RSVP so that we know how many phone lines to make available. All those who RSVP will receive an agenda and call-in instructions next Monday. We hope that you will join us in this conversation!

YOUR VOICES STILL NEEDED ON IMMGRATION

While it may seem as though things have slowed down on the immigration front, there is a lot going on behind the scenes. As you know, the Senate passed its comprehensive immigration reform bill in May. The Senate and House must now form a conference committee to work out the differences between the two bills. Procedural issues and the recent announcement of House leadership to hold public hearings on the Senate immigration bill will slow this process down considerably. However, now is the time to contact members of Congress and continue to pressure them to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Members of Congress are receiving 400 anti-immigrant messages for every 1 message in favor of comprehensive reform and anti-immigrant groups have sent over 2,000 bricks to members of Congress to demonstrate their support for building a fence along the U.S./Mexico border. We need to pressure our members to reject the House’s enforcement-only legislation and push for comprehensive reform. Faith groups are organizing a series of call-in days to urge Congress to support comprehensive immigration reform. The National Advocacy Center is urging people to call-in on WEDNESDAY, June 28th.

ACTION NEEDED:

1. Call your Senators and Representative on June 28th, 2006. Possible Script:

“Hi, I’m ________, a constituent of [Senators’ name/Representative’s name]. I am calling to urge Senator____/Rep._____ to support comprehensive immigration reform. It should include:

- a pathway to earned citizenship for the undocumented people currently in the U.S.

- a temporary worker provision with strong labor protections and an earned path to citizenship

- reduction of the family-visa backlog

- humane border policies that allow authorities to prevent dangerous criminals and terrorists from entering without militarizing the border

2. Write your Senators and Representative. Sample letters can be found at our action website.

3. Send a work glove to Congress! Immigrant rights groups are sending work gloves to members of Congress to demonstrate the hard work that undocumented people do in our country and to counter the bricks that anti-immigrant groups are sending to Congress. For more information on sending a work glove and for a sample letter to send with the glove, click here. To purchase cheap gloves, click here. To buy gloves and have them directly sent to your member of Congress, click here.

HOUSE BLOCKING VOTE ON MINIMUM WAGE

Since an amendment to raise the minimum wage was successfully attached to the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education (Labor-HHS) appropriations bill in committee with bipartisan support (7 Republicans supported it!), the House majority leadership has prevented the bill from moving to the House floor. Last week, Representative Obey (D-WI) offered the same minimum wage amendment to the Science/State/Justice/Commerce appropriations bill. Unfortunately, this amendment failed after Republicans switched their votes due to pressure from the leadership. However, if a vote on increasing the minimum wage were allowed on the floor, it is very likely that it would pass. This is why the House majority leadership is using procedural tricks to keep the minimum wage off the floor. They want their members to vote for rules (rules govern the debate on the House floor) that will allow the minimum wage amendment to be stripped from Labor-HHS without a vote and that will prevent a minimum wage amendment from being offered to the State-Commerce bill. All of this complicated maneuvering means that workers are being denied a much deserved raise and it must be made clear to members that these procedural tricks are the same as a vote against the minimum wage!

ACTION NEEDED:

1) Call your Representative and urge him/her to support the Fair Minimum Wage Act (H.R. 2429) and to demand a fair vote on the minimum wage on the House floor. A toll-free number--1-888-355-3588--is available for you to use that will connect you to the Capitol Hill Switchboard. The following are some talking points that you can use.

"I’m calling to urge Representative ______to demand that House leadership schedule the Fair Minimum Wage Act, sponsored by Congressperson George Miller, for a vote on the House floor as soon as possible. I also strongly urge Representative _____ and his/her colleagues to vote down any rule on any appropriations bill that does not protect amendments to increase the minimum wage. It has been too long since the last minimum wage increase and minimum wage workers deserve a raise. Can you tell me Representative _________'s position on this important issue?"

NOTE: If your Representative is already a co-sponsor of H.R. 2429, be sure to thank him/her for his/her support. A list of co-sponsors can be found here. Also, it is especially important to keep pressure on Republican members who support the minimum wage amendment in committee. They are: Jo Ann Emerson (MO), Ray LaHood (IL), Don Sherwood (PA), Mike Simpson (ID), John Sweeney (NY), James Walsh (NY) and Bill Young (FL).

2) Follow-up your call with a letter from our action website.

UPDATE

Last week the Senate voted 52-47 in support of Senator Kennedy's amendment to raise the minimum wage. Unfortunately, 60 votes were required for it to pass. Still, the vote now puts a majority of the Senate "on record" in support of the minimum wage and support is continuing to build, so keep up the pressure!