Fight Global Poverty in 2011 – Starting NOW!
We’ve got your new petition right here. Sign now for 500 points, and share the page with your friends to rack up 500 more points per signature.
What’s it about? We’re asking members of Congress to sign on to a letter in the House of Representatives that will go to President Obama before the Thanksgiving holiday. This letter is the first step in a year-long budget and appropriations process that ultimately results in the International Affairs Budget – which funds the U.S. State Department and its diplomatic efforts to keep America safe and build allies, as well as USAID and our contributions to important organizations including UNICEF, the World Bank, the Global Fund, PEPFAR, GAAVI, and more.
So we need the President’s requested amount to be a high as possible to support and expand critical programs to improve basic education, child survival and maternal health, debt relief, agricultural development, and many others.
Fortunately, our champions in Congress have put together letters to the President to let him know they’re in favor of a robust International Affairs Budget, thus encouraging him to start us off with strong amount requests in January. So we want as many members of Congress as possible to sign on to the Berman-Kirk letter in the House of Representatives, as well as its companion, the Kerry-Lugar-Feinstein letter in the Senate.
Now here’s your part. Your member of Congress in the House of Representatives needs to know the International Affairs Budget is important to you, or else he or she might not sign on to the Berman-Kirk letter requesting a robust International Affairs Budget.
Tell your representative to sign the letter now.
And if you want to do more (and earn lots more OCC points for your efforts), check out the advocacy kit put together by our partners at the US Global Leadership Coalition. You’ll find all the info you need for making phone calls to both representatives and senators about the letters. You can report your calls here for 1,000 points per call.
Our target is 170 letter signers in the House of Representatives and 60 in the Senate. We’ll deliver your messages right before the November 25 deadline for members of Congress to sign on to the letter. So you have just seven days to help us create a movement around the 2011 International Affairs Budget — starting…NOW!
-Emily Stivers
TAGS: FY2011 US Budget