The Coalition on Human Needs offers the following action alert:
Your Senators and Representatives will be home March 21-25 and they need to hear from you!
Next week, Members of Congress will come home, having just voted to keep the government running for another three weeks (until April 8). Pressure is mounting to negotiate a deal for funding through September. If they agree to a plan anywhere close to the House's total cuts, human needs programs will be hit hard. And they will be starting to think ahead to budget plans for FY 2012 with more deficit reduction measures - this time likely to include constraints on entitlement programs like Medicaid, along with more cuts in domestic appropriations.
How did your Members of Congress vote? Senators and Representatives have cast votes either for or against the House-passed spending plan (H.R. 1). If they voted for it, they voted to deny Head Start to 218,000 children, to prevent 11 million people from getting health care from Community Health Centers, to cut food packages for 81,000 low-income people, mostly older, and to reduce or eliminate Pell Grants for 9.4 million low-income college students. No Democrats in the Senate voted for H.R. 1. Most Republicans did, except a few who opposed it because they didn't feel it cut enough. (To see more about H.R. 1 and the House budget cuts, please click here. For the Senate roll call vote, click here.)
When they go home, who will they hear from? A series of polls show that big majorities of Americans do not want these cuts. We must take action and let our senators know!
Senator Grassley is holding Town Hall Meetings on the following dates and locations:
March 21st at the Public Library in Lake City, IA
March 21st at the City Hall in Wall Lake, IA
March 21st at the County Courthouse in Dakota City, IA
March 21st at the Public Library in Laurens, IA
March 22nd at the O'Brien County Courthouse in Primgar, IA
March 22nd at the Community Center in Aurelia, IA
Senator Harkin will be available at this location:
March 23rd (8 a.m.) at the Science Center of Iowa in Des Moines, IA
Make sure your voice is heard!
Naomi Sea Young Wittstruck
Leadership Development Minister
Social Justice & Mission
The Iowa Annual Conference of the UMC
2301 Rittenhouse Street
Des Moines, IA 50321
Email: nsy.wittstruck@iaumc.org
Office: 515.974.8908
Cell: 515.783.4381
Fax: 515.974.8958
