Lobby Visits
Yesterday, members of the Farm Bill Working Group of Ohio went on a mission in downtown Columbus to deliver a faith-based sign-on letter to the offices of Senators Sherrod Brown and George Voinovich.
As seen in the pictures, our team includes: Jerry Freewalt (Columbus Catholic Diocese), Mark Diemer (Grace of God Lutheran Church), Gini Lohmann Bauman (Sojourners), Larry Hollar (Bread for the World). Being the group photographer that day, I was included in spirit.
The sign-on letter included faith leaders from Central and Southern Ohio representing over 2,000 congregations and over 650,000 people of faith.
There are two purposes for this sign-on letter:
1. To show the Ohio senators that the faith community cares about these issues; and
2. To urge the Senate to push for a better and stronger Farm Bill that helps farmers domestically while keeping in mind farmers globally.
Beth Thames, the Deputy State Director for Senator Brown, and Lynn Stevens, the Community Relations Coordinator for Senator Voinovich, gladly accepted the letters and took the time to hear our concerns. Our mission is over but the mission for the Senate is just beginning. Hopefully we will have some good news this Fall.
-Katie Andrews, ONE Regional Organizer
Sep 18th, 2007 11:52 AM UTC
By Field
On September 7, ONE Campaign Miami made its second visit of the year to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s office.
Daniel Pedreira, her Congressional Aide, received us graciously and was genuinely interested in hearing about ONE. After introductions, Adam explained ONE and our fight against extreme poverty and treatable disease. Adam, Alix, Hannibal and Michael each described the legislation we are supporting, including the GROWTH Act, Global Child Survival, the Education for All Act, and the Jubilee Act, and we asked for the Congresswoman’s help in getting this crucial legislation to the floor for votes.
Gail, from our local partner organization RESULTS came along and provided terrific reinforcement on the Global Child Survival Act. She also brought news that big increase in TB funding had passed Congress the night before.
We discussed the Millennium Development Goals and arranged to email the 2007 UN and DATA Reports on the status of extreme poverty in the world to the congresswoman’s aid Daniel Pedreira. Coincidentally, there was a great article that day about Save the Children, Bill Frist and ONE in the New York Times that I sent along too.
After our last visit, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen agreed to sponsor the GROWTH Act. We are hopeful for good results from this meeting as well.
-Alix Gordon – ONEmiami
Aug 31st, 2007 9:03 AM UTC
By Field
On Friday, August 24, 2007, members from ONE and World Wings / CARE International met with Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart at his district office in Miami.
The days leading up to the meeting were a bit nerve-racking since ONE member Ana M. Ortuno and I didn’t know what to expect. We were both first-time lobbyists, and also the only two constituents who had, until then, agreed to attend the meeting. Still, we knew it would be a great experience for the both of us and created a great partnership that helped us achieve a successful meeting.
First, we met at a Starbucks a few days prior to the appointment to go over talking points. Then, Ana notified Joan from ONE about the meeting, which I had secured with the Congressman a few weeks earlier through a scheduling process that happily turned out simpler than expected: send a meeting request by fax, wait three or four days for a response and set a date. Once Ana contacted Joan, e-mails from other ONE members and affiliates started pouring in and we realized we should have given notice earlier! To our relief, Alicia Smith from World Wings International, who had previous experience being an advocate for CARE, joined our team even though she found out about the meeting only the night before.
When we met with the Congressman, I introduced ONE and Alicia introduced World Wings International and CARE, WWI’s international charity. Then we went through the Acts and Amendments that we were there to discuss. We began with the Education for All Act, which Rep. Diaz-Balart quickly stated that he will support. Alicia then spoke about an important reform needed to re-allocate dollars to better prevent the spread of HIV among monogamous, married women in Africa (whose husbands are not being faithful!). He agreed to look into the proposal. He also agreed to closely review the Global Child Survival Act. As for the Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment, since it did not pass when it was presented recently in Congress, we asked him to keep the topic of reforming the U.S. Farm Bill in mind for future discussions; he agreed. He also agreed to support the GROWTH Act and saw merit in the proposal to help women in developing countries.
Though we were a bit nervous initially, Ana and I grew at ease as the minutes went by. It also helped that the representative was very cordial and gave us his full attention. He even asked us to introduce ourselves and backgrounds individually. At the end of the meeting, we had the added bonus of having the representative’s brother, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, join us for a photo. (He had arrived moments before our meeting came to a close.)
The experience was very gratifying, especially for our first time lobbying! As a final step, the three of us will each send a thank you note to the congressman.
-Cibeles Duran
Aug 30th, 2007 7:44 AM UTC
By Field
ONE members from Birmingham met with Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL-7) on Tuesday to discuss important legislation that would move the U.S. closer to our commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The seven ONE activists took turns briefing Rep. Davis on three pieces of legislation: The Education for All Act, The Global Child Survival Act, and the GROWTH Act. (Rep. Davis had previously signed on as a co-sponsor for the Jubilee Act!)
Rep. Davis, commented that this legislation builds a “case for American values.” He said that there is a perception “that America is no longer interested in marginalized people around the world.”
Davis’ district consists of some of the poorest counties in the US where as much as 30-40% of the population live below the poverty line. Davis says he is sometimes asked how he can spend time on global poverty issues when the needs at home are so great. He responded that “in a strong country, addressing poverty abroad and poverty at home should not be an either/or issue but a both/and issue”
We also took the opportunity to talk with Rep. Davis about ONE Vote 08. Davis, a Harvard Law School classmate and supporter of presidential candidate Barack Obama, has been campaigning widely for Senator Obama, both on the campaign trail and on national cable news programs.
Our meeting ended with the requisite “white ONE banding” and group picture. Oh! And Rep. Davis said that he “would be happy to co-sponsor” these three important pieces of legislation. We hit the TRIFECTA!
-Elaine VanCleave, Birmingham, AL, ONE leader
[Pictured above: Mildred Sanford, Judy Donaldson, Betty Likis, Rep. Artur Davis, Nick Foster, Elaine VanCleave, Jeannette Bell, and Kelli Hepner]
Every time ONE members meet with US Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL), we always start our meeting by thanking him for his leadership on global poverty issues. As an original co-sponsor of the Jubilee Act in 1999, Rep. Bachus was in on the ground floor and has worked tirelessly on debt relief issues alongside Bono/DATA and Bread for the World, both founding members of the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History.
When Rep. Bachus first championed debt relief in Congress, his colleagues didn’t “get it”.
“People on both sides of the aisle told me there was no political upside to this,” Bachus said in an interview at the time. Now, those same skeptics see just how forward thinking he was – not only has debt cancellation reduced poverty, improved health care and education, but it has also decreased poor countries dependency on foreign aid. This year, Rep. Bachus, in a bi-partisan effort with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), introduced the Jubilee Act of 2007 – legislation that will further extend debt cancellation to the world’s poorest countries without imposing harmful economic reforms.
Earlier this year, Rep. Bachus joined Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) to also introduce the Education for All Act. Rep. Bachus recognizes the importance of education in ending the cycle of poverty and further sees education as “an investment in international security.” “Young people who are reading books aren’t building bombs,” Bachus said in an interview with the Birmingham News. He added, “The US has always succeeded because of the strength of our ideas. We need to fill the vacuum with a message of hope, not hate, in these countries. We can’t play educator to the world, but we can certainly come closer than being the policeman to the world.”
We ended the meeting by briefing Rep. Bachus on both the Growth Act and the Child Survival Act. He enthusiastically received the information and felt confident that these were both measures he could support. He promised an answer within the week!
When ONE members asked how we could help him, Rep. Bachus pointed out that letters to the editor are very effective. A point well taken and often heeded. For example, when ONE members were unable to get an in-district meeting with our senators during the August recess to discuss the Farm Bill, we wrote letters to the editor of the Birmingham News publicly stating our position. Even without a face-to-face visit with our senators, local ONE Campaigners were able to effectively communicate our viewpoint.
Many thanks to Rep. Bachus for his continued leadership.
[People in picture are: John Derrick, Elaine VanCleave, Rep. Spencer Bachus, Suzanne Martin, Mark Connell]
If, like me, you’re not in a presidential primary state, it might feel like politicians are no where to be found.
Not so.
Right now, it’s August recess and members of Congress are in there home districts, giving you the perfect chance to go meet with them and talk to them about extreme poverty. You don’t have to be an expert on the issues, the most important thing is really just going and letting them know that you care.
Find out more and sign up for a lobbying visit here:
http://www.one.org/event/lobbyvisits/
With eighteen Congressional seats in Los Angeles County alone, it was time to get the Los Angeles ONE team together to generate action around the August Recess. Over forty volunteers showed up at Wednesday night’s LA ONE Volunteer meeting, including two staff-members from Congressman Adam B. Schiff’s office and Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich’s publicist, as well as the Founder-Director of Friends of The United Nations.
All attendees had the opportunity to express why they signed up for the ONE Campaign and what they hope to accomplish by being a volunteer. Although most were new to the lobbying world, there was a definite interest in letting their member of Congress know that they care about extreme poverty and global disease. We discussed all pertinent pieces of legislation that ONE is focused on, including the Education for All Act, The Global Child Survival Act, the GROWTH Act and Jubilee Act. We also talked about ONE Vote ’08 and the importance of engaging Presidential Candidates (see the Candidate Trackr) when they are in town.
Lead volunteer Amy Quinn was by my side assisting with the meeting, and ONE member Jeanine, who was new in town from Maryland, was a great help in facilitating as well. Thanks to all of you who took the time (and braved the LA traffic) to join the meeting and learn more about ONE. Let’s keep the momentum going and let all eighteen Representatives know that we care about extreme poverty.
Special thanks goes out the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel for donating the meeting space and a consistently gracious and accommodating staff.
