Let Congress Hear Your Voice-Literally!
There’s a good chance that ONE will be asking us OCCers to start making calls to Congress on the FY09 budget and PEPFAR soon. It might be a good idea to begin planning some ways to get your fellow students involved.
Making phone calls is a very quick and effective way to get congress to listen. It takes less than 30 seconds to call a congress person’s office and the process is very simple.
ONE Webster did a “Call Congress Pizza Party” a couple of weeks ago for the Global Child Survival Act. For every phone call a student made to Congress we gave them a slice of pizza. The party was a huge success. Unfortunately, we ran out of pizza, but some people made calls without even taking a slice.
Some people tripped over their words, and almost all were a little nervous if it was their first time making a call to congress. It’s alright to stumble over your words, just make sure the staffer you talk to knows that you are a constituent, and what bill or issue you are calling about.
These phone calls do make a difference. Last year as the FY08 budget was being approved, Congress decided to take away more than one billion dollars that would go to fight poverty. ONE members made more than 200,000 phone calls and emails to Congress and they listened! Congress not only put back the one billion, but added an additional 400 million to fight pvoerty!
The bottom line is: phone calls make a big difference, but are not a big deal to make! If you convince someone that their voice really does matter, they will make the call! It helps to throw in a little incentive, but the important part is telling them that 30 seconds of their time can save millions of lives.
Nick Stevens, ONE Regional Outreach Ambassador and President of ONE Webster
TAGS: Action