CO-PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

The League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1920 during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The convention was held just six months before the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote after a 72-year struggle.

The League began as a "mighty political experiment" designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy. From the beginning, the League has been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then, and is now, a nonpartisan organization. League founders believed that maintaining a nonpartisan stance would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political themselves, by educating citizens about, and lobbying for, government and social reform legislation.

This holds true today. The League is proud to be nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government, but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public. The League has a long, rich history that continues with each passing year. -----LWVUS

A fundamental principle of the League is that we are a non-partisan organization. "Non Partisan" is not just empty words. These words say who we are, and what we should look like to the people we reach out to. It is a unique feature of our organization, as opposed to the other organizations in the political arena, and we should be proud of our nonpartisan status, and not allow any candidate for office or political party to get special treatment from us.

We stand by our commitment of not bringing campaign literature to our meetings and the wearing of political buttons. By the way the Veterans Centers standing rule of no political or religious literature in their building is strongly enforced. Our roster is confidential. While wearing of the League outerwear, pin, hat, or working in any League endeavors to bring a bias or personal preference of those running for office. What an individual member participates in politically is their choice as long as they keep it separate from the function as a member of the LWVM.

Our members are our greatest strength. It is important that every member practices the principles that are the bedrock of what the League stands for. When we keep true to the principles of our organization, we are at our best.

LOBBYIST MESSSAGE

Information for LWVNV

Education is a process and requires life-long learning

Sam

----- Original Message -----

Dear COABE Contact Network and COABE Members,  

On March 29th, Members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee introduced The Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012 (HR 4297). As early as next week, the full Committee may meet to markup the bill as the next step in reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).  

Created in 1998 through a bipartisan process, WIA—the legislation which provides for adult education programs—has not been updated since then. Now, House Republicans are moving their legislation forward to markup.  

If this bill were to become law, it would allow states to consolidate adult education funding together with a newly-created fund that provides for a broad set of general workforce activities, including job seeking services, without requiring states to use the funding for adult education and literacy services. This could result in significantly less money for adult education.  

The National Coalition for Literacy has also identified several additional concerns with the bill. You might share in some of these concerns as well: http://bit.ly/IoQugl

 

Action Request:

 

This is a targeted alert for advocates whose U.S. Representative serves on the House Education and the Workforce Committee (see list below).

 

Instructions:

1. If your U.S. Representative is listed below, call his or her office (Find Phone number here: http://bit.ly/ProtectAdultEd).
54652933. Ask to speak to the Representative’s Education Legislative Assistant.
54652934. Tell the Congressional staffer, “I have several concerns regarding H.R. 4297, the Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012. First and foremost, I do not support giving states the option to consolidate adult education and family literacy funding (Title II) which is allowed in this bill.”
54652935. Speak from your experience on the need and demand for adult education and literacy services in your community. Use any of the suggested talking points below.
54652936. Tell us how the staff person responds by entering your feedback in the alert form: http://bit.ly/ProtectAdultEd 

Follow up with an email to the education legislative assistant you spoke with outlining your concerns.

Suggested Talking Points:

Adult education and literacy programs serve a unique and diverse population of adults who need to boost their basic education and literacy skills or learn English in order to get or keep a job with a family sustaining wage, transition to postsecondary education or training, be actively involved in their children’s education, or to function well in society and civic life. These targeted funds need to be maintained in order to ensure those most in need of these programs can be served.

The consolidation proposal could drastically reduce the availability of adult education and English language services  for a unique and diverse population of low-skilled workers in states across the country because it would give states the option to use adult education and literacy funding for other activities, unrelated to the mission of Title II of WIA.

While I want to see adult education and workforce training services aligned, I do not want to see adult education services reduced or replaced.

Nationally, the adult education and literacy system serves just under 2 million adults out of the 93 million in need of services. 30 million of these adults cannot read well enough to complete a job application. The unemployment rate for the undereducated is three times greater than those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Adult education and literacy programs already struggle to meet the current demand and are severely under-resourced. Fifty out of 51 states and territories had waiting lists for local adult education programs in 2009-2010, according to the most recent survey. The number of people on waiting lists doubled between 2008 and 2009-2010. Making adult education and literacy funding an option for consolidation could drastically reduce services ever further, at a time when low-skilled adults need services the most.

Full Committee

(Not sure who your U.S. Representative is? Find your elected official here: http://bit.ly/ProtectAdultEd .)

 

Republicans:

John Kline (MN) (Chairman), Thomas E. Petri (WI), Buck McKeon (CA), Judy Biggert (IL), Todd Russell Platts (PA), Joe Wilson (SC), Virginia Foxx (NC), Bob Goodlatte (VA), Duncan Hunter (CA), David P. Roe (TN), Glenn Thompson (PA), Tim Walberg (MI), Scott DesJarlais (TN), Richard L. Hanna (NY), Todd Rokita (IN), Larry Bucshon (IN), Trey Gowdy (SC), Lou Barletta (PA), Kristi L. Noem (SD), Martha Roby (AL), Joseph J. Heck (NV), Dennis A. Ross (FL), Mike Kelly (PA)

               

Democrats:

George Miller (CA) (Senior Democratic Member), Dale E. Kildee (MI), Robert E. Andrews (NJ), Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA), Lynn C. Woolsey (CA), Rubén Hinojosa (TX), Carolyn McCarthy (NY), John F. Tierney (MA), Dennis J. Kucinich (OH), Rush D. Holt (NJ), Susan A. Davis (CA), Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ), Timothy H. Bishop (NY), David Loebsack (IA), Mazie K. Hirono (HI), Jason Altmire (PA), Marcia Fudge (OH)

 

Express your views on consolidation with your U.S. Representative’s office. Then see these Five Critical Issues With HR 4297: http://bit.ly/IoQugl . Call your House Member’s education staffer to discuss any of them that also concern you or offer to email them the list of issues.

 

Contact me at advocacy@coabe.org if you have questions and let us know what the staffer says when you make your call.

Thank you for joining COABE, NCL, and its Member Organizations in this campaign and for all you do on behalf of adult education students.

Sincerely…Jackie  

Jackie Taylor

COABE President Elect2011-2013

Policy Chair 

 

FYI Links:

• Link to Alert: http://bit.ly/ProtectAdultEd 
• What Is Markup? http://www.senate.gov/reference/glossary_term/markup.htm 
• Adult Education Funding Levels and Enrollment http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications/files/adult-ed-funding-enrollment-February-2012.pdf 
• H.R. 4297 Summary http://blog.ncladvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/FoxxBillRecommendationsFINAL.pdf and Full Text http://blog.ncladvocacy.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/04/Workforce_Investment_Improvement_Act_of_2012.pdf 
• Five Critical Issues with HR 4297 http://bit.ly/IoQugl 
•  House Education and the Workforce Committee Members http://edworkforce.house.gov/Committee/SubcommitteesJurisdictions.htm

LOBBYIST MESSAGE

Food stamps, federal pensions face GOP cuts By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press – 4-18-12 WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans controlling the House are targeting food stamps, federal employee pensions, tax breaks for illegal immigrants and subsidies under President Barack Obama's health care law in a multifaceted drive to swap cuts to domestic programs for big Pentagon cuts scheduled next year. The cuts are mostly familiar, though a plan to cut food stamps goes well beyond a bipartisan proposal drafted last year. The Democratic-controlled Senate has no plans for companion legislation. Wednesday's measure before the Agriculture panel would reduce the food stamp monthly benefit for a family of four by almost $60, repealing increases that were enacted three years ago as part of Obama's economic stimulus. The changes would also force up to 3 million people out of the program by tightening eligibility rules, the administration estimates. The food stamp cuts would total $8 billion over the coming year and $34 billion over a decade. The program has been expanded greatly over the past few years — enrollment tops 46 million nationwide, up from about 33 million in 2009 — and now costs about $80 billion a year. The average monthly benefit for a family of four is about $500, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research and advocacy group. Democrats assailed the cuts, saying Republicans were targeting the poor while boosting the Pentagon budget above levels agreed to last summer. "We'd rather pay farmers millions of dollars not to grow crops than to feed children," said Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Wis., blasting an Agriculture panel proposal that cuts food stamps but leaves alone controversial farm subsidies. But panel chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., countered that Democrats had targeted the programs for savings as well in 2010 to pay for other legislation and that many states game the system to increase eligibility and maximize payments. The cuts would reduce projected costs by 4 percent. "We're closing loopholes, reducing waste and abuse, and increasing the integrity of the program by insuring (food stamps) serves only those households who qualify for the program," Lucas said. Several other committees are meeting Wednesday to vote on other cuts, which would be bundled together for a vote by the entire House next month as a follow-up to the more sweeping GOP budget plan approved last month. That measure is nonbinding but instructed six House committees to come up with spending reductions as an alternative to across-the-board cuts scheduled to slam both the Pentagon and domestic agencies in January. Those cuts were required after the budget "supercommittee" failed to agree on a deficit-reduction plan last year. Driving the GOP effort is a desire to avert a $55 billion cut — about 10 percent — to the Pentagon budget and a $43 billion cut to domestic agencies starting Jan. 1. There's bipartisan opposition to this so-called sequester, but it's not at all clear what part the cuts proposed by Republicans will play in any ultimate solution. Most budget observers believe any solution to the sequester, as well as what to do about the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts at the same time, will be postponed until after the November election. The cuts include a plan to deny illegal immigrants refundable tax credits of up to $1,000 per child that they are presently able to claim despite being in the country illegally. Another measure would increase the amount of health insurance subsidies under the new health care law that people must pay back if their incomes go up. Several of the GOP proposals have won condemnation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, including the food stamp cuts and the effort to deny the refundable child tax credit to immigrant children, many of whom are U.S. citizens. "To deny the (child tax) credit to children of working poor immigrant families — the large majority of whom are American citizens — would hurt vulnerable kids, increase poverty, and would not advance the common good," wrote Bishop Stephen E. Blaire, of Stockton, Calif. The Financial Services panel would again repeal several elements of the 2010 overhaul of financial regulations, including what the GOP dubs a "bailout fund" that was established for the liquidation of future failed banks. And a controversial regulatory panel would have to compete with other domestic agencies for its budget, rather than be funded automatically. The Judiciary Committee is debating a plan to cap punitive damages in medical malpractice lawsuits at $250,000, which budget scorekeepers say could produce savings exceeding $50 billion over the coming decade, largely by slowing inflation in health care. And the Oversight and Government Reform panel is slated to vote next week on a plan to require federal workers to contribute more to their pensions. Across the Capitol, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee will convene a debate on a plan by Obama's 2010 deficit commission. But Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., won't permit a final vote on the measure, which lacks enough support to make it through the panel, much less survive on the floor. Republicans condemned Conrad's move, saying he had broken a promise made last summer to present a budget and hold a vote. Conrad appeared to bow to pressure from Democratic leaders to protect party colleagues from politically difficult votes. "He won't put his Democratic colleagues at any political risk by asking them to vote on a plan their constituents might not like," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

CO-PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

April Presidents Remarks

SERIOUSLY, we are in dire need of your help. We are having a great concern in having all our members attend the Saturday, April 14^th, 2012 League of Women Voters of Mesquite Annual meeting.

Four of the League’s Board members are committed to either scheduled training classes or in functions in Making Democracy Work issues and have been granted an absence.

We ask that all LWVM members PLEASE attend this most important meeting for the adoption of the distributed revised bylaws that our Bylaws Committee created and the election of the incoming 2012-2013 new League Board members that our Nomination Committee diligently put together. These items need a quorum to be accomplished.

Your attendance is required to take a forward step in our League business. Without your attendance at our meetings and not making the numbers for a quorum we are stifled in our works that so many have spent hours of their volunteered hours to put together.

Please mark your calendars.

Plan on being there, we sincerely need you there.

 

LOBBYIST MESSAGE

The LWVNV -- has been and will continue to advocate for transparent campaign practices including money in elections and for improved public education which meets the needs of the 21st Century. The need to reform Nevada taxing practices which follows 19th Century practices is a key piece of our 2012-2013 strategy. Improving the quality of life in our communities is the linchpin to all of our positions and grassroots efforts.
LWVLVV completed an education study and a study on the role of privatization
Regards,
Sam King LWVNV Grassroots Lobbyist

League Position on the Federal Role in Public Education (NEW)
The LWVUS now has a position on the Federal Role in Public Education! The LWVUS Board approved a new Education position at its March 2012 meeting. The position is based on responses received from the 377 Leagues across the country that participated in the Education Study. The position states that “the League of Women Voters believes that the federal government shares with other levels of government the responsibility to provide an equitable, quality public education for all children pre-K through grade 12. A quality public education is essential for a strong, viable and sustainable democratic society and is a civil right.” Thanks to the many local and state Leagues and ILOs that held meetings, involved their communities, and worked to reach consensus on this critical issue of importance to all Americans.

The League is taking a strong stand on money in politics. Support for DISCLOSE, petitioning the White House for a response on the FEC and demanding elected officials let the sun shine in at all levels of government is a good start. The LWVUS Board created a Campaign Finance Task Force.