* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
NPCA ADVOCACY LISTSERV
For more information on NPCA-Advocacy, visit the Advocacy Network webpage at www.NPCA-Advocacy.net.
Doane Perry, CoChair of the NPCA Advocacy Committee, asks you to contact your Senators in support of the initiative below, supporting additional funding for foreign affairs. This will improve the chances of a sustainable expansion of the Peace Corps.
Thanks for your efforts! Ed Crane
Hi,
NPCA Advocacy should participate in this coalition effort, by encouraging the calls described below, in my view.
Thanks
Doane
Message text written by "Harry Blaney"
URGENT! TO: Dear friends & colleagues in the grassroots foreign affairs community FROM: Harry Blaney, COLEAD
ACTION REQUESTED: The full Senate will soon (this week or next) be voting on the 2003 fiscal year budget resolution. The Budget Committee recently added $500 million above the request level to the foreign affairs budget (the "150 Account") thanks to the action of the Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Senators Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Russ Feingold (D-WI) and others. Senators Richard Lugar R-IND) and Gorden Smith (R-Ore) have also urged additional funding for the 150 Account.
We need to make sure that these funds are not taken out during the Senate floor debate which is possible if there is no support for this addition. We therefore urge each of you to call your senators and ask them to support the full funding for the foreign affairs account (150 Account) as recommended by the Senate Budget Committee. You can call the "Capital Switch" which is the main phone number for Congress at (202) 224-3121, or as if often the case this line is busy, directly to your Senator's office. You can find that number for some of the members on our web site www.colead.org. You can also find these numbers on the Congressional web site: www.congress.gov. When you go to the to of the Home Page, there is a link to the House or Senate Directory which will list contact numbers for members.
BACKGROUND: The Administration's 150 Account request figures are about $25.4 billion, or only just one percent of the federal budget. The Senate Budget Committee increased this figure to about $25.9 billion, largely for development assistance. COLEAD is urging a doubling of the 150 Account over about five years and has endorsed the UK and UN initiative of adding $50 billion annually to assistance to the poorer countries on the part of the richer countries as part of a "Marshall Plan II" proposal supported by the UK government. The president agreed at the Development Finance Conference in Mexico to add $10 billion to assistance over a period of years but this amount still falls short of the total needed to make up for all the shortfalls in funding international programs over the last decade or so. This money also may not start until FY-2004. We need increased funding in the FY-2003 budget that is now before Congress.
The Coalition or American Leadership Abroad (COLEAD) has recently sent a sign-on letter to all the key members of Congress including the members of the appropriate House and Senate Budget and Appropriations sub-committees (CJS and Foreign Operations) and the leadership with some 29 signatories of leaders of the US NGO community. This letter will shortly be posted on our web-site for your information. www.colead.org also has a model letter which you can use for any messages you may wish to send supporting foreign affairs funding generally. There is also a summary of the fiscal year 2003 requested budget for foreign affairs programs on our web site.
Your help and support in this effort is greatly appreciated.
Harry C. Blaney III President Coalition for American Leadership Abroad (COLEAD) Phone: (202) 944-5519 Fax: (202) 338-6820 E-Mail: colead@afsa.org
Doane Perry 1657 Cambridge Street, #3 Cambridge, MA 02138-4316 617 547 1413, fax 617 876 8991 mobile 617 513 2078
--- Please note: The materials and information included in this listserv are provided as a service to you. The NPCA is not responsible for the accuracy of information provided from outside sources.
We encourage subscribers to pass the information along to colleagues and other interested parties. Please credit this listserv as the source and include subscription information.
To subscribe to this list, send a blank e-mail to: NPCA-Advocacy-L-join@list.vita.org Or point your browser to: http://list.vita.org/scripts/lyris.pl?join=NPCA-Advocacy-L
You are currently subscribed to npca-advocacy-l as: To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-npca-advocacy-l-26088G@list.vita.org
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Advocacy
