August Recess Begins: Meet With Your Members of Congress

Action Needed:

Please use the August recess to contact your representative and senators about the many significant issues that they will face upon their return to Washington in September. August is traditionally the month that House and Senate members take off to spend time in their home districts. This provides an excellent opportunity for activists to call or meet with their representative and senators.

There is a host of urgent issues about which members need to hear from feminist activists. When Congress resumes following Labor Day, members will vote on bills that will have profound effects on welfare recipients, seniors' health care, pre-school education for low-income children, and other matters that will impact the well-being of millions of families. The following is a summary of a number of pending priority issues that we urge activists to speak about to members of their Congressional delegation.

Background:

Judicial Nominations—The judicial nomination of Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor, Jr. was tabled last week, thanks to the efforts of Senate Democrats working to block anti-choice, anti-women's rights nominees. If one or both of your Senators are holding firm on Pryor (check how they voted on his nomination), and on other right-wing nominees, please thank them during the August recess and tell them that Americans deserve a fair judiciary that supports civil, human and privacy rights for all.

Same-Sex Marriage—George W. Bush recently touted his opposition to marriage rights for same-sex couples. Heterosexual couples are currently afforded a number of legal protections and benefits through marriage, which are inaccessible to committed same-sex couples. Benefits of civil marriage include access to health care and medical decision making for your partner and your children; parenting rights; Social Security, taxation, inheritance and other government benefits; as well as the simple ability to pool resources to buy or transfer property without adverse tax treatment. Urge your Congressional delegation to continue the fight for marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Silicone Breast Implants—Earlier this month a panel convened by the National Organization for Women (NOW) presented the latest research on silicone gel-filled breast implants and called on the Food and Drug Administration to slow the approval process until long-term studies prove that the implants are safe. Ask them to urge the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to delay approval of silicone gel-filled breast implants until long-term studies prove that the implants are safe.

FCC Media Ownership Rule—Public pressure does make a difference. This is especially evident in the July 23 vote of 400-21 in the House blocking the Federal Communications Commission's June 2 ruling that would allow the nation's few dominating media corporations even more control over broadcasting outlets. The FCC action would allow individual companies ownership of as much as 45 percent of the national television audience. NOW and numerous other organizations object to this policy because it would undoubtedly diminish the expression of diverse viewpoints, minority opinion and local reporting. House members received tens of thousands of messages from the public opposing the FCC rule. The Senate will consider a similar measure in S. 1046, the bipartisan Preservation of Localism, Program Diversity and Competition in Television Broadcast Service Act of 2003. George W. Bush has threatened to veto such legislation. Please call your senators and urge them to vote for S. 1046, opposing concentration of media ownership.

Fetal Personhood—The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R.1997/S.1019) will be moving soon; the Senate may take it up right after recess. If the legislation is adopted, harming an "unborn child"—not the pregnant woman—will be considered a federal offense in certain instances. Chipping away at basics of Roe v. Wade, this bill is part of a larger anti-reproductive rights strategy to establish the fetus legally as a "person" with even more rights than the pregnant woman. An alternate measure, the Motherhood Protection Act (H.R. 2247), sponsored by Rep. Zoë Lofgren (D-Calif.), aims to protect the pregnant women, while not recognizing an embryo or fetus as a separate "person." The Lofgren bill, which may be offered as a substitute, is not perfect but far superior to UVVA. A similar version of the Lofgren bill may be offered in the Senate. Urge your member of Congress to oppose the Unborn Victims of Violence Act because the legislation does little to prevent violence against pregnant women and it advances overturning Roe by defining the fetus as a legal person.

Welfare Reauthorization—Authorization for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program will expire at the end of September. A reauthorization measure rests in the Senate Finance Committee where Republicans and Democrats remain divided over key elements relating to childcare funding, marriage promotion and work participation requirements. A House version under-funds welfare programs, increases work requirements, makes it very difficult for recipients to gain additional education and training. Urge your Senators to support a dramatic increase in child care funding for women in the welfare-to-work process, to oppose extending work hours for women with young children or women are enrolled in education or training programs, and to oppose all efforts to expand wasteful and intrusive marriage promotion schemes.

Head Start—After the August recess, members of the Senate face a major decision regarding the highly effective Head Start program for low-income pre-schoolers and their families. On July 25, the House passed the deceptively-named "School Readiness Act of 2003" by a single vote, 217-216. It would dismantle national quality standards, give control to states and block grant funding for this 38-year-old program that has helped millions of disadvantaged children. Urge your senators to oppose this legislation (H.R. 2210) as an unwarranted effort to seriously weaken a program that has effectively prepared disadvantaged children for school for nearly 40 years.

Child Tax Credit—On June 12, the House approved legislation that would provide for $82 billion in additional tax cuts through 2010 and make the $1,000 child tax credit available to low-income families earning between $10,500 and $26,625 annually. The move was a cynical response to the Democrats’ campaign to extend to low-income parents tax cuts that have recently been afforded to higher-income families, but the Republicans used the opportunity to include even more tax cuts for upper-income parents. The $82 billion cost, on top of the tax cuts already approved, is unconscionable and worsens a yawning federal deficit. Please make it clear to your members of Congress that more tax cuts for the well-to-do are unacceptable and that tax cuts in the future must be progressive to help those most in need.

Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit—In early July, both houses passed legislation that would add a private senior prescription drug benefit that offers minimal coverage and would lay the groundwork for dismantling Medicare—the critically-important senior health care program, Medicare. Differences between the House and Senate bills are now being negotiated in House-Senate Conference committee. Both fail to provide for affordable and comprehensive prescription services because they would leave seniors at the mercy of managed care organizations to set premiums and determine the scope of coverage. The legislation also fails to address the core problem: the need to control drug costs. In addition, these private prescription drug plans will not be guaranteed and employers can drop existing retiree prescription drug coverage, thereby putting many seniors at risk. Please urge the members of your Congressional delegation to offer the prescription drug benefit under the Medicare program, not as a private option. Additionally, they should support a serious effort to control the price of prescription medications as many other countries do.

Again, please use the August recess to contact your representative and senators about the many significant issues that they will face upon their return to Washington in September. They need to hear from feminist activists!