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Dear NPCA Advocates,
While final budget decisions for the current fiscal year are pending, key actions with deadlines related to the Fiscal Year 2011 Peace Corps and International Affairs Budgets are at hand.
Read the latest in our December advocacy update. |
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Final Decision on Peace Corps Funding Nears
It won't be long now...
Final decisions on Peace Corps funding for Fiscal Year 2010 should come sometime in the next two weeks. While health care has taken center stage in Congress, lawmakers currently have until December 18th to finalize decisions on federal funding for Peace Corps and many other FY 10 programs.
Peace Corps funding is expected to fall somewhere between $373.4 million (the request of President Obama and recommendation of the Senate Appropriations Committee) and $450 million (as recommended by the full House of Representatives). Peace Corps funding in the previous fiscal year was $340 million.
You can read more about where appropriations stand within the busy December agenda on Capitol Hill by following this link.
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RPCV Member Group Letter on Peace Corps Funding Circulating
As final decisions on Peace Corps funding for Fiscal Year 2010 are still pending, it's already time to start thinking about 2011, as the Obama administration is preparing its Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposal to Congress.
An RPCV Member Group letter is now circulating, urging the President to provide significant funding for Peace Corps in his FY 11 budget. Member Groups have until Monday, December 7th to sign onto this letter. If you are connected with an NPCA member group, we encourage you to bring this matter (and the Monday deadline) to the attention of your leadership. Contact us at advocacy@peacecorpsconnect.org if you have questions.
Thanks to the following groups that have already signed on to this important letter to the President:
Friends of Armenia
Friends of Ecuador
Friends of Morocco
Friends of Nigeria
Friends of Pakistan
Friends of Senegal and The Gambia
Friends of Tanzania
Central Ohio Returned Volunteer Association
Chicago Area Peace Corps Association
First Coast RPCVs
Iowa Peace Corps Association
Milwaukee Peace Corps Association
Orange County Peace Corps Association
RPCVs of Colorado
RPCVs of New Jersey
RPCVs of Phoenix
RPCVs of South Florida
RPCVs of West Michigan
St. Louis Peace Corps Association |
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Take Action on International
Affairs Funding
This Friday is the final day for Senators and Representatives to sign onto congressional letters urging the President to provide robust funding for the entire International Affairs Budget in his Fiscal Year 2011 request to Congress.
- Call the Capitol Hill switchboard toll-free (877-851-6437) and ask to be connected to the office of your lawmaker. Once connected, ask to speak to the staff who handles foreign affairs.
- Leave this message: "I am calling to ask Senator (or Representative) _____ to sign the Dear Colleague letter that is circulating asking President Obama to provide robust funding for international affairs programs in his Fiscal Year 2011 budget. I also want to note that the deadline for signing the letter is this Friday, December 4th."
- Reference your support of increased funding for the Peace Corps, as this funding is one of the many programs included in the International Affairs Budget.
SENATE PRIORITIES: If you are represented by these Senators, please contact them and remind them they signed onto a similar letter last year, but have not yet signed this year's Senate letter: Baucus (MT), Bunning (KY), Inouye (HI), Johnson (SD), Roberts (KS), Schumer (NY).
HOUSE PRIORITIES: If you are represented by these Congressmen/women, please contact them and remind them they signed onto a similar letter last year, but have not yet signed this year's House letter: Andrews (NJ), Bean (IL), Butterfield (NC), Childers (MS), Clay (MO), Davis (IL), Dicks (WA), Doggett (TX), Etheridge (NC), Fattah (PA), Foster (IL), Hirono (HI), Inglis (SC), Inslee (WA), Israel (NY), Johnson (IL), McCollum (MN), Miller (NC), Murphy (CT), Murphy (PA), Norton (DC), Pascrell (NJ), Perlmutter (CO), Rangel (NY), Salazar (CO), Loretta Sanchez (CA), Serrano (NY), Shimkus (IL), Slaughter (NY), Space (OH), Sutton (OH), Waters (CA), Weiner (NY)
>>Letter Writing and More Information |
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Climate Change Update:
RPCV Testimonies, Candlelight Vigils
In Cameroon, farmers are finding it harder to predict the beginning of the rainy season. In Peru, schoolchildren in an Andes highland community walk down a steep embankment to brush their teeth in a river because of a lack of water. In Kiribati, land is literally being washed away.
As the world's leaders gather in Copenhagen December 7 - 18 to consider an international climate change treaty, returned Peace Corps volunteers who are concerned about climate change have offered some of their thoughts on the need for action. Go to www.peacecorpsconnect.org/climatetestimonies to read their thoughts. A coalition of development, humanitarian and human rights organizations marking the countdown to Copenhagen are facilitating candlelight vigils around the globe to urge world leaders to take meaningful action. Organize a vigil in your community or look for information on events already being planned.
>>Take Action Now
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Coming Up Later This Month...
We anxiously await final news on Peace Corps funding. But that's not all that's coming up over the next few weeks.
- The Winter Issue of WorldView magazine will focus on Revitalizing the Peace Corps. Along with articles on improving and emboldening the agency, the magazine will also include an exclusive interview with new Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams. A member benefit, NPCA members can expect this special edition of WorldView by the end of the month.
- The final report of our MorePeaceCorps Better, Bolder Survey will be released later this month. While we have already issued preliminary findings, you can expect a final report within the next three weeks.
- 2010 Advocacy Priorities: Thanks to those of you who took part in our outreach regarding 2010 advocacy priorities. A final decision on priorities is expected as early as next week.
- 2009 Advocacy Year-in-Review: It's been quite a year. In place of our January monthly update, be on the lookout as we will look back on advocacy efforts throughout 2009.
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Featured Advocate: Helene Ballmann Dudley -
Miami, FL
Following her Peace Corps service in Colombia (68-70) and Albania/Slovakia (97-99), Helene Dudley remained committed to the Peace Corps community, serving in leadership of the South Florida RPCVs and on the NPCA Board of Directors. She has also been an active advocate on Peace Corps and other issues through her efforts with NPCA and organizations ranging from the League of Women Voters to RESULTS.
One very important way Helene has taken action is with the power of the pen. With an interest in journalism since her student days at St. Louis Unviersity, Helene has for many years incorporated letters to the editor and opinion pieces in her advocacy and Peace Corps Third Goal activities. Her first letter, published in the Miami Herald in 1979, decried US support for unjust but friendly regimes that were increasingly hated and eventually overthrown by their own people. In recent years, Helene's topics of commentary include The Colombia Project (a program of the Friends of Colombia) and raising awareness of Peace Corps.
The impact of such advocacy is often noted when Helene receives messages from friends and professional acquaintences who have read her submissions. That type of response recently came in another form - when Helen received positive feedback from fellow RPCVs who read an article she wrote in the South Florida group newsletter on the importance of taking such action. You can read the article by following this link.
Congratulations to Helene and other RPCVs who extend Third Goal activities and public policy advocacy through the media.
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This Month's Featured Advocate:
Helene Dudley
(Colombia
Albania/Slovakia)
Miami, FL
Read More Below!
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...One stop shop for all your holiday needs!
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Peace Corps and World AIDS Day
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ORGANIZATIONS REFERENCED IN THIS MONTH'S ADVOCACY NEWS |
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NPCA joined Friends of the Earth and other key NGOs in an advertisement urging action on climate change
(caution: 3.99 MB)
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| 17,096
That's the number of individuals connecting and engaging through
Connected Peace Corps
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