USHLI: Making a Difference October 20 Weekly Update In This Issue Time to Defeat Vitter-Bennett Amendment Once and For All! Career Day to be Held this Thursday at St. Augustine College in Chicago Coming Soon: Southeast Student Leadership Conference in Orlando, FL Thought for the Week Upcoming Dates USHLI Regional Student Leadership Conferences Southeast Disney's Coronado Springs Resort Orlando, FL November 6-7, 2009 Other USHLI Conferences Latino Students en Marcha - Career and College Fair St. Augustine College Chicago, IL October 22, 2009 Hacia Metas Mas Altas- Reaching for Higher Ground Conference Purdue University Calumet Hammond, IN November 6, 2009 USHLI National Conference Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers Chicago, IL February 17-20, 2010 Past Issues October 13 Weekly Update October Monthly Newsletter September 29 Weekly Update Archive of All Past Issues Video Services Provided By Time to Defeat Vitter-Bennett Amendment Once and For All! The pressure is working! The letters and phone calls pouring in to the offices of targeted Senators is paying off, as the Senate continues to hold off a vote on what would be a disastrous amendment to the appropriations bill for Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS). The bill is crucial to funding the 2010 Census, which the Vitter-Bennett amendment would torpedo. The strategy now is to contact Senate Democrats and urge them to vote for cloture on the appropriations bill, which would effectively render the Vitter-Bennett amendment irrelevant to the bill and kill its forward progress. If the cloture vote fails, a vote on the Vitter-Bennett amendment will be scheduled and we will need everyone to contact targeted Senators again and urge them to vote no. Passage of the amendment would have the following adverse affects: irresponsibly waste 7.7 billion of dollars violate existing U.S. law that requires the Census Bureau to submit the topics to be asked in the enumeration to Congress three years in advance and the actual questions two years in advance delay implementation of the Census on April 1, 2010 preclude the Census Bureau from presenting to the President of the United States a complete enumeration of the American people by January 1, 2010 as required by the Constitution preclude the Census Bureau from meeting the April 1, 2010 deadline for releasing Census data to the American people for the purpose of redistricting as required by the Constitution virtually ensure that millions of undocumented workers and possibly all non-citizens will not respond to the Census effectively depriving cities and states of tens of billions of dollars in federal funds over the coming decade Click here for a list of Senate Democrats to call and urge them to support a cloture vote. Click here for a list of targeted Senators to call and urge them to vote against the Vitter-Bennett amendment in the event the cloture vote fails. Career Day to be Held this Thursday at St. Augustine College in Chicago USHLI will sponsor a Career Day this Thursday, October 22, from 9:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at St. Augustine College, located at 1345 West Argyle Street. High school students will hear Dr. Rosita Lopez, a nationally prominent motivational speaker, obtain information on financial aid, and explore the numerous opportunities that St. Augustine has to offer. The Career Day is free and open to all students who will receive a light lunch, courtesy of St Augustine's culinary students. Counselors, students, and other interested persons are urged to contact Isabel Reyes or Ricardo Lopez for more information on attending our Career Day at St. Augustine College. Both can be reached at 312-427-8683 or ireyes@ushli.org and rlopez@ushli.org, respectively. Coming Soon: Southeast Student Leadership Conference in Orlando, FL The last of USHLI's five 2009 regional student leadership conferences will be held November 6-7, 2009, at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL. Addressing the Southeast Student Leadership Conference will be Pegine Echevarria, MSW, Dr. Juan Andrade, Jr. , and Andres Lara. Students from Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida are expected to attend. The conference will open with team building exercises starting at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. On Saturday, starting at 9:00 a.m., students will hear nationally prominent speakers, attend workshops on advanced leadership skills development training, receive information on graduate school, gain exposure to career opportunities, and learn how to get involved in the 2010 Census. College scholarships will be awarded through a grant from Verizon. The conference will conclude at 5pm. Click here to register online and/or to download the agenda for the two-day conference. Graduate school recruiters, advisors, and students are urged to contact Isabel Reyes or Ricardo Lopez for more information on our Southeast regional student leadership conference. Both can be reached at (312) 427-8683 or ireyes@ushli.org and rlopez@ushli.org, respectively.    Sponsors of USHLI's 2009 regional student leadership conference series have included Verizon, Walt Disney World, AARP, the University of Phoenix and Southwest Airlines.  Potential sponsors for our 2010 leadership conference series are urged to contact Tammy Deavours at (312) 371-8683 or tdeavours@ushli.org.   Thought for the Week "I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here." --  George W. Bush, speaking at President's Economic Forum, Waco, Texas, August 2002