Advocacy

61 and Counting! Peace Corps Funding Signatures Grow

By Jonathan Pearson on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

Capitol Hill advocates from the District of Columbia held five meetings with congressional offices on March 1st

Thanks to your efforts, 61 Senators and Congressmen/women have signed – so far -letters urging strong funding support for the Peace Corps.  Please read this update and keep taking appropriate action.

SENATE

As of Wednesday morning, here are the nine Senators who signed the Feinstein-Isakson Dear Colleague letter: Akaka (HI), Bingaman (NM), Feinstein (CA), Isakson (GA), Merkley (OR), Mikulski (MD), Sanders (VT), Whitehouse (RI) and Wyden (OR). Please thank these Senators for their support.

For all other Senators, please take the following action.

  • Follow this link for contact information to phone or email your Senators.
  • If you are a constituent of Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) or Lindsey Graham (R-SC) follow this link for a special action.
  • For other Senators, ask them to “Please sign the Feinstein-Isakson Dear Colleague letter in support of strong Peace Corps funding in Fiscal Year 2013.”
  • If you are sending an e-mail to your Senators, you can use the sample message below as a guide.  We encourage you to personalize your message if time allows.

HOUSE

As of Wednesday morning, here are the 52 Congressmen/women who signed the Farr-Petri-Honda-Garamendi Dear Colleague letter (Please thank these lawmakers for their support).

(Most recent additions to this list are in bold)

Arizona: Grijalva
California: Berman, Capps, Farr, Filner, Garamendi, Honda, Lee, Lofgren, Richardson, Stark, Woolsey
Connecticut:  Courtney
District of Columbia:  Norton
Florida: Hastings
Georgia: Lewis
Guam: Bordallo
Hawaii: Hirono
Illinois: Rush, Schakowsky
Maine:  Michaud
Massachusetts:  McGovern, Tierney
Michigan:  Conyers, Levin
Minnesota:  Ellison
Missouri: Carnahan, Clay
Nevada:  Berkley
New Jersey: Andrews, Payne, Sires
New Mexico: Lujan
New York:  Bishop, Clarke, Hinchey, Maloney, Nadler, Rangel, Slaughter, Towns
Northern Marianas: Sablan
Ohio:  Kucinich, Ryan
Oregon: Blumenauer, DeFazio
Pennsylvania: Holden
Vermont: Welch
Virginia: Moran
Washington: McDermott
Wisconsin: Moore, Petri

For all other Representatives, please take the following action:

  • If you are not sure who your Congressman/woman is, visit www.house.gov and use the “Find Your Representative” link in the upper right corner.
  • If you are a constituent of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY), Congresswomen Kay Granger (R-TX) or Nita Lowey (D-NY), follow this link for a special action.
  • For all others, call your Rep’s office or the Capitol Hill switchboard (202-225-3121) and ask to be connected to the office of your Representative.  If you want to send an email, visit your Reps’ website or follow this link to send your message (you may need your nine digit zip code for this link)
  • Ask your Rep to:  ”Please sign the Farr-Petri-Honda-Garamendi Dear Colleague letter in support of $400 Million for the Peace Corps in Fiscal Year 2013.”
  • If you are sending an email to your Congressman/woman you can use the sample message below as a guide.  We encourage you to personalize your message if time allows.

SAMPLE LETTER – SENATE

(Feel free to use this letter as a guide when writing to your Senator(s).  Personalize if you can.  Include your Peace Corps service and why you believe the Peace Corps is important.)

Dear Senator ______

As a strong supporter of the Peace Corps, I am writing to urge you to please sign the Feinstein-Isakson Dear Colleague letter requesting strong support for Peace Corps funding in Fiscal Year 2013.

As the Peace Corps community embarks on its next 50 years of service to our nation, your support for strong Peace Corps funding will help provide resources that are necessary to support more than 9,000 volunteers and trainees at work in service to our nation.  The Peace Corps remains as one of our nation’s enduring expressions of global friendship and understanding.  More than 200,000 citizens have answered the call to service, while Returned Peace Corps Volunteers provide ongoing service as leaders in communities all across our country.

Here is a link to the Dear Colleague letter:

http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Senate_PC_funding_Dear_Colleague.pdf

To add your name to this letter, please contact Richard Harper in Senator Feinstein’s office, or Chris Sullivan in Senator Isakson’s office.

I thank you in advance for taking positive action to support the Peace Corps.

Sincerely,

(Your Name, Address and Peace Corps Affiliation/if applicable)

SAMPLE LETTER – HOUSE

(Feel free to use this letter as a guide when writing to your Congressman/woman.  Personalize if you can.  Include your Peace Corps service and why you believe the Peace Corps is important.)

Dear Representative ______

As a strong supporter of the Peace Corps, I am writing to urge you to please sign the Farr-Petri-Honda-Garamendi Dear Colleague letter requesting $400 Million for the Peace Corps in Fiscal Year 2013.

As the Peace Corps community embarks on its next 50 years of service to our nation, your support for $400 Million for the Peace Corps will help provide resources that are necessary to support more than 9,000 volunteers and trainees who are at work in service to our nation.  The Peace Corps remains as one of our nation’s enduring expressions of global friendship and understanding.  More than 200,000 citizens have answered the call to service, while Returned Peace Corps Volunteers provide ongoing service as leaders in communities all across our country.

Here is a link to the Dear Colleague letter:

http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/House_PC_funding_Dear_Colleague.pdf

To add your name to this letter, please contact Caitie Whelan Congressman Farr’s office.

I thank you in advance for taking positive action to support the Peace Corps.

Sincerely,

(Your Name, Address and Peace Corps Affiliation/if applicable)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Follow this link for background information on Peace Corps funding

Add a Comment

167 queries in 2.394 seconds.