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National Council of State Directors of Adult Education |
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Policy Alerts
MEMORANDUM To: Single Point of Contact Network
From: Art Ellison, Co‑Chair, Policy Committee, NCSDAE
Date: May 31, 2005
Re: House Appropriations Sub‑Committee Markup Date and Update on Contacts from Tennessee We have been informed that the House Appropriations Sub‑Committee Markup Date is set for June 9. This means that we have only 9 days left for contacts with the members of that sub‑committee. Many of them are at home during this week but their primary staff are still in Washington. In addition to contacts with the Subcommittee members we must also intensify with our efforts with those members who support our position, but are not on the Appropriations Sub‑Committee. The request for those members continues to be that they contact Representative Regula in writing indicating their support for our funding. This applies to any member who did not sign the Dear Colleague Letter, particularly members of the Republican Party. The markup on June 9 is extremely important since the figure that is established for adult education funding may well be the final figure that is eventually approved by the full Appropriations Committee and the full House. After June 9 we will be able to develop further strategies for specific contacts with members from those groups. Attached below is a report from the Tennessee folks indicating progress in their efforts to gain support for our appropriation from members of the Tennessee delegations in both the House and Senate. If you have any questions about how they are going about this work, please contact Jackie Taylor. Keep up the good work right though June 9, and beyond. This is a long journey filled with many key decisions and we are approaching one of the most important. MEMORANDUM To: Single Point of Contact Network
From: Art Ellison, Co‑Chair, Policy Committee, NCSDAE
Date: May 23, 2005
Re: Action Alert‑Congressional Recess and Appropriations Committee Contacts We are moving rapidly toward final decisions on the budgets in both the House and Senate. In appears that we have had sufficient impact in both Houses of Congress so that one of the current scenarios has an overall cut for education programs rather than wiping out some and fully funding others. While this might be the final outcome when the process is complete we are continuing with our campaign TO FULLY FUND ADULT EDUCATION. I Visits with members The week of May 30 through June 3 is the last Congressional recess in which we can have maximum impact on members of Congress. We are asking that you try to schedule meetings in your state during this time period. The meetings can be arranged by contacting the member's local office or the scheduling person in the Washington office. If you met previously with the member you do not need to schedule another meeting unless you feel that it would be helpful.
FOR THESE VISITS WE ARE FOCUSING ON MEMBERS OF THE APPROPRIATIONS SUB‑COMMITTEES, FULL APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEES AND ALL REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE AND SENATE. The highest priority are the Subcommittee members: House‑Republicans‑Regula‑Ohio, Chair,Istook‑Oklahoma, Wicker‑Mississippi, Northup‑Kentucky, Cunningham‑California, Granger‑Texas, Peterson‑Pennsylvania, Sherwood‑Pennsylvania, Weldon‑Florida, Walsh‑New York. Democrats‑Obey‑Wisconsin, Hoyer‑Maryland, Lowey‑New York, DeLauro‑Connecticut, Jackson‑Illinois, Kennedy‑Rhode Island, Roybal‑Allard‑California Senate‑Republicans‑Specter‑Pennsylvania, Cochran‑Mississippi, Gregg‑New Hampshire, Craig‑Idaho, Hutchison‑Texas, Stevens‑Alaska, DeWine‑Ohio, Shelby‑Alabama, Democrats‑Harkin‑Iowa, Inouye‑Hawaii, Reid‑Nevada, Kohl‑Wisconsin, Murray‑Washington, Landrieu‑Louisiana, Durbin‑Illinois II Contacts with Appropriations Sub‑Committee members, Appropriations Committee members and Republicans We need further contacts with all of the Representatives and Senators included in the categories above. We are asking for two different actions: a telephone call from a key member of your network to the education aide in each office asking for a definite answer to the question, "Will the member support full funding for adult education" and a series of telephone calls to the Washington office asking the member to support full funding for adult education. Neither of these actions needs to be taken with members who have indicated support for our funding through the Dear Colleague Letters, etc. If the Appropriations Committee member is a Republican but not on the Subcommittee and supports our funding then the request would be for the member to contact the Sub‑committee chair indicating his or her support (Regula or Specter). If the Representative or Senator is a Republican but not on the Appropriations Committee and supports our position the request should be to have the member of Congress also contact the Appropriations Sub‑Committee Chair (Regula or Specter) Feedback‑ We need feedback from the State networks on the result of the calls to the Appropriations Committee members. Please email me with that information as soon as possible. It would be helpful if we information on the position of the member on our funding using the following scale: favorable, leaning favorably, neutral/would not commit, leaning unfavorably, unfavorable. I understand how much work it will take to get this information and forward it to me, but at this stage of our campaign we need to know where members stand. I will not be away this week so that you can relay the information to me by email or telephone (603‑271‑6698). Thank you again for your work. MEMORANDUM To: Single Point of Contact Network
From: Art Ellison, Co‑Chair, Policy Committee, NCSDAE
Date: May 19, 2005
Re: Senate WIA Reauthorization Bill The National Council of State Directors staff in report that the WIA Reauthorization Bill approved yesterday by the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee contains few if any changes from the bill that they approved in the last Congressional session. Based upon the turmoil around the confirmation of federal justices we do not have a projected date for Senate consideration of the WIA legislation. I will notify you when the side by side comparison of the House version, the Senate Committee version and the current law is posted on the National Council of State Directors website.
MEMORANDUM To: Single Point of Contact Network
From: Art Ellison, Co Chair, Policy Committee, NCSDAE
Date: May 18, 2005
Re: Rambling Thoughts on Congressional Contacts As we all gone through the process of developing relationships with the staffs of Congressional offices a number of interesting observations have emerged. If you have addition perspectives from your experience and would like to share them, please send them along to me. 1. In many cases the member's staff in the office does not communicate well with the member's staff on his or her committee. We have had several instances where the office staff understood our issue but that information never made it to the member's staff on the committee. Hopefully now that we have a complete directory of staff members this will not continue to be a problem. This situation has come into play when a member is on the Appropriations Committee or the authorizing committee for WIA reauthorization. In some cases the staff in the member's office and those who work for the member on the committee are not physically located together. 2. The lesson learned here is to make sure that we have direct contact with the member's staff that is responsible for our issue. Follow up on communications is required. Letters get put into piles, messages don't get delivered, also remember that we are dealing with busy people who are trying to work on multiple tasks all at the same time. Most of you have handle this issue very well by asking for a specific action or information, then getting a commitment from the staff person that he or she will call you within 48 hours with the answer, if that does not happen you are back on the telephone again. 3. Information sometimes needs to be communicated more than once. Our Washington staff and you have sent information on legislation along to member's staff only to learn at a later date that the information which was received and acknowledged weeks ago has been "forgotten". This may be related to a timing issue. The relevant information, particularly around committee and sub‑committee hearings, needs to be communicated as close to the meeting times as possible. 4. We can see that the relationships developed with Congressional staff must be continuous, at some point you may want to be sending information about the programs and students in your state so that we are not always contacting them to ask for something, on the other hand they work for us so don’t hesitate to make the request. We also need to know when new staff replace those with whom we have been working so that we can begin a dialogue with the new person.
MEMORANDUM
To:
Single Point of Contact Network From: Art Ellison, Cochair, Policy Committee, National Council of State
Directors of Adult Education
Date:
May 17, 2005 Re: Action Alert‑PART Analysis‑House and Senate Appropriation Committee Members As many of you know one of the issues causing us problems over our appropriation with members of Congress is the PART Evaluation (Performance Assessment Rating Tool) issue on adult education programs by the Office of Management and Budget. This flawed document is being used by the Bush Administration to justify the cut. In order to counter the effect of that report with members of Congress we are asking that the attached PART analysis be transmitted by someone in the state network to the educational staffer for any member of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees from your state. Immediate action should be taken to insure that the Sub Committee members of those committees get this information as soon as possible. The members of the subcommittees are listed below. If you do not have the listing for the entire committees, let me know. House‑Appropriations Sub Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies‑Republicans‑Chair Regula‑Ohio, Istook‑Oklahoma, Wicker‑Mississippi, Northup‑Kentucky, Cunningham‑California, Granger‑Texas, Peterson‑Pennsylvania, Sherwood‑Pennsylvania, Weldon‑Florida, Walsh‑New York. Democrats‑Obey‑Wisconsin, Hoyer‑Maryland, Lowey‑New York, DeLauro‑Connecticut, Jackson‑Illinois, Kennedy‑Rhode Island, Roybal‑Allard‑California Senate‑Appropriations Sub Committee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies‑ Republicans‑Chair‑Specter‑Pennsylvania, Cochran‑Mississippi, Gregg‑New Hampshire, Craig‑Idaho, Hutchison‑Texas, Stevens‑Alaska, DeWine‑Ohio, Shelby‑Alabama Democrats‑Harkin‑Iowa, Inouye‑Hawaii, Reid‑Nevada, Kohl‑Wisconsin, Murray‑Washington, Landrieu‑Louisiana, Durbin‑Illinois Please let me know if you need further information on this matter.
MEMORANDUM To: Single Point of Contact Network Members with Senators on Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
From:
Art Ellison, Co‑Chair, Policy Committee, NCSDAE
Date:
May 16, 2005 Re: National Council of State Directors Comments on Proposed Senate WIA Reauthorization Bill Attached is the document that we would like you to send to the key staff people in the offices of Senators on the HELP Committee. You can see that we have focused on four issues that we would like changed in the version of the bill that the committee will be considering on May 18. They relate to One‑Stop Infrastructure funding, Incentive Grant funding, Performance Indicators: increased earnings and Performance Accountability Reporting: 16‑18 year olds. If you or staff members have any questions, let me know. Thank you again for your work.
MEMORANDUM To: SPOCs with Senators on the HELP Committee From: Lennox McLendon Special Advisor, NCSDAE Date: May 12, 2005 RE: Preparing for the Senate Mark‑Up on 5/18 ACTION ALERT!!!! Art Ellison is tied up and he asked me to send this URGENT note to you. Please get ready. The Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee is scheduled to consider their new WIA bill on Wednesday, May 18. Because your state has a Senator on the HELP Committee, here is what you can do to help. Here is the plan: 1. Call the education staff person on your Senators committee before Friday (13th) noon (follow up with an email). Tell her/him that : "the National Council of State Directors of Adult Education is reviewing the Senate WIA reauthorization bill and will have comments on it on Monday afternoon, May 16. We are finalizing the critical issues and I will forward them to you on Monday." If he/she asks what the issues are, tell him/her that we are cutting them down to the two or three that are most critical and you will get them to them on Monday. Ask her/him: "What is the best way to get these issues to you, email or fax?" Ask for the correct email address or fax number. Tell him/her: "Shortly after I send it to you on Monday, I will call to ensure that you got it." 2. By early afternoon Monday May 16, we will send to you two or three "fall on our sword" issues that we want them to consider prior to the mark up on Wednesday. 3. You can forward those issues (email or fax) to the staff person on Monday afternoon. 4. Follow up with a phone call and do not stop until you have talked with the staff to ensure that he/she got the email or fax. Thank you for your help. These are critical times and we need to act NOW. CC: State Directors Attachment MEMORANDUM To: Single Point of Contact Network From: Art Ellison, Co‑Chair, Policy Committee, National Council of State Directors of Adult Education Re: Listing of US House Members and Their Educational Staffers Attached is the listing of all members of the US House and the name of each educational staffer. Many of you already have this information but this format may be useful for you to share with your network. If members of your network have not yet been in contact with the educational staffer for each US Representative in your state delegation, THIS ACTION SHOULD TAKE PLACE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE WITH THE REQUEST FOR FULL FUNDING OF OUR PROGRAM. I will send the Senate list within a few minutes. Keep up the great work.
MEMORANDUM To: Single Point of Contact Network From: Art Ellison, Co‑Chair, Policy Committee, National Council of State Directors of Adult Education Date: May 9, 2005 Re: Tiimeframes and Planning for Summer Actions Several of you have asked for some guidance around the timelines for legislative action on appropriations and WIA reauthorization. Here is my best guess on both: Timeframes There were early indications that the both the Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate wanted to get WIA reauthorization finished by June 30, 2005, the end of the current one year extension. While this is still possible it is less likely since the bipartisan tone in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has changed. We still expect to ask the Single Point of Contact network for focused messages to member of this committee sometime this month. If legislative process does not produce a new bill by June 30, 2005 we will be looking at additional extensions to the current legislation. The appropriations process will continue in the House and Senate through the summer and into September. We will be asking for contacts with House and Senate Appropriations Committee members and perhaps members of the entire House and Senate during this time. Planning for Summer Actions Since many adult education programs close for the summer we will be losing a substantial part of our letter writing and telephone contact base from June through Sept. In order to compensate for this situation some states are developing at the local level internet group lists of staff and in some cases students that could be used for contacts during the summer. While this will not replace the number of people available during the school year it should provide the resource that you will need if 200‑300 calls are needed within a short period of time. If any of you come up with other ways to keep people in the loop during the summer please send them along to me so that I can share them with the network. It was good to see some of you at the COABE conference and to hear first hand the wonderful work that is going on. The gathering of 100‑120 people allowed us to focus on the great distance that we have come and recommit to the final goal of our effort.
Last Updated: 07/25/2005 |
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Contact us: Dr. Lennox
McLendon; 444 North Capitol Street, NW; Suite 422; Washington, DC 20001 |
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