Government Affairs Update Week of December 3, 2010
Date Posted: 12/07/2010
 In this week’s update, you will find information about:
LAME DUCK SESSION It has been a busy couple of weeks on Capitol Hill with many questions beginning to be answered and several key pieces of legislation beginning to take shape. Since the last NHSA Government Affairs Update, here are a few of the items impacting Head Start that has been looked at and/or acted on:
In order for Head Start/Early Head Start to avoid cuts and maintain all slots, the best possible scenario is the first, an omnibus bill. A long-term CR if it had an exception for Head Start/Early Head Start could also work. It is now our job as a community to tell Congress to support either an omnibus bill or a long-term CR with a Head Start/Early Head Start exception that set funding levels for Head Start/Early Head Start at 8.2 billion for FY 2011. ACT NOW! See below. SUPPORT HEAD START Earlier this week, we sent out an alert requesting the Head Start community to go to the Support Head Start website and send a letter to Congress and the White House urging support for Head Start funding. In just 4 days, you sent over 7,000 letters to Congress and over 2,000 letters to the White House. EXCELLENT WORK!!!!! We would like to specifically applaud the efforts of California, Michigan, and Minnesota for generating the most letters. Particular kudos to the 7th Congressional district in Minnesota and several districts in Michigan who submitted more letters than most states and even a couple of regions combined! Great work California, Minnesota, and Michigan! We also thank the parents and programs in Mississippi who were calling in as we were waiting in Senator Cochran’s office to meet with him. All of these efforts do not go unnoticed – together we can and do make a difference. If you have not submitted your letter yet, it is not too late to do so…in fact this is the perfect time to do it! As Congress delayed the final decision on FY2011 appropriation, the next two weeks are vital for getting your voice heard and influencing the end result. Click here to visit the site. The steps are very, very easy and it literally takes only a minute. Then get as many parents and friends of Head Start to weigh in! MAP ADVOCACY TOOL In an effort to support the advocacy for the Head Start increase in 2011 appropriations, we have gone one step further from the good-looking state-by-state fact sheets that our team, led by Ben Allen, produced earlier this year. This handy interactive map will give you the figures on slots and jobs that would be lost state by state if the budget is not $8.2 b (or almost that) that you can then forward to the federal/state/district office of your Member of Congress and your media contacts. And you can also click on your state fact sheet and download the pdf to leave with your district Congressional staff. Please pass this information on! The url address for the map is: http://www.nhsa.org/news_and_ NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING ON RECOMPETITION We just want to pass along a friendly reminder to finish getting your comments together on the NPRM and submit them to ACF. Comments are due to ACF by December 21, 2010. Once you submit your comments to ACF, please forward them to NHSA. Also, make sure you think proactively and feel free to come up with new ideas! If you have any other questions or to submit your comments, please email yourvoiceonrecompetition@nhsa. BUDGET COMMISSION The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, created by President Obama, released a proposal to reduce the federal deficit this past week. The plan received criticism and support from both Democrats and Republicans when it was released early this week. The proposal recommended making substantial cuts in military spending, increasing the retirement age and eliminating tax breaks. Although the proposal received bipartisan support from the 18-member panel, it failed to be passed falling 3 votes short of the required 14 vote mark. Thus the plan will not be considered by Congress. To view the proposal, click here. PARENT CONFERENCE Even though NHSA’s Parent Conference is in one week, it is still not too late to register! Click here for more information. There will be countless opportunities for networking, professional development, advocacy, and fun at the conference, but we wanted to highlight just a couple below: 1. The opening session for the conference will be headlined by speeches from Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Office of Head Start Director Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, both tremendous leaders and champions of Head Start. 2. Sessions by NHSA’s Legislative Associate Tommy Sheridan on Advocacy 101, Policy Council 101, and Legislative Update. Contact Tommy for more information on these sessions attsheridan@nhsa.org. 3. Sessions by NHSA’s Public Policy and Research Director Ben Allen on the History of Head Start, Home Visiting Programs, Parent Engagement in Head Start, and Head Start 101. Contact Ben for more information on these sessions at ballen@nhsa.org. 4. NHSA Government Affairs Department’s Advocacy booth, located in the exhibit hall. Government Affairs staff will be there to help you send a letter to Congress, identify who represents you in Congress, and learn more about advocacy/current legislative affairs. We can’t wait to see you in Virginia Beach! Click here for more information. * * * © National Head Start Association, 2010. All rights reserved. Please feel free to redistribute this NHSA Update in its entirety to your networks. When you do so, please ensure that NHSA is credited with its contents. Forwarding this email in this original form is sufficient observation of the copyright. |