Public Policy
**Call to Action**
Help strengthen the AmeriCorps program
AmeriCorps is proving to be a very powerful public service program for our country. Since it was created in 1993, over 540,000 Americans of all ages and backgrounds have volunteered as AmeriCorps members, enabling non-profits and other community services programs to enlist the abilities and enthusiasm of AmeriCorps members in their important work.
Rebuilding Together is a strong supporter of the AmeriCorps program and has itself received the benefits of working with its members. In 2008 Rebuilding Together CapacityCorps is being launched, which will place 44 AmeriCorps members with 26 affiliates in 16 states.
S. 3037, The ACTION Act
Senator Dodd introduced S. 3037, the ‘AmeriCorps: Together Improving Our Nation’ Act (ACTION Act), which would strengthen the AmeriCorps program by:
• Raising the National Service Educational Award from $4725 to $6185
• Making the award tax exempt
• Providing for better coordination between AmeriCorps and federal agencies carrying out national service programs
• Giving cabinet level status to the chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service (which administers AmeriCorps)
Getting many other Senators to lend their name to S. 3037 will indicate that Senator Dodd has the support necessary to get the bill passed. So, the more cosponsors the better!
Read the more about Rebuilding Together's support of S. 3037
ACT NOW
Please contact your two United States Senators today to ask that they cosponsor S. 3037, the ACTION Act, introduced by Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut.
Please write a letter today!
Download a draft letter, which you are encouraged to adapt by including details about your affiliate. On your affiliate letterhead, please prepare one for each of your United States Senators, and fax them or email them as soon as possible. (Do not send by regular US mail because it is greatly delayed due to security checks and procedures.)
Please also fax or email a copy to Stephanie Berning at RT National at 202-483-0426, or sberning@rebuildingtogether.org.
Find your Senators' email and fax information now online.
If you need assistance, please call Stephanie Berning at 1-800-473-4229 or email her.
NOTE:
Twelve Senators have already joined onto S. 3037 as cosponsors.
They are:
Evan Bayh, Ind.
Thad Cochran, Miss.
Robert Casey, Pa.
Hillary Clinton, N.Y.
Daniel Inouye, Hawaii
Edward Kennedy, Mass.
Blanche Lincoln, Ark.
Robert Menendez, N.J.
Barbara Mikulski, Md.
John Rockefeller, W. Va.
Gordon Smith, Ore.
Sheldon Whitehouse, R.I.
For these 12, please adapt the first and last paragraphs to thank them for having already cosponsored S. 3037.
Thank you for your help in this advocacy effort to strengthen the Rebuilding Together Affiliate Network.