[NLA] Info: Update on FY'03 Advocacy Efforts

[Jon Randall]

Thanks for all your efforts to protect FY'03 adult education
funding! You can stop faxing and calling now.

At 10:43 PM on Monday, the Committee for Education Funding
reports that members of the House and Senate conference
committee are meeting tonight to mark up H.J. Res. 2, the FY
03 Omnibus Appropriations bill.  Access is extremely limited
and even staff is being turned away.  The Rules Committee
will meet tomorrow evening at 7pm to consider and report
rules for the consideration of H.J. Res. 2.  The House is
expected to vote on the Conference Report on Wednesday in
order to give the Senate time to clear the bill before the
President's day weeklong recess.

According to a few Hill sources, education may receive an
additional $3 to $3.5 billion over FY 02 but the figures are
not yet final.  There is no word on distribution by program
as of yet. It is very unlikely that adult education will
receive any part of the rumored increase. We hope there will
NOT be across-the-board cuts to offset increases in some
programs - but won't know for sure until Wednesday at the
earliest.

Here's a list of letters and calls from feedback I gathered
from various listservs. I've included any numbers that were
reported. Where no numbers are indicated, it may be one
advocate's contact or an undisclosed number of contacts.
Thanks again for all of your hard work!

2003 Appropriations Push ...

SENATORS CONTACTED:
CT ... Lieberman (# from adult learners)
IL ... Durbin & Fitzgerald
IA ... Harkin & Grassley
LA ... Breaux & Landrieu
MD ... Sarbanes & Mikulski
MA ... Kennedy & Kerry (38)
MN ... Dayton & Coleman
MO ... Bond
MT ... Baucus & Burns
NH ... Gregg
NJ ... Lautenberg & Corzine (78 + others from NJALL)
NY ... Clinton & Schumer (534+)
NC ... Edwards & Dole
OH ... DeWine & Voinovich (2)
PA ... Specter & Santorum (2 + "hundreds" from PAACE)
RI ... Reed & Chaffee (2)
SC ... Hollings and Graham (3+)
TX ... Hutchison

CONGRESSPERSONS CONTACTED:
CT ... Larson & Simmons (letters from students)
IL ... LaHood
IA ... Latham
LA ... Jefferson; Vitter
MD ... VanHollen
MA ... Capuano (4); Tierney (34)
MN ... Gutknecht; Ramstad; and Sabo
MT ... Rehberg
NH ... Bass (2); Bradley; Sununu
NJ ... Ferguson; Holt
NY ... Engel (# from adult learners); Fossella; Meeks (250
from adult learners); Nadler; Owens; Serrano (# from adult
learners); Wiener
NC ... Price
OH ... Kucinich; Strickland; Portman
PA ... Doyle; Fattah; Murtha; Peterson; Sherwood (many from
PAACE)
RI ... Kennedy
SC ... Barrett; Clyburn; & Wilson
TX ... Doggett

Stay tuned and thanks again!

Best,
Jon

Jon Randall
Consultant, Government Relations
ProLiteracy Worldwide
and Public Policy Committee Chair
National Coalition for Literacy
www.natcoalitionliteracy.org

ProLiteracy Worldwide continues to underwrite
the coordination of NCL policy efforts
www.proliteracy.org

FedStrategics, LLC
8413 Park Crest Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Tel: (301) 588-5304   Fax: (301) 588-5353
jrandall at FedStrategics.com



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