| With the first week of Washington State's 2008 legislative session finished, Olympia is in full swing. Our alerts will now come weekly with advocacy opportunities on bills and budget issues before the legislature, as well as relevant advocacy events. The bills featured in these alerts are issues included in LPPO's 2008 Legislative Priorities and are selected based on our call to advocate "justice for all." If you find LPPO's alerts valuable, use the "tell a friend" link at the bottom of this email to spread the word! In Peace,
David, Manda, and Paul
|
Lutheran/Faith Advocacy Day 2008.
Last year's Advocacy Day was a great success with over 200 people coming together to worship, learn about legislative issues, connect with other advocates and meet with their legislators. It is not too late to register for this year's Advocacy Day, Tuesday, January 29, 2008. The day will begin in the morning at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Olympia, followed by an afternoon program and legislative meetings at the Capitol. We encourage you to help spread the work in your local congregation and help to organize a group to carpool down to Olympia, better for creation and your wallet! We also have a free bus making stops in Seattle, SeaTac, and Tacoma on its way to Olympia. See the link below for more information.
Click here to register and for more information! |
Support School Meal Accessibility
For the last several years LPPO has consistently advocated for broader access to school nutrition programs as one of our highest legislative priorities. This year is no different. We hope to build on last year's successful elimination of the reduced price co-payment ($.40) for K-3rd grade qualifying students by eliminating the co-payment for ALL qualifying students, pre-K through 12. The complete elimination of the co-pay for school breakfast, and school lunch for K-3 over the last two years has resulted in increased participation in these important hunger and nutrition programs. By expanding the lunch co-payment elimination to cover pre-K through 12, it is projected that participation will increase by about 14,500 students per day or 2.6 million meals during the 08-09 school year! This commitment to combating student hunger and improving student nutrition supports health, development, and education for all children. For more information on school meals visit the Children's Alliance web site.
Take Action!
To cover the cost of eliminating the co-payment for qualifying students pre-K and 4-12, the legislature will need to approve a supplemental budget request of approximately $4 million in its upcoming 2008 session. In past alerts we asked you to contact the governor on this issue, now we are asking you to contact your senator and two state representatives in support of greater access to school meals. Click the link below to send an email to them or give your representatives a call using the legislature's toll free number 1-800-562-6000!
New Americans Initiative
Washington New Americans is a two-pronged policy designed to secure our state's economic future by integrating new immigrants into the economic, civic, and social fabric of Washington. Immigrant integration—a two-way, collaborative process involving both immigrants and receiving communities—has proven to be among the most effective state-level economic development strategies, and our rapidly growing foreign-born population (the nation’s 10th largest) makes it critical for Washington to adopt. We are pleased that Governor Gregoire has already agreed to the first prong of the policy, issuing an Executive Order creating a Statewide Policy Council to spur immigrant integration. We need to build on that success for the second prong of the policy: new funding of $2M per year for three years to spur statewide economic development by broadening the network and capacity of organizations across the state that provide naturalization assistance, and expanding their outreach beyond those on public assistance. This funding is urgently needed—there are 135,000 legal permanent residents eligible to naturalize in
Washington, but state funding now helps only 3,000 public benefits-eligible immigrants per year to naturalize. Addressing this need is a priority for the Church as the ELCA's Message on Immigration calls for "reasonable access to nationality and citizenship for all immigrants admitted for permanent residence."
Take Action!
Send an email (click the link below) or call your legislators and let them know of your support for $2 million in the supplemental budget for 2009 to help organizations provide naturalization assistance to immigrants in need!
Local Farms/Healthy Kids
For the second year, LPPO is a member of Priorities for a Healthy Washington, a statewide, environmental legislative coalition that has been incredibly successful in lobbying for creation care. Along with Earth Ministry, LPPO brings the rich tradition of faith-based enviromental advocacy to the coalition and helps to shape the coalition's shared agenda including Climate Action and Green Jobs, Local Farms/Healthy Kids, Evergreen Cities, and Local Solutions to Global Warming. Local Farms/Health Kids is of particular interest for LPPO as the legislative proposal is marriage of two issues in which the advocacy ministries of the ELCA has been heavily involved; agriculture and hunger. Local Farms/Health Kids will make Washington a national leader in getting locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables to those who need it most by:
Take Action!
Local Farms/Healthy Kids has been assigned a bill number and committee hearing in both the House and the Senate. Senate Bill 6483 will be heard before the Agriculture and Rural Economic Development Committee at 3:30 PM this Thursday, January 24th, and House Bill 2798 will be heard before the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee at 10:00 AM on the same day. If you have the time, we encourage you to attended either of these hearings in support of the legislation. However, if you can't make it down, please call your legislators or click the link below to send them an email.
If you can't make it to Faith Advocacy Day...
Attend Hunger Action Day, February 7th
Help fight hunger! Be a part of the Anti-Hunger and Nutrition Coalition’s Annual Lobby Day - Hunger Action Day!
Thursday, February 7, 2008: 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Action Headquarters: Thurston County Food Bank,
220 Thurston Avenue, NE, Olympia
Highlights of Hunger Action Day include:
- Legislative agenda overview and “Advocacy 101”
- Visit and remarks from anti-hunger advocate, Rep. Eric Pettigrew (37th District)
- Meetings with your legislators - appointments with your legislators can be coordinated for you**
- Meet colleagues from around the state
CLICK THIS LINK TO REGISTER: http://www.childrenshub.org/calliance/events/hungeractionday2008/details.tcl
Even if you can’t come to
Olympia, you still can make your voice heard! Go to the online registration, click on the RSVP button "I can't be there - but I'll send a message to my legislators on Hunger Action Day" The Children's Alliance contact you about sending a message delivered to your legislators on February 7.
**If you live in the following legislative districts (#2, 10, 11, 16, 18, 22, 27, 32, 33, 36, 37, 42, 43, 45, 48), we’ve made it easy: there are already appointments scheduled with your legislator – just register!
Lutheran Public Policy Office of Washington State
Our Partners in Ministry:
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - Division for Church in Society
- Northwest, Southwest, Eastern Washington/Idaho Synods - ELCA
- Lutheran Community Services Northwest
Contact:
766 John Street, Suite B
Seattle, WA 98109
Phone: (206) 464-4133
Fax: (206) 626-0987
Web: www.lppowa.org
Staff:
David Coombs, Assistant for Administration and Programs, dcoombs@lcsnw.org
Manda Truchinski, Seminary Intern, mtruchinski@lcsnw.org
Rev. Paul Benz, Director, pbenz@lcsnw.org
|
