—October 2011

By Jackie Taylor and Ellen Fern

Action items are listed first in this month’s update:

• American Jobs Act (Action)
• WIA Reauthorization (Action)
• Budget and Appropriations (Update)
• Joint Deficit Reduction Committee (Update)
• ESEA Reauthorization (Update)
• Advocacy Workshops & Tools
• 2012 House Calendar and Congressional Visits

American Jobs Act

A few weeks ago, the American Jobs Act was brought to the Senate floor where it died quickly. The only way both Democrats and Republicans…

Advocacy Updates

WIA Reauthorization

On Thursday, June 9, the Senate released a discussion draft of Title I of the proposed Workforce Investment Act reauthorization for stakeholder comment. Titles II – VI are being released separately over the next several days. The National Coalition for Literacy is analyzing the draft and preparing recommendations to submit to the HELP Committee staff by this Friday, June 17. To ensure you receive a copy of NCL’s recommendations, subscribe to our blog’s RSS feed or follow us on…

NCL held its first-ever Congressional Hill Briefing on May 12 in co-sponsorship with the House Adult Literacy Caucus. Thank you to Jennifer Foster, Steve Reder, and Alex Quinn who came to DC to present on their cutting-edge projects and thank you to all who attended. It was great to have so many people there to discuss 21^st Century Solutions to Adult Literacy. That we had both co-chairs there to talk about these issues, take our questions, and provide guidance for our advocacy work was a real benefit. Check out the ]]> http://blog.ncladvocacy.org/2011/06/presidents-update-june-2011/feed/ 1 http://blog.ncladvocacy.org/2011/06/aelatest-on-the-hill/ http://blog.ncladvocacy.org/2011/06/aelatest-on-the-hill/#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 13:49:25 +0000 Jackie Taylor http://blog.ncladvocacy.org/?p=3417 Adult Education’s Latest on the Hill

On May 20, the House reached its deadline to submit its programmatic funding priorities to Chairman Rehberg (R-MT), as reported in NCL’s May 22 Update. This was a quick turnaround for signatures, and advocates did well in calling attention to this opportunity to their House Members. Final Copy of Roe-Hinojosa Letter

Several of you received commitments from your House Member to sign on, but given the time constraints…

By Ellin Nolan and Jackie Taylor

Friday the 13th. It always has an ominous ring and, for education advocates, given last week’s events, this day was no exception. On Wednesday, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) announced…

By Jackie Taylor and Ellen Fern

FY2011 Appropriations

Congressional leaders agreed late Friday to a compromise that will keep the federal government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year—averting a government shutdown less than an hour before it was set to start. They also passed a short-term resolution that would fund the federal government through Friday, April 15.

By passing  a new, one-week extension, both chambers were given the time to work out the legislative language for a final agreement to cut an…

FY2011 Appropriations Update—Is it Over Yet?

The 6th short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) will expire on April 8th.  Early reports indicated that talks between the House and Senate were not going well and that a government shutdown was more likely. However, today’s new development reveals a tentative agreement on a package that cuts an additional $23 billion compared to current funding, $33 billion compared to FY2010, or a total of $73 billion compared to President Obama’s FY2011 budget proposal.

Speaker Boehner had directed the Appropriations staff to…

Even Start’s funding was eliminated as part of the CR that ended last Friday, March 18, 2011. Even Start has often been widely misunderstood and inaccurately reported as ineffective. Below is a letter from Barbara Van Horn, Reading Co-Director of the  Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy and Board Member with the National Coalition for Literacy, who sets the facts straight about Even Start Family Literacy.

Action Request: To add Even Start back to the full year FY2011 Continuing Resolution, a congressional champion must advocate and negotiate for it as part of the FY2011 long-term CR negotiations. http://blog.ncladvocacy.org/?p=2816 By Jackie Taylor and Washington Partners

• Save Even Start
• Congressional Visit Campaign

If the 2-week stop-gap continuing resolution (CR) is passed without changes to Even Start, then Even Start will be eliminated. In addition to calling your legislators to save Even Start, it is critical that we get all Members of Congress to visit adult education and family literacy programs while they are back home. Congress has scheduled Constituent Work Weeks each month for legislators to travel back…

Friends and colleagues,

We are up against a tough Congress that has strong momentum for cutting spending. Additionally, NCL heard that WIA reauthorization is likely to be one of the first items to be considered in the new Congress. Does your Member of Congress have the most recent information on adult education in your community? It’s time to update the 112^th Congress about the importance of adult education before they are faced with difficult decisions that will impact it.

Action Request:

Who: Program

…