Bipartisan Dear Colleague Letter Urges Members to Co-sponsor HR 2269 as Hurricane Season Begins
Dear Friends,
We've seen bailouts for Wall Street and a bailout for Main Street, but what a bailout for the forgotten streets of New Orleans and recovering communities along the Gulf Coast as another Hurricane Season begins? If we can work to sway 100 leaders in Washington, we can help bring justice to the survivors of our nation's most devastating disasters, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Families across Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas continue to endure homelessness, poverty, abusive labor practices, the collapse of local institutions and rampant inequality in addition to the threats of environmental degradation and climate change.
On June 1st, five members of Congress Charlie Melancon (D-LA), Joseph Cao (R-LA), Rodney Alexander (R-LA), Gene Taylor (D-MS) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) sent a letter to each of their members of Congress asking them to mark the beginning of Hurricane Season by co-sponsoring the bi-partisan Gulf Coast Civic Works Act of 2009 (HR 2269) to rebuild and sustain the Gulf Coast region.
They said, "It is the responsibility of every Member of Congress to ensure that the federal government responds to the needs of all Americans"
We need to join them in telling our legislators, now is the time to make good on our national responsibilities and pass this vital legislation.
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5107/t/5835/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1375
If we can gather enough grassroots support to convince 100 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to co-sponsor the bill, we have a solid chance at eventually passing this vital legislation. To do this we need tens of thousands of people across the country to make the voices of hurricane survivors be heard!
Three and a half years after Hurricane Katrina, America's Gulf Coast remains a domestic human rights crisis. President Barack Obama called the federal response to the storms and levee breaches "unconscionable ineptitude" and campaigned on a platform calling the recovery "a national shame." Still at the beginning of the 2009 Hurricane Season, New Orleans levees remains vulnerable, tens of thousands of people have not been able to return home, and residents continue to struggle for access to affordable housing and living wage jobs.
As Americans, this crisis demands a bold response and now is the time for action. Local communities and legislators are now lining up behind this legislation as a vital step for just recovery as part of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign but they need your support.
Can you ask your Member of Congress to co-sponsor the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act?
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5107/t/5835/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1375
- Or -
www.troublethewaterfilm.com/writecongress
To read the "Dear Colleague" letter, click here: http://www.troublethewaterfilm.com/page/-/Gulf%20Coast%20Civic%20Works%20Act%20Dear%20Colleague.pdf
Peace and Justice
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