July 2013 national conf call

Bread National Grassroots Conference Call and Webinar

July 16th, 2013

Welcome

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LaVida Davis Director of Organizing and

Grassroots Capacity Building #BreadWeb

Opening Prayer

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Legislative Update

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Eric P. Mitchell

Director of Government Relations

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Amelia Kegan

Senior Policy Analyst

Christine Melendez Ashley

Policy Analyst

Sequestration/Budget

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Sequestration: It’s still happening

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• Cuts are taking place

• About to get worse

• If Congress doesn’t hear about it, Congress won’t fix it

Two big questions

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• How long?

• Who’s paying?

It all comes down to this

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This fall is the best and only shot to address sequestration for the near-term

The Farm Bill

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Senate Farm Bill

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• Cuts SNAP by $4.1 billion – about 400,000 households would lose $90 a month in benefits.

• Improves International Food Aid programs to build greater agricultural capacity in developing countries while making our food aid system more effective and efficient.

• PASSED 66-27

House Farm Bill

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• Attempt #1: cut $20 billion from SNAP and over $2.5 billion from international food aid.

• FAILED 195-234!

House Farm Bill

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• Attempt #2: “Farm only” farm bill

Stripped out nutrition programs

Kept food aid cuts Made new farm law

permanent

• PASSED 216-208

Farm Bill Next Steps

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• Conference committee?

• “Nutrition only” bill in House?

• Extension of current law?

• ??

Food Aid Reform

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Improving International Food Aid

The Administration•Would shift food aid funding from USDA to USAID, and end the inefficient practice of monetization

The Senate•Increases funding for local/regional purchase of food aid to $60 million

The House•$2.5 billion in cuts to food aid•78% cut to food aid quality

Royce-Engel Amendment•4 million more people fed with the same resources •More flexibility•Eliminates monetization•Continues partnership with American agriculture

Foreign Assistance Transparency and Accountability Act

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Foreign Assistance Transparency & Accountability Act (H.R. 2638, S. 1271)) • Introduced by Reps. Ted Poe (R-TX) and Gerry

Connolly (D-VA) and Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD)

• Seeks to achieve the following:– Establish uniform interagency guidelines with

measureable goals, performance metrics, and monitoring and evaluation plans covering all foreign assistance programs administered by U.S. agencies

– Formally put into law the Foreign Assistance Dashboard, and mandates quarterly, program-by-program and country-led updates

Immigration Reform

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Immigration Reform

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Senate passes S. 744; The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act•A person is eligible for registered provisional immigrant (RPI) status within 12 months after DHS gives approval to begin.•After 10 years in RPI status, a person may apply for legal permanent residency (or “green card” status)•An additional 3 years in LPR status is required before a person may apply for U.S. citizenship.

What’s the Biggest Take Away?

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Questions?

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What Does this Mean for You?

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Call to Action

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• Call your Members!!

• Replace sequestration with a balanced plan that protects anti-hunger programs, like SNAP (formerly food stamps) and poverty-focused development assistance, and puts this country on a path that enables us to eventually end hunger in the U.S. and around the world.

How are you Working to End Hunger and Poverty?

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• What are some local victories?

• What are some challenges?

• How will you implement the latest call to action?

• How can Bread support you?

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Closing

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Resources

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Next Steps

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• Next Call: September 17th

• Moving Forward: there will only be one call at 4pm

• Closing Prayer

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