Earlier this week, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), began asking their colleagues in the House and Senate to join "Dear Colleague" Member sign-on letters in support of HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants.The House letter calls for strongly supporting McKinney and the Senate letter calls for providing $2.480 billion for McKinney in (FY) 2016 - the same amount requested by the President in his Budget Proposal. The Senate letter also calls for providing $21.1 billion for Section 8 Tenant-Based Rental Assistance in FY 2016.
We need to get as many representatives' and senators' signatures as possible on these letters, and we need YOUR help! Both letters received strong support last year, and we need the same to happen again this year! The deadline for the Senate letter is Tuesday, March 17 and the deadline for the House letter is Monday, March 23.
What You Can Do:
To see if your representative or senator has already joined the letter, click here for the House letter and here for the Senate letter (these lists will be updated regularly). You can also see if your Members joined similar letters last spring for FY 2015 funding by clicking here for the Senate and here for the House.
As part of out Letter Writing Campaign, send a letter to your Members AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and ask them to join the Dear Colleague letters.
Urge them to have their boss join the Merkley/Gillibrand and Moore letters by March 17 (for the Senate) and March 23 (for the House).
If they say they cannot join the letter, ask if they will submit a "programmatic request" in support of providing $2.480 billion for HUD's McKinney-Vento program and $21.1 billion to Section 8 in FY 2016.
The Dear Colleague sign-on letters are an easy way for Members of Congress to express their support for HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants and Section 8 Tenant-Based Rental Assistance programs to their colleagues on the Appropriations Committees. We need to make sure we match last year's efforts to ensure that Appropriators know that providing sufficient funding for the Homeless Assistance Grants and Section 8 Tenant-Based Rental Assistance programs remains a top priority for many Members. In an increasingly tight budget environment, we must ensure these letters have significant support.
Please reach out to your Members' offices AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to make sure they sign on!
