Dear FGP, RSVP, or SCP Director:

Send Your Fax and E-mail TODAY!

NSCA has just received breaking news from our Washington Consultant, Priscilla Chatman. The US House of Representatives plans to bring the "GIVE Act" HR 2857 (reauthorizing National Service) to a full floor vote next week, a specific day has not yet been determined so it could be as early as Tuesday, November 6th.  As you may know this legislation would be a historic event. The authorizing law for Senior Corps expired in 1997. This Reauthorization bill is long overdue.

The "GIVE Act" has some very desirable provisions for the Senior Corps. It includes language to lower the entry age to 55 for FGP and SCP, raise the income level to 200% of the poverty level, and  allow local programs to use 15% of their stipend positions for seniors who do not meet the minimum income guideline (as long as doing so would not displace individuals at or below the 200% level) and allow Senior Corps programs to accept donations (an amendment introduced by NSCA).These are some of the positives!

However, one major concern in the bill is the proposed "re-competition" requirement for RSVP projects. The NSCA and others in the national service community have been working with the Education and Labor Committee to improve this provision.  We have had some success.  The revised provision now states that initially only non-performing RSVP programs will have to re-compete, then later all RSVP programs would re-compete. This is an improvement but the NSCA and others continue to work with the Education and Labor Committee to try and better this provision for RSVP programs. The NSCA does not agree that RSVP sponsors should have to reapply for their grantee status every three years.  Frequent sponsor changes could be harmful and disruptive to public awareness, volunteer recruitment, staff consistency, and resource development. In an effort to overcome this requirement, NSCA has offered a simple and sensible amendment to the bill before it becomes law:

"RSVP programs that consistently meet or exceed CNCS compliance standards will not be subject to recompetition."

-Proposed amendment to HR2857, approved by the NSCA Board of Directors on October 1, 2007

Your job is easy.  This is what you need to do, TODAY:

1)    Use the sample letter below. Address it to your US Representative and sign it (fax) or add your name and contact information (e-mail).

      2)  Do not mail it. There isn't enough time. You must fax or e-mail it.

      3)  Find your U.S. Representative(s) at www.house.gov. Then   bookmark your representative's website for future communication!  

Please, please, please -- do not drop the ball.

If you have questions about anything we are asking you to do, call or email members of the NSCA Legislative Committee listed below. We're glad to help. We have access to all the names and fax numbers for Congress. On this important day we are standing by (okay, we're sitting), available and eager to help.

Fred Lugo - fred.lugo@co.travis.tx.us (512) 789-9002)

Camellia Pisegna - camelliapisegna@areaagencyonaging.org (269) 876-9084)

Individual Actions = Success

Our strategy? Help the GIVE Act to get passed out of the House so the Senate can introduce its version of this bill. If the House does not settle on a recompetition provision that we support, once the Senate takes up reauthorization we can make another push for our amendment to be adopted.