What’s Going On with Congress

You are probably hearing some confusing things about what’s going on in Washington these days. There are several different debates going on about how to keep the federal government operating, and what role the government should take in helping our economy recover and create jobs.

Here is the relevant legislation that we will be dealing with for the rest of this year’s Congressional session:

1. A Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the federal government beyond September 30, 2011, which is when the current Fiscal Year 2011 ends.
2. Appropriations bills that fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2012, which begins on October 1, 2011. (Congress is supposed to have all these bills passed by then, but they won’t. That’s why a CR is needed until Congress finishes the appropriations bills, or passes an “omnibus” bill for all the appropriations.)
3. President Obama’s new American Jobs Act.
4. The work of the “Super Committee” on deficit reduction.

The current political situation is such that you, the constituents of members of Congress, have a lot of power. Constituent pressure is the only thing that can change bitter partisan politicking into tolerance for political compromise. Members of Congress must listen to you, their constituents. They have heard the message that you want them to do something to fix our nation’s problems. But you need to keep it up.

NETWORK’s lobby and field staff will continue to create alerts and sample messages on our website, and send you the information you need in our Legislative Update e-mails. If you are not currently getting our regular Legislative Update, please sign up at http://capwiz.com/networklobby/mlm/signup/

We at NETWORK are depending on you to communicate with your members of Congress and get them to do the right thing.