Take Action
Plan Now for August Recess
House Recess: August 3rd through September 3rd
Senate Recess: August 6th through September 3rd
August recess is a great opportunity for NSAC member organizations to meet with and get to know their members of Congress. It’s an opportunity to educate them about your organization and our issues without the expense of a plane ticket or a DC hotel room. It’s not too soon to begin planning for a meeting with a few key Congressman and Senators. Their schedules get full fast, so act soon. Here are a few pointers to get you started.
Step 1: Identify a priority issue for your organization and frame a specific ask.
- NSAC members in key appropriator states can meet with their members to discuss NSAC appropriation priorities. By August, the House will have taken up agriculture appropriations, but the Senate may may not have. If both houses have passed their bills, August will be an excellent time to discuss the final House-Senate conference that will produce the final funding levels for sustainable agriculture programs. If the Senate has not taken action yet, August recess will be be good time to talk with Senate Agriculture Appropriators about the Senate bill.
- NSAC members in key Child Nutrition Act states can urge their legislators to fight for $50 million in mandatory funding for the Farm to School Program (F2S) in the 2009 reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act. F2S is a competitive grants program that supports the purchase of local foods from small and medium sized farms by school systems. F2S can improve both farm income and child health and nutrition.
- It appears likely that August will be the roll out and beginning of farmer sign-up for the new Conservation Stewardship Program, making the summer recess an excellent time to consider field events or outreach workshops to which you could invite your members of Congress.
- Food safety, climate change, and health care legislation is also all in a state of play in Congress this summer. If your organization is working on any of those issues, that would also be ripe for in-district meetings.
Step 2: Choose a venue. Do you want to hold the meeting at your offices or on a local farm or in the member’s district office? You may also have an opportunity to make your case at one of the town hall meetings that many members hold during recess.
Step 3: Schedule the meeting. You should make your request in writing and then follow up by phone with the member’s scheduler. Call the member’s office to get the name of the scheduler if you don’t already have it. Start early, keep trying and be flexible.
Step 4: Come to the training. Two NSAC members, Adam Wartheson of the Land Stewardship Project and Frank James with Dakota Rural Action, will provide training on getting the most out of your in district meeting at the NSAC summer meeting in Lawrence, Kansas, August 2 – 4.