NAACP urges Congress to pass post-Katrina employment, rebuild and development legislation

ACTION ALERT
DATE: June 24, 2009
TO: Concerned Parties
FROM: Hilary O. Shelton, Director, Washington Bureau
NAACP URGES CONGRESS TO PASS POST-KATRINA EMPLOYMENT, REBUILD AND DEVELOPMENT LEGISLATION AS PEOPLE AFFECTED BY KATRINA AND RITA CONTINUE TO SUFFER
BILL WOULD CREATE OVER 100,000 JOBS, REBUILD HOUSING AND INFRASTRUCTURE AND ADVANCE GULF COAST DEVELOPMENT
　
THE ACTION We Need You To Take:
Contact your Representative and both your Senators and Urge Them to co-sponsor and support H.R. 2269. To contact your Senators and Representative, you may:
Make a Phone Call:
Call your Senators and your Representative in Washington by dialing the Capitol Switchboard and asking to be transferred to your Senators'/Congressman’s offices. The switchboard phone number is (202) 224-3121 (see message section, below).
Write a Letter
To write letters to your Senators, send them to:
The Honorable (name of Senator)
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
To write a letter to your Representative, send it to:
The Honorable (name of Representative)
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Send a Fax
If you would like to send a fax, call your Senators’ or Representative’s offices (through the Capitol switchboard) and ask for their fax numbers (you can use either the attached sample letter or the message box, below).
Send an E-Mail
To send an e-mail to your Senators, go to www.senate.gov; click on "Find Your Senators". Look up your Senators by state; go to their web sites for e-mail addresses.
To send an e-mail to your Representative, go to www.house.gov, and click on "Write Your Representative" (on the left hand side, just under "find your Representative). This will help you identify who your congressman is and how to contact him/her.
REMEMBER TO CONTACT BOTH YOUR SENATORS!!!!!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS IMPORTANT MATTER!!!
If you have any questions, call Hilary Shelton at the Washington Bureau at (202) 463-2940.
(date)
The Honorable ___________________________
United States Senate / House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510 / 20515
RE: Support for assistance to the areas still affected by Hurricanes katrina and Rita, H.R. 2249
Dear Senator / Representative _______________________________;
As your constituent, I am writing to ask you to co-sponsor, support, and do all you can to speed the enactment of H.R. 2249, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. Four years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast region, there are still numerous unmet needs and challenges facing the residents of that area every day. Especially hard hit by the Hurricanes were low-income and racial and ethnic minority Americans, and they continue to suffer disproportionately.
　
According to a recent survey, 4 in 10 New Orleans residents say their lives are still disrupted by the aftermath of the Hurricane, and more than 7 in 10 see little or no progress in making housing affordable or in controlling crime, which they view as the city’s top problem. A majority of the people surveyed also see little or no progress in making medical services available, strengthening public schools, attracting jobs or rebuilding neighborhoods. A second survey, also released in early August of this year, found tens of thousands of blighted properties, a lack of affordable housing and thin public services continue to plague the city. Rents are 46 percent higher than before the storm. Perhaps most tragically, most of the New Orleans residents who responded to the survey felt that both Washington and the American public have largely forgotten them.
We need to show the people of New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast region that the American public has not forgotten them; it is not too late to implement a plan that will help the region and most importantly the people who live there get back to their pre-Katrina way of life and to put safeguards in place against future calamities. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (CA) and 16 of her colleagues in the House of Representatives have co-sponsored H.R. 4has introduced H.R. 2249, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act. This legislation would provide federal money to employ a minimum of 100,000 Gulf Coast residents who would work on projects to rebuild, sustain and develop the Gulf Coast region. Also recognizing the relationship between disasters, environmental degradation and climate change, it encourages green jobs in energy efficiency, green building, and environmental restoration focusing on restoring natural flood protection like wetlands and barrier islands.
I urge you to support H.R. 2249 and to do all you can to see that it is enacted as soon as possible. Please contact me in the very near future to let me know what you are going to do to help the people of the Gulf Coast region and what I can do to help.
Sincerely,
(sign and print your name and
remember to include your address