Email I received from Change.org:
The petition is now at 15,206!
This is long letter, but stay with me. I have a lot of information to share.
Good news. The 99ers were actually talked about on the Senate floor last week. I don't think it's a coincidence that this and some other 'chatter' started when we
reached 10,000. This is a link to Senator Shaheen's speech to the Senate: /www.c-spanvideo.org/congress/?q=node/77531&appid=597991845
Numbers do count! We're finally getting a little attention, and we have to keep it. I started this petition because I was told by several Senate staffers that there was no political will to create a Tier 5. They said they weren't hearing from us that there was a need for one. They weren't receiving many calls or emails. I guessed that maybe we were each separately depressed and overwhelmed. My dad was a union organizer, and I learned from him that we only have strength and energy when we join together. I don't believe for a minute that it was a coincidence that Sen. Shaheen chose to speak to the Senate just after we tied up the senate switchboard on Monday. (Next comes the fax machines!)
Many petitioners have sent me messages about how they're afraid their calls aren't listened to or don't count. Well, they are listened to, but not right then by the 18 year old intern answering the phone who isn't allowed to say anything useful for fear of foot-in-mouth disease. All the calls, emails, and faxes are counted every day by issue, and the numbers sent to the D.C. offices. Each office staff meets everyday in D.C. and discusses them. The messages you leave and write are discussed every day. It would be political suicide not to do this regularly.
Sen. Shaheen chose one such message to read to the Senate, and that poor woman may well have been shocked to learn she counted. So, a call, email, or fax where you say you support a real extension of benefit weeks for the 99ers gets tallied. If you specifically ask to leave a message or write one like, 'this should extend to the end of the year because I'm going crazy with the continuous uncertainty,' the intern writes it down and passes it up to the aide working on the unemployment issue to be discussed at the meetings. (You often have to ask for them to write the message down, but they will.) Messages left on answering systems are also listened to.
And, if you write in an email or fax how not having the benefits is affecting you and your family, it will get the most attention. It will be read for sure and probably brought up at the meeting. This is the only way they have of finding out what's going on because they're not mind readers.
We have to keep the Senate's attention while Senator Baucus is drafting the next unemployment bill that was mentioned in Sen. Shaheen's speech. I believe that the amount and number of weeks of benefits he writes into this bill will have a lot to do with how 'persuasive' we are in next few weeks with calls, emails, and faxes.
Here's the plan:
1. We have to continue to remind the Senate that we are large in numbers because they lose focus easily. However, their nightmare is that we've become organized.
Put on your calendar that Friday, April 30 and Monday, May 3 is FAX YOUR RESUME TO CONGRESS DAY. The free fax numbers you can use, the targeted senators' names and fax numbers, and the rest of the information is here:
http://joblessunite.yolasite.com/m-a-y-d-a-y.php 2. Many people have never sent a fax this way so we should all prepare for the big day by testing it out this week and sending our personal messages to those listed on the M.A.Y.D.A.Y. site. Faxing on this day is best, but f you can't figure out the fax by Resume Day, paste your resume to an email. You can't add attachments to the senators' emails. You have to go to each of their sites to email them. (google them).
3. You don't have to be a 99er to sign. Get your family and friends to sign, too. Tack a note with the link on bulletin boards, grocery stores, etc. Not everyone knows how to surf the net, so they don't find us. If everyone finds 1 person, we'll have 30,000 next week!
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/the_99ers_need_a_tier_v_added_to_unemployment_benefits NOTE: Some newer people who haven't received an email like this from me have asked when the petition gets sent out. It is sent to the signers' senators and representatives and those I designated EVERY time someone signs the petition!
EVERYONE: Fax, emails, calls. We have to keep reminding them of how many there are of us.
REMEMBER THE SUMMER RECESS FOR CONGRESS BEGINS IN JUNE. We need to get this passed before they leave, and the Republicans are sure to filibuster again. This is the "fierce urgency of now."
Free number to Senate switchboard: 1 888 245-0215
The Democrat leaders to ask for are: Senators Reid, Durbin, and Shumer
The Republican leaders are: Senators Mitch McConnell, Kyl, and E. Canter
Also ask for your own senators. You can find out their names by typing in your zip code here: www.opencongress.org/people/senators
We're going to get these additional benefits!
Issa
Senator Shaheen's remarks from last
week excerpt:
As important as this short-term extension is, the Senate must do more to address the long-term challenge of joblessness. Of the 15 million Americans who are out of work today, nearly 6 million--so more than 1 in 3--have run through the 6 months of benefits provided by their States. In fact, the average period of unemployment currently stands at a record high of nearly 8 months. We need to pass a longer term extension to provide some stability for the millions of people who are going to need unemployment
benefits in the months to come. I applaud Senator Baucus who has been working to try to bridge this gap.
While some people may think it is no big deal to wait a week or two, even short-term expirations have damaging results. When State workforce agencies are forced to shut down and restart complicated Federal benefits programs, they experience huge backlogs in their systems that delay getting checks out the door, even to people who are not affected by the expiration.
Phone lines at call centers are jammed with claimants holding up others from filing for benefits while lines at one-stop centers get longer and longer. In the best of circumstances, individuals who lost their benefits during this expiration will have to wait weeks before they begin receiving checks again. That is a very long time when you are supporting a family on an unemployment check.
There is also the uncertainty and the fear that comes when parents open the mail to find a notice that, although their benefits are supposed to last for months to come, this is the last check they are going to receive. Families cannot afford to make the responsible choices to budget and plan for the future when we cannot guarantee the future of their benefits and of their safety net.
The fact is, when somebody is unemployed, it is an emergency in their family. We need to treat this situation, extending benefits, as an emergency in our Federal programs as well.
I want to conclude by sharing a letter I got from one of my constituents named Jo Ellen, who is from Canterbury, NH. She wrote:
On April 3, my State unemployment benefits maxed out. I am in my 60s, a nurse and psychotherapist who has been out of work since the end of December 2009. Seeking work constantly, I am getting no responses from employers, probably due to my age. I have worked my entire life caring for others. My husband's salary is much lower than what I brought in, but I have never had to rely on others. Unemployment checks are allowing us to at least pay our bills. It plays havoc with one's body and psyche,
affecting one's health and causing monumental anxiety when a vote is taken on a monthly basis to extend benefits. It is the never knowing for sure. Those of us who are in this situation are hard-working citizens who have come upon bad times. I cannot believe you won't take care of this horrendous situation immediately.
Unfortunately, like so many in this Chamber, I have received dozens of e-mails and letters and phone calls in the last 2 weeks from Granite Staters such as Jo Ellen. Unemployment benefits allow them to take care of their families, to fill up their gas tanks so they can go out and look for work. But the obstructionism that has kept us from passing meaningful long-term extension of unemployment benefits is having real effects on the financial, physical, and mental health of our communities. Jo
Ellen is right; it is horrendous.
I am hopeful we are finally going to see agreement from the other side of the aisle that we can move this legislation forward, that we can extend unemployment benefits for those thousands of people who are losing them every single day.
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