Jan 31 -- Domestic

In my group leader call with Douglas, focusing on domestic RESULTS issues, an urgent call was needed to Senator Grassley's office to ask for his support for the Harkin amendment temporarily increasing food stamps, as part of the Economic Stimulus package now being debated on the Senate floor. I hope Polly won't feel offended that I made a call first and then called her to make a call, given as it was an easy call to make and needed to be done within the hour. I was pleased at the relative ease of getting to the ag aide -- only took two minutes! Amanda, the ag aide, said that they would be looking at the increase in food stamps in the Farm Bill to avoid duplication, but that the Harkin amendment was certainly "on their radar."

Another focus right now is to get face-to-face meetings with our members of Congress. Kathy has the name and number of Loebsack's scheduler and will put in follow-up calls with our request for a meeting.

As an outreach activity, I told Douglas I was going to compile the list of Churches United communities and email them a notice for their monthly newsletter -- on a regular basis -- explaining RESULTS and inviting them to the monthly meetings.

Finally, I have put on my calendar for Monday that I will start working on the Op-Ed in the Gazette. I'll include it on the blog for your perusal prior to submitting it.

Thanks for all you do for RESULTS!