Background

FCNL has hosted Quaker volunteers as Friends in Washington for more than five decades. Friends in Washington have strengthened FCNL’s expertise in priority areas, written resource materials, and cultivated relationships with lawmakers from their states.

Over the last two years, congressional support for repealing the 2002 Iraq Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) has grown.

Michael Snarr is a professor of political science at Wilmington College in Ohio. A regular attendee of FCNL’s Spring Lobby Weekend, Snarr has brought more than 200 students to Washington, D.C., to learn and lobby their members of Congress.

A century-old work of art, which took more than six months to restore, now hangs over a fireplace mantel in one of the Friend’s Place dining rooms where historic meetings for peace and planning for demonstrations took place in the last 50 years.

An analysis of the 2018–2022 Forward Plan concludes that despite the challenges of the last five years, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) has been transformed into a “bigger, more resilient, and effective lobbying organization that continually innovates to meet challenges while remaining grounded in Quaker faith and practice.”

Soon after September 11, 2001 and the ensuing global war on terror, the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay was established.

The Edward F. Snyder Award for National Legislative Leadership in Advancing Disarmament and Building Peace is presented annually to an outstanding member of Congress who has displayed leadership in advancing legislative priorities consistent with those advocated by the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Francisco Burgos is the executive director of Pendle Hill, a Quaker learning and conference center outside of Philadelphia. Kristen Archer spoke with him about the link between a personal relationship with the natural world and advocating for economic justice.

While growing up in the small Eastern European country of Slovenia, I took clean air and water for granted. Slovenia is one of the greenest places in Europe, with forests covering 60% of its land.

As a member of the Australian delegation to the World Bank/IMF annual meetings in 2016, I attended a meeting of small island developing states. I sat next to a delegate from a Pacific Island country and listened to a World Bank official outline their strategy for the region.