Update

On April 12, Representative Conaway, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, released his farm bill. The Farm Bill reauthorizes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formally known as food stamps). SNAP helps more than 40 million Americans put food on the table, yet Chairman Conaway’s bill includes changes to SNAP that could potentially force millions of struggling Americans off the program.

This Spring, an unconventional Friend in Washington joins FCNL at 205 C. St. Joey Hartmann-Dow is a Young Adult Friend from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, currently collaborating with FCNL to create a series of comic books about lobbying.

This month, Congress has an important opportunity to take concrete steps to bolster our government’s ability to build peace and prevent atrocities against civilians. Early action to prevent violence will reduce the need for late military intervention, protect lives, and save taxpayer money. This is why it’s important for us to take stock, remember the past, and work to prevent future outbreaks of violence. Members of Congress can help support conflict prevention, but they need a push to get there.

Military-style weapons don’t belong in our streets. Not in the hands of civilians who can wreak carnage at a high school with an assault rifle. But also not in the hands of police, who, armed with tanks and grenade launchers, can look and feel more like an occupying force than officers sworn to protect and serve.

At FCNL’s Spring Lobby Weekend, Greisa Martinez Rosas gave a rousing speech to more than 400 young adults. The speech is adapted below.

In the first-ever vote on withdrawing U.S. armed forces from an unauthorized war, 44 Senators voted to remove U.S. troops from the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

On March 22nd, Congress approved a $1.3 trillion spending bill. This omnibus spending bill outlines the money that will be allocated to federal agencies and programs for the remainder of 2018.

When I entered the army in June 1967, my Basic Combat Training unit was at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Early on, one of our drill sergeants, a “lifer” who had plenty of combat experience from the Korean War to Vietnam, marched our platoon out into a field.

Next Monday, nearly 500 young adults will swarm Capitol Hill to lobby their members of Congress on immigration reform, and I can hardly wait! Before they meet with Members of Congress and their staffs, they will have a weekend of training and briefings on the issue of immigration, the status of the debate in Washington, and how to get the most out of a lobby visit.

This morning, I put on my coat and joined FCNL staff on the sidewalk facing the Hart Senate Building. For 17 minutes, we joined the hundreds of thousands of school children, teachers, parents and allies all over the world who walked out of their classrooms and places of work, and with their bodies and voices, said enough is enough.