Please help get the word out about a “Dear Colleague” letter circulating in the Senate this week. As you know, n4a is heavily involved in Livable Communities issue from both program and policy standpoints and have endorsed legislation to make the Obama Administration’s Sustainable Communities initiative permanent.

In our forthcoming 2012 Policy Priorities, n4a calls on Congress to support the Administration’s FY 2013 request of $100 million through HUD for the inter-agency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, to create incentives for more communities to develop comprehensive housing and transportation plans that result in sustainable development, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and increased transit-accessible housing.

Here’s what you can do:
Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) are circulating a letter of support of funding for Sustainable Communities (attached as a PDF). This means that they are asking their Senate colleagues to join them as signers of the letter to Senators Murray and Collins, the chair and ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee with jurisdiction over HUD and DOT spending.

PLEASE REACH OUT YOUR SENATORS AND ASK THEM TO SIGN ON TO THE MENDENDEZ-LANDRIEU SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES REQUEST LETTER. The deadline to sign on is COB Thursday, March 22, so please do call or email your Senators TODAY.

If you reach a staff member via phone, explain that you’d like your Senator to consider signing the letter, then offer to email them the PDF attached to this email.  (CLICK HERE FOR A DOWNLOADABLE VERSION OF THE LETTER) (It will have technically been sent to all Senate offices, but the person you speak with is not likely to have received it.) OR if you have a great contact in your Senator’s field or DC offices, you could also email them with your request – adding the aging twist to this conversation.

If time were not so tight, n4a would release a formal Advocacy Alert, but I am hoping that you all will be able to reach our network just as effectively!

Thanks for your advocacy,
Amy

Amy E. Gotwals
Director, Public Policy and Legislative Affairs
National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a)
1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NW, Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20036
agotwals@n4a.org <mailto:agotwals@n4a.org>