2006 Epistle

To Friends Everywhere

From the Friends Committee on National Legislation

       To Baltimore Yearly Meeting

 

 

 

FCNL plays a role in balancing the prophetic with the practical. This brief epistle describes some of our attempts to achieve the practical in 2006.  You will not read about every issue on which FCNL worked in 2006, but these stories illustrate what your Quaker lobby has accomplished.  The work of FCNL lobbyists in Washington, DC, combines with the active engagement of the FCNL General Committee members, local volunteers, and thousands of citizen lobbyists around the country to persuade and influence Congress.  Our successes are your successes. In this past year, we have much for which to be thankful.

We Seek a World Free of War and the Threat of War   Iraq: FCNL’s Iraq Peace Campaign focused on building a bipartisan consensus in Congress to question the administration’s Iraq policy.  After an 18-month FCNL effort, Congress approved provisions barring funding for permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.

Darfur:  FCNL’s Darfur Legislative Updates have become a key tool for coalitions in efforts to focus policymakers’ attention on stopping genocide in Darfur.  These weekly email update messages provided hundreds of groups with information on congressional activities, served as a clearing house for groups working on Darfur to share information and plan strategies, and allowed a broad coalition of groups to cooperate with each other on a  regular basis.

We Seek a Society with Equity and Justice for All    Saying No to Torture:   The administration’s efforts to undermine the Geneva Conventions and win congressional authorization to torture people in some categories of detainees who were captured in the so-called “war on terror” have provoked resistance across the country. FCNL offered a religious perspective and a grassroots network ready to work against U.S. sponsored torture.  FCNL staff also helped launch the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) in early 2006.  NRCAT brings together people of faith committed to stopping U.S. sponsored torture.

Domestic Spying:    FCNL lobbying against domestic spying focused on mobilizing constituent support for members of Congress who spoke out against the president’s spying program and on urging Congress to investigate this program. A peaceful counter-recruitment group gathered at  the Palm Beach (FL) Friends Meetinghouse and was infiltrated and spied on by the Department of Defense (DoD). DoD classified the group as a “credible threat” to military recruitment. FCNL sought to support Florida Friends through mailing the meeting’s minute of concern to all monthly meetings and posting information about the situation on the FCNL website, www.fcnl.org.   FCNL helped to persuade a small group of senators to block proposed legislation that would have rubber-stamped the president’s domestic spying program.

Continuing Advocacy on Native American Concerns:   FCNL is the only non-native organization with a full-time staff person lobbying in support of Native American concerns on Capitol Hill. Working with tribal communities, other faith-based organizations, and advocacy groups, FCNL continued this year to support justice for individual Indian Trust Fund Account Holders in the case that has been championed by Elouise Cobell and supported the reauthorization of the Indian health program.

In March FCNL brought together media representatives with native and non-native leaders to discuss strategies for monitoring and influencing the media and its coverage of national Native American issues.  “Hear Our Story: Communications and Contemporary Native Americans” was a conference attended by more than 200 native and non-native participants.  They came together to start a dialogue, build networks, and design strategies for how native and non-native people can address the biased, misinformed, and missing coverage of Native Americans in the mainstream media and to counteract negative images and portrayals of Native Americans in popular culture.

We Seek a Community in which Every Person’s Potential May be Fulfilled   

Budget Priorities:      For every $1 spent on diplomacy, international cooperation, and humanitarian and development aid, the U.S. government spends more than $20 on wars and preparing for war. Lobbying to challenge these federal budget priorities is a key focus of  FCNL’s work and an increasingly important mechanism for addressing the structural violence of poverty and lack of health care.  FCNL continued this year to focus attention on the hefty portion of the federal budget that goes to war through articles in the FCNL Washington Newsletter, a budget priorities flyer, and an online advertisement just before the 2006 tax day headlined “42 percent of your tax dollars go to war.”  Participants in the FCNL network wrote more messages to Congress on budget priorities than on any other issue except Iraq.

Immigration:    The congressional debate on immigration reform leaned toward regressive, anti-immigrant policies.  FCNL felt called to respond with policies to welcome the strangers.  We recalled that Joseph and Mary once took Jesus to a strange land for his safety. We sought to soften the harsh House bill by working with the Senate to develop and support sensible alternatives. FCNL worked with immigrant rights coalitions in Washington and around the country to identify core elements of a bill that should define any effort to frame new immigration laws in this country, including paths to citizenship for people who come to the United States to work and people already living in this country.  Our touch stones were the dignity of every person and our view that no person can be “illegal,” because we are all children of God.

We Seek an Earth Restored   After visiting FCNL’s newly renovated green building on Capitol Hill, Sen. Jim Jeffords (VT) introduced legislation that would require the federal government to set green environmental and energy efficiency standards for the thousands of federal buildings across the country. The bill gained 11 bipartisan cosponsors before Congress adjourned at the end of September.  Though this bill did not pass this Congress, it highlighted the debate on energy dependence and the government’s ability to lead the initiative for “earth-friendly” changes.

Many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle recognize the potential threat posed by climate change, and many are acting individually. However, they still have a long way to go to build a consensus on whether and how to act together.  FCNL’s expanded environmental program focuses on ending U.S. oil dependence and mitigating harmful climate change.  A variety of bills was introduced on these issues – an important step in furthering the legislative conversation. Grassroots action will help push these issues higher on the Congressional agenda.

Working Together with Friends:    FCNL continues to rely on and benefit from our roots in the Religious Society of Friends. In the year before a new Congress convenes, FCNL sets its legislative priorities for the next two years.  Our grounding in the Religious Society of Friends and our Quaker decision making process of discernment through worship strengthens FCNL’s program. Hundreds of Friends around the country participated in FCNL’s legislative priority setting process in 2006, through yearly meeting appointments to the General Committee and our network of over 700 FCNL contacts in Friends churches and  meetings around the country.  This web of interconnections with Quakers and others also facilitates the sending of tens of thousands of messages to members of Congress every year.  FCNL established a Futures Working Group which is being asked to prayerfully consider how FCNL might envision its witness for the coming decade(s) and how we might strengthen FCNL's ability to empower a Quaker witness on Capitol Hill.

In 2006, the Friends Committee on National Legislation continued its effective and vigorous advocacy in the nation’s capital for peace and justice. The sustained support of Friends churches and  meetings, yearly meetings, and tens of thousands of individuals has enabled FCNL’s Quaker witness for over 60 years. Then, as now, Friends have a light to shine in a world of darkness. If we shine our light in the right places, others may see what we have come to know: that love is the first motion; that we can rely on the power of love and the force of truth; that right and just relationships create common security; that every person is a holy place; and that the Earth is a living planet whose survival depends on us, and our fate, on it.

 

– Joe Volk, Executive Secretary, December 2006

Friends Committee on National Legislation

Washington, DC

                                 2005 Program Report

This report may be reproduced and circulated

 

 

 

To Friends Everywhere

From Joe Volk for the Friends Committee on National Legislation

Quaker Witness in Washington

 

The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) is a nonpartisan Quaker lobby in the public interest, founded in1943. In its work with Congress and the Executive branch FCNL labors to bring the spiritual values of Friends to bear on public policy decisions. FCNL is devoted to furthering the causes of international peace and social justice at home and abroad.  Staff joins with volunteers around the country to bring a persuasive Quaker voice to a variety of Friends concerns.

 

This is an extraordinary time in U.S. and world history.  Some argue that the United States must move aggressively to reassert its dominance in the world. Here at FCNL we take a different view, one that argues that using military power to impose the will of one country on the world is not right and does not work. The invasion and occupation of Iraq and the effort to bypass the United Nations and impose a U.S. agenda on the world have made the U.S. and the world less safe. The so-called “war on terror” has led individual U.S. officials to parse the meanings of words like torture and develop complex rationales for abandoning long held constitutional principles.

 

This is a moment in the history of this country when people are looking for alternatives. FCNL does not have all the answers, but we do know that war is not the answer and that there are alternatives not defined by partisan politics and calculations of who can win what in the next election. We know that focusing on human security, rather than national security is one of the best avenues for peaceful prevention of deadly conflict.

 

This very brief report does not touch on every issue FCNL worked on in 2005.  The work of FCNL lobbyists in Washington DC is supported by the active engagement of the FCNL General Committee, volunteers, and thousands of citizen lobbyists around the country.  Our successes are your successes. We have much for which to be thankful.

 

Peaceful Prevention of Deadly Conflict   If war is not the answer, then what is? The practical instruments of negotiation, aid, and development assistance, the psychological instrument of respect for human dignity and equality, and the political instruments of human, juridical, and civil rights provide a more effective, just, and moral answer.

 

A main focus of the Peaceful Prevention program in 2005 was the ongoing crisis in Darfur, Sudan.  The Senate passage of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act by unanimous consent in November was a great accomplishment.  It followed a period of intense grassroots activity in the fall, including sending thousands of focused action alerts, and organizing national phone banking. The bill would help expand and strengthen the African Union mission to better protect civilians, impose focused sanctions on individuals responsible for atrocities in Darfur, and support peace negotiations to resolve the conflict.

 

FCNL’s work promoting U.S.-North Korea dialog focused on changing “elite opinion” on this critical issue.  Using a series of Hill briefings, workshops, and educational events often convened with other influential Washington groups such as the Brookings Institution, the FCNL East Asia Program became a pivotal force in shaping policymaker opinion on this issue. After nearly three years of ineffective and lackluster efforts, the Bush administration re-started direct negotiations with North Korea and the discussions have already achieved some limited results.

 

Iraq Campaign    Throughout 2005, FCNL carefully and strategically promoted the Sensible Transition to Enduring Peace Resolution (STEP).  It states simply: “It is the policy of the United States to withdraw all U.S. military troops and bases from Iraq.” When FCNL began presenting the STEP Resolution in January, many members of Congress and their staff were reluctant to discuss this resolution.  FCNL staff knocked on dozens of doors, patiently suggesting that this resolution might provide a non-partisan foundation upon which members could craft pragmatic legislation. 

 

By the end of June Congressional staff were expressing gratitude for FCNL’s work that enabled reasonable dialogue to begin on Iraq in general and withdrawal in particular.  As intended, FCNL’s proposed STEP Resolution provided a non-threatening, non-partisan policy foundation on which members could craft programmatic legislation to declare U.S. intentions to withdraw, bring troops home, and end the occupation.

 

In November Representative John Murtha (PA) introduced a resolution “To redeploy U.S. forces from Iraq.” The legislation introduced by Rep. Murtha, who has been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and the U.S. military in general, has attracted strong support in Congress. The bill would enact into law most of the key points of FCNL’s STEP Resolution. 

 

Promoting Arms Control and  Disarmament   Grassroots activism helped stop the proposed “bunker buster” nuclear weapon in 2005.  Working in concert with allies in the nuclear disarmament community, FCNL – its staff and grassroots supporters – achieved a significant victory in 2005 when Congress eliminated funding for this “new nuke.”  FCNL’s Quaker Nuclear Disarmament staff combined direct lobbying of key legislators with a series of action communications to engage and mobilize constituents.

 

FCNL’s conventional weapons program works to inform Congress and the general populace about the problems posed by the weapons trade, and to influence policymakers in the direction of greater controls over the flow and use of weapons. FCNL successfully lobbied to persuade Congress to double the funds available for small arms destruction programs in countries that have recently experienced conflicts. In a last minute decision at the end of 2005, the U.S. Congress told the Pentagon not to begin production of any new landmines before studying the possible indiscriminate consequences for deploying this weapon.

 

Civil Liberties and Human Rights   A big step in the direction of banning torture was taken when Congress passed the “McCain Amendment.” This provision bans torture by U.S. personnel and required the president to agree to the measure by attaching it to the annual military spending bill, which the president must sign or veto.

 

A strong partnership between the grassroots and FCNL helped turn congressional attention to and opened a debate about the trampling of civil liberties by our government.   A delay was won in the permanent extension of the USA PATRIOT Act. News accounts in December confirmed the suspicions of civil liberties advocates, with revelations of further civil liberties encroachments by the federal government, including spying on Quaker meetings. 

 

Reducing Oil Dependency  FCNL continued to work behind the scenes in Washington to craft coalitions to oppose harmful energy legislation and argue for conservation. Thousands of people across the country responded to FCNL legislative action messages opposing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), supporting conservation measures within the energy bill, and ultimately condemning the legislation for failing to address critical conservation needs. 

 

Native American Advocacy FCNL continued to monitor the Cobell v. Norton case regarding the scandalous Federal mis-management of funds held in trust for Native Americans – the largest legal case in Native American history.  We have kept our constituents updated as the case’s 500,000 native plaintiffs face endless appeals in higher courts. All courts involved have upheld the principles of governmental accountability and fiscal responsibility underlying the case, but the administration and Congress act as if there are no funds to pay the money owed to Indian families.

 

Legislative advocacy addressed issues ranging from trust reform, to Indian health, protection of Indian women, telecommunications, cuts to construction funds for Indian health facilities and schools, and the opening of ANWR to oil drilling. 

 

Lawyer and mediator Cushman Anthony joined the Native American program team full time as a Friend in Washington for five months.  As the former head of a commission in Maine that coordinated between tribes and the state, he brought valuable experience and expertise.

 

 

FCNL Resources Support Local Action FCNL’s capacity to provide resources for our grassroots supporters to help them become more effective advocates continued to grow in 2005.  Use of the online Legislative Action Center surged upwards as staff took a sophisticated approach to sending email action alerts.  In addition to the weekly Legislative Action Message, now received directly by over 20,000 individuals, hundreds of personalized requests for action alerted constituents when their Representative or Senator had a key vote on a critical issue. The FCNL website was “renovated” with an eye towards ease of use and best practices. 

 

Printed mailings and publications also brought concerns for national policy into homes around the country, through the monthly FCNL Washington Newsletter and the quarterly Indian Report.  In the midst of our successful advocacy to prohibit funding for new nuclear weapons, thousands of individuals received a personal detailed mailing with information and requests for action. 

 

Young Adult Program  Quaker youth and other young adults are actively involved in the life of FCNL.  Each year three to seven young people serve as legislative interns; college students and young professionals participate in FCNL’s Annual Meeting and a Spring Young Adult Lobby Day. Campus visits by FCNL staff include public lectures, guest lecturing in courses and Quaker studies programs, and meetings with students. We encourage yearly meetings to include young adults (under age 30) among their appointees to the FCNL General Committee.

 

Building for the Future    FCNL finished a seven-year campaign to rebuild its national offices on Capitol Hill in the Fall of 2005.  The new structure, located across from the Hart Senate Office Building, is designed to put a premium on natural light, is compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and walks gently on the earth by using modern, environmentally friendly architecture. Contributions from hundreds of supporters made this building possible.  The staff returned to Capitol Hill in July. 

 

This new building has already become a model for others. One senator, during a tour of the building in September 2005, announced he is planning to introduce legislation to use similar, green architecture in at least a small percentage of new government buildings. Several Quaker organizations and at least one high school group have also been inspired to explore reconstruction of their own structures to take advantage of green technology.

 

A series of open house events in the fall gave us the opportunity to welcome many friends of FCNL into the new building, including our neighbors on Capitol Hill, members of Congress and their staff, and colleagues in our many partner organizations. A grand building celebration was held in October, and FCNL General Committee members had an opportunity to tour the building during Annual Meeting in November.  There continues to be strong interest in the building, the first of its kind on Capitol Hill, and we welcome a steady stream of visitors.

 

One of our strengths as an organization is that we have a longer view of the road we seek to travel in this country and in the world. But on a day to day basis, FCNL excels at identifying the small, practical steps that all of us can take to persuade the federal government to advance the country down that road over the short and medium term.

 

A dedicated, well-organized religious lobby in the public interest can make a difference in Washington, D.C., in these difficult times, on issues of importance to current and future generations.  It is precisely in these times that we must redouble our efforts to defend and restore our democratic institutions. We will not abandon our republic or our moral convictions in this time of great need. Instead, we will proceed with love, faith, hope, courage, commitment, and dedication. 

   –  Joe Volk, Executive Secretary