Burlington Review

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! PLEASE CALL!! 

Action Alert: Ask Congress to Support Centers for Independent Living!

Help People with Disabilities Live Independently! 

Congress is reconciling the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriation requests from the House and Senate. Funding for Independent Living has been recommended at these levels:

• Senate appropriation - $127 million

• House of Representatives appropriation - $140 million

We are asking the Senate and House Appropriation Committees to support the House number of $140 million.

• Call your Senators and Representative: Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 (voice) or (202) 224-3091 (TTY). Ask to be connected to your Senators or Representative.

• You can find your Senators’ phone numbers and websites at senate.gov and your Representative’s phone number and website at house.gov/representatives. If you don’t know who your Representative is, you can find out at house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative. 

• You can use Resistbot to turn texts into faxes, mail, or hand-delivered letters by texting “RESIST” to 50409.

Sample Script (please feel free to personalize):

Hi, my name is [YOUR FULL NAME], and I’m from [CITY, STATE].

I am [calling / writing] to urge Congress to reaffirm its commitment to 61 million disabled Americans by increasing funding for the Independent Living Program and accepting the House of Representative's appropriations request of $140 million dollars in the Departments of Labor, Health, and Human Services, And Education, And Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2023. We are asking for the $140 million because there is an increasing need for services from Centers for Independent Living, which are cross-disability, non-residential, community-based, nonprofit organizations run by and for people with all types of disabilities. 

Centers for Independent Living help people live independently in their communities by providing a variety of services, including helping people to get out of nursing homes!

I hope you will support your disabled constituents and accept the higher number requested by the House of Representatives of $140 million for the Independent Living Program for FY 2023.

Thank you for your time.

[Your name]

Tips:

• You can add a personal story about what your CIL does or how your CIL has helped you!

• If leaving a voicemail or emailing, please leave your full street address and zip code. This will ensure your call or email is tallied.

• Read the IL Appropriations Background Sheet and view NCIL’s original request (https://bit.ly/3RZgo2J).

Original source can be found here.