Spring Lobby Weekend Success!
By Matt Southworth on 05/09/2011 @ 11:30 AM
Last week, I received a message from a very excited Spring Lobby Weekend participant, Kimberleigh Costanzo, from Iona College in New York:
"Hey! I just received an e-mail from the staffer I lobbied in [my Representative's] office saying, 'Hi Kimberleigh, Hope you're doing well. I wanted to email you and let you know that I spoke with the Congressman about your visit, and he decided to sign on as a cosponsor of the bill to establish an Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group (HR 1530). It's great to see someone your age so passionate about policy - I hope you keep it up!'... I thought you would be as pleased to see that my visit really was a success- I am thrilled!"
Needless to say, I was thrilled as well! It is very rare to receive a cold e-mail like this from a staffer, much less an e-mail with a message like this one.
Rep. Frank Wolf introduced HR 1530 to establishment the Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group a couple of weeks ago. It's not a perfect bill, but it's a pretty good start. FCNL has been working on the concept for over a year now. The bill would establish an Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group to provide the Obama administration with a policy review and recommend policies for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The review would happen independently from the Department of Defense, which thus far has led all of the administration's internal policy reviews.
Kinberleigh has shown us what a novice yet well trained public advocate can do. Take her lead--tell your member of Congress to cosponsor HR 1530 today.
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