Resources for Your Week of Action

The President’s Day congressional recess is a great chance to meet with your members of Congress in your own area and influence public policy. In preparation for this opportunity, FCNL is organizing a week of action to push members of Congress to make one trillion dollars in cuts to the Pentagon budget. Here are a few ways you can take action:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
20 Write your senators, then ask your friends to write too.	21 Write a letter to the editor.	22 Call your senators' offices.	23 Go visit one or both of your district offices and drop off some material.	24 Tell us about your experience, and hear what others have been doing.

Write a Letter to Congress

• Not all letters to members of congress are created equal. There are ways that you ensure that your message gets through. Read some of our tips to maximize the impact your letters have.

Get Others Involved:

• Get five of your friends involved. Use this form to send five of your friends an email asking them to get involved.
• Print out this flyer and get people in your community involved.

Write a Letter to the Editor

• Elected officials carefully monitor newspapers to gauge local opinion. By mentioning your senators or representative by name and stating the specific legislative action you would like them to take, you can guarantee that your letter will catch the attention of your members of Congress. Read more.

Set up a Meeting:

Studies show that direct meetings with constituents are the most influential factor in shaping the opinions of a member of congress.  This is the action we want to emphasize most during our week of action, and it's less difficult to do than you might think.

• Although you can walk into a member of Congress’ office without an appointment, you are unlikely to meet with them personally unless you set up a meeting ahead of time. Read our tips on how to set up a meeting. Use our generic Meeting Request Form to get you started.
• Start a sign-on letter in your community to show support for cuts and help get a direct meeting with your member of Congress.
  
  
  
  

Seven Talking Points:

Feel like you don't have enough information to go talk to your senator? Want to know what to tell your neighbor when she or he asks what $1 trillion in cuts would look like? Check out this outline of practical options to save billions in the military budget, and see our talking point resources below:

1. Cutting a trillion is possible. Here's exactly how Pentagon cuts could happen according to a bipartisan congressional study.
2. There is institutional, bipartisan support for cuts from intellectuals, military officials and members of Congress.
3. The bloated Pentagon budget affects my community. And this resource, provided by the National Priorities Project, can show you exactly how your war dollars could support programs that help keep our communities safe, support education and build infrastructure.
4. Media and the public agree--defense cuts have to happen. Media sources like NPR, The New York Times and The Economist have run stories that present strong cases for cuts. And polls show that a majority of Americans favor cuts.
5. Pentagon spending makes up an enormous portion of the federal budget--more than is spent to respond to poverty, support the economy, prevent war, help countries in need and support scientific research...combined.
6. The Pentagon loses a huge amount of money to waste, fraud and abuse, more than the entire budget of some other agencies.
7. Cutting the Pentagon won't "hollow out the force" as Secretary of Defense Panetta claims. The U.S. military will still remain leaps and bounds more powerful than any on the planet by any available metric.