"Giving Voice to Our Values”

As a Statewide Unitarian Universalist Legislative Network in Washington's public arena we strive to be:

A Clear,

Informed,

Effective,

and Involved Presence
In Creating A Just And Sustainable World Community

A Progressive Legislative Advocacy Network

HOT SUMMER ISSUES!

Preserve Medicaid for thousands of Washington's children

Thousands of Washington's children are at risk of losing access to the health care services they receive through the Medicaid program because of the new citizenship documentation requirements included in the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) Pres. Bush signed into law back in February.

A report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities anticipated that nationally between 3-5 million people could lose their Medicaid coverage because of difficulty proving their citizenship under the rules.

Congress now has the opportunity to pass legislation taht would fix some of the problems with the DRA and provide flexbility to the states to implement the law so that it protects the most vulnerable as well as saving administrative dollars. Passing this legislation is critical to Washington State's efforts to cover alll kids by 2010.

Please ask Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and your Representative to support the DRA technical corrections bill and to tell the leadership to pass it quickly.

To send a message to your lawmakers through the Children's Alliance website, go to: http://www.childrenshub.org/campaign/fedguidlines/wnbuubdr95be3m3?

Predatory Lending

In the 2006 session, Sen. Darlene Fairley (D-32) and Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-23) introduced legislation to deal with predatory lending, which UU Voices for Justice supported. However not enough of their colleagues supported the measures so they did not pass. This means low-income consumers will go another year without fair and reasonable protections on these loans. We'll be working with the Statewide Poverty Action Network to build grassroots pressure on lawmakers to pass strong legislation next year. To get involved, go to:

http://www.povertyaction.org/getinvolved/PaydayLendingReform.cfm

Vote for a Change

Voting rates decline as household incomes decline. Poverty Action is kicking off the 2006 Vote for a Change Campaign to register and mobilize low-income voters for the 2006 election and beyond on July 15. There will be opportunities to register voters east and west of the mountains during the campaign. For more information or to sign up for the July 15 event, contact Kim Justice at 206/694-6794 or kim@povertyaction.org

New Co-coordinator

UU Voices welcomes Rev. Carol McKinley, a newly ordained community minister, onboard as the new co-coordinator of UU Voices. She will be taking on Jerome's work on the legislative advocacy tracking, newsletters and action alerts and providing her ministerial leadership. We feel very pleased and fortunate. Jerome will continue on the steering committee board member and as a legislative tracker. We thank him for his role is getting UU Voices off to a good start. Rev. Carol McKinley will be attending a national UUSC sponsored network conference in Boston this August with Corinne.

UUSC Grant 2006-7

We have been informed that we will receive a grant again in 2006-7 from UUSC. Our appreciation goes to UUSC for helping Washington State UUs establish a legislative network.