Last week, Rep. Hinojosa (D-TX) and Sean Duffy (R-WI) released a bipartisan Dear Colleague Letter asking Members of Congress to join them in urging the House Appropriations Committee to fund critical USDA Rural Housing programs!
Please CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY and ask them to (1) Sign the Hinojosa/Duffy Dear Colleague Letter and (2) Submit an Appropriations Request for these programs!
The deadline for Representatives to sign on has been extended to March 18, and they can contact Fernando Ruiz (Fernando.Ruiz@mail.house.gov) in Hinojosa’s office to sign on. The deadline for Representatives to submit their electronic Appropriations Requests is March 23.
Resources
The Hinojosa/Duffy Dear Colleague letter can be found here.
NRHC’s Appropriations Request Spreadsheet is here.
NRHC’s List of Congressional Targets is here.
Sample Script
When you call you Representative’s office:
“Hi, my name is [name] and I am with [organization] and I live/work in your district. I’d like to speak with the Representative’s staffer who handles Agriculture or Housing issues.”
Once you are connected to the right staffer:
“Hi, I’m [name] and I work with [organization] that serve your district. I’m calling because I want to ask the Representative to sign onto a bipartisan Dear Colleague Letter from Rep. Duffy and Rep. Hinojosa in support of funding for USDA Rural Housing programs. These programs are critical to the work we do you in the district to help low-income rural families find affordable rental housing or to become homeowners. I would also like to ask the Representative to submit an appropriations request to support these programs.”
Other tips:
- Give an example of how you use USDA Rural Housing programs.
- For example, how much USDA funding did you help families secure last year?
- How many families became homeowners?
- How many units of affordable rental housing did you build or preserve?
- Email them a copy of the Hinojosa/Duffy Dear Colleague Letter and NRHC’s Appropriations Request Spreadsheet.
- Use NRHC Fact Sheets to get more information on USDA Rural Housing programs.
- Let NRHC know which offices you contacted by emailing Sarah Mickelson (Sarah AT Rapoza DOT Org), so that we can follow up with them.
Congressional Targets
You can find a complete list of NRHC’s Congressional Targets and their staff contacts here.
To find your Representative’s phone number for their D.C. Office, follow this link to the U.S. House of Representatives website.