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BPW/MI Monday Minute February 19th, 2007
Policy & Action was a lot of fun and very
inspirational as always. I was disappointed in how few people were
able to attend from Michigan, it meant all of us kept very busy with
the legislative visits. Now I need your help to follow up.
I would like to make next Friday, February 23 a virtual lobby day.
The Heart for Women Act has been submitted to Congress in the House
as HR 1014 and in the Senate as S573. Please contact your
representatives and Senator Levin and ask them to be a co-sponsor on
this legislation. Sen. Stabenaw is a sponsor.
At last year’s state convention we voted to support the 2nd parent
adoption bill. That has been resubmitted to the Michigan House of
Representatives as House Bill 4259. We need to let our
Representatives know that we are in support of this legislation.
You can send your Representatives an email, give them a call, drop
in at their local office or send a fax. We need to make our voices
heard and this is a quick, painless way to do it. If you need help
identifying or contacting your Representatives, check out the
following websites or contact me at susandehncke@cs.com.
Federal Government
* www.senate.gov for links to legislation and Senators.
* www.house.gov for links to Representatives and legislation.
State Legislation
* www.legislation.mi.gov
Please let me know what actions you take so I can follow up on your
efforts. Thank you for your help.
Susan Dehncke
My Snapshot of Policy in Action:::
Invigorating!! Stimulating!! Revitalizing!! And other similar
adjectives describe the weekend. About 180 BPW members all working
toward the same goals of getting co-sponsors on three bills: Healthy
Families Act, the Retirement Security Act, and the Heart for Women
Act. Some legislators we met with as a group and others
individually. The completely bi-partisan issues do not always seem
that way to the legislative aides we talked with, but talk we did.
Susan Dehncke did a great job of getting appointments for us and
providing information for us to distribute to the various
legislative offices. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow were both out of
town so we didn’t get to see them but we know they are with us, as
both have co-sponsored at least one of the bills. We did get to
spend time with Rep. Tim Walberg’s staff member, and then I
personally spent time with Rep. Fred Upton’s staff member (scored
high) and with Rep. John Knollenberg’s staff member (not as
enthusiastic).
Thursday evening was the ERA Task Force (of which I am a member)
sponsored special ticketed dinner event. The two young women,
Jennifer Baumgartner and Amy Richards, who presented the program for
the evening were outstanding and talked about the young women and
the importance of the Equal Rights Amendment. They have authored a
book, “ManifestA – young women, feminism, and the future,” and I
purchased the book and had it autographed. If anyone would like to
borrow it and read it, I will make it available. You won’t be sorry.
The Friday morning sessions with Irene Natividad, President, Global
Summit of Women, talking about the global aspect of women’s issues
was very thought-provoking. Then we heard from Christine Griffin,
Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC,
talking about the role of government, employers, advocates and
workingwomen in creating equitable workplaces, which were very
interesting and gave us a perspective of issues that we don’t often
think about.
All in all, the Policy in Action conference was a great experience
and thanks for letting me represent Michigan/BPW.
Shirley Zeller
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