Do Your Part to Help Save The Adoption Tax Credit
Adoption STAR is part of a working group to save the adoption tax credit, which is due to expire December 31, 2012. Recently I attended a meeting of the individuals who started this working group and learned more about how we can do our part to save the tax credit for the families we work with. It was surprising to learn how little it might take to get your State Representatives attention. One Rep. in Washington told one of the group leaders that it would take just 15-20 calls to his office to make them pay attention to a particular issue. While a comment like this might initially make you think that you don’t need to personally make an effort to advocate, but we should not assume that 15-20 other individual will be all it takes. If we all are thinking this way, very few will actually make the point at all. The way I see it is that we can make a much bigger impact if we are 100 instead of 15-20.
So, please help do your part for all the families and children we work so hard for. I am asking you all to take 20 minutes of your time today or this weekend to e-mail, call or write our NYS Senators and our local Congressmen and make our point about the ATC.
Click here for draft letters you can use as a template for your e-mail/letter and also a handout that should be attached to your letter with information about the tax credit (please read these for your knowledge as well). The areas that are green are the places you need to enter information – DO NOT LEAVE GREEN! You can enter the specific person’s name, share a story related to why we need the ATC and change to black before sending!
Please note if you are writing to your representative, you are asking for co-sponsorship of H.R. 4373 (the House bill). If you are writing to your senators, you are asking them to co-sponsor S. 3616 (the Senate bill). (I already specified in the draft letters, but please double check before sending).
Below is contact information for our NYS Senators and I listed some local Representatives. If your Rep. is someone else, you can search here for his or her specific contact info.
NY State Senators:
Gillibrand, Kirsten E. – (D – NY) Class I
478 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4451
Schumer, Charles E. – (D – NY) Class III
322 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6542
NY Representatives:
Louise Slaughter
2469 Rayburn HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3615
Brian Higgins
2459 Rayburn HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3306
The only NYS Representatives who have signed on are Charles Rangel, Carolyn McCarthy and Carolyn Maloney.
If you prefer to call rather than send a letter you can find a sample script for your call here http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/advocate/sample-script/