Produced by Democrats of the Red Rocks and Coconino County Democratic Party
A. Urge both Congress and our Senate Representatives to increase TEFAP funding in the
2023 Farm Bill to help food banks meet rising demand!! TEFAP stands for the
Emergency Food Assistance Program. The federal government moves nutritious food
from farms to food banks across the Feeding America network. As family food budgets
are slashed due to inflation or job insecurity, more funding to food banks is desperately
needed. Last year 30% of the food distributed to Feeding America came via TEFAP. The
numbers don’t lie. We need TEFAP funding!! In 2023, Black communities were three
times more likely to face hunger, with 22% of Black children living in food-insecure
households. Latino families were 2 ½ times more likely to face hunger and Native
Americans were 3 times more likely – with 20% of Native American individuals
experiencing food insecurity! We need to double the funding for TEFAP in the 2023
Farm Bill and we need to expand assistance for TEFAP storage and distribution to get
food from point A to point B safely. Insist our Representatives do the right thing and
expand TEFAP in the 2023 Farm Bill!!
B. Demand our House Representative ensure that funding for public media be included
in the Labor-Health and Human Services- Education funding bill. The Labor-HHS-
Education appropriations bill is due to be voted on in the House during the week of
11/13. The current form of the bill does NOT include funding for public media. The GAO
(Government Accountability Office) concluded that there is no viable alternative to
federal funding for public media. Every public media station would be affected.
Stations serving rural, island and tribal communities would be most at-risk for going off
the air. Communities could be left with no emergency communications. Local news,
storytelling, and cultural preservation services would significantly decline or vanish.
Insist our Representative refuse to vote for any Labor-HHS-Education funding bill that
does not include Public Media funding!!
C. Reach out to all of our Federal Representatives to insist that the Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) be fully funded! The WIC
program provides nutritional assistance to 7 million pregnant and postpartum women,
infants and your children. Due to increased demand for WIC’s critical nutrition and
health services coupled with higher food prices, WIC will be forced to start creating
waitlists or cutting benefits without additional funding. WIC has experienced a 18.3%
increase in child participation since 2020. With rising food costs and increased program
participation it is more critical than ever that we maintain WIC to provide pregnant
people, new moms, and toddlers with the nutrition assistance, formula and
breastfeeding counseling they so desperately need. Ask our Federal Representatives to
fully fund WIC!
D. Urge President Biden to take unilateral action to protect and secure our elections
NOW!! Republicans have repeatedly blocked common-sense legislation that would
ensure every eligible American has access to the ballot box and protection from anti-
democratic attacks. Now MAGA Republicans have rallied around Mike Johnson, a 2020
election denier, as speaker. With Donald Trump still the GOP frontrunner and his co-
conspirators still pushing his big lie, the threats to our democracy and freedoms rage on.
Elections impact everything that touches our daily lives: freedom from gun violence,
freedom to choose how, when, and with whom to build a family, freedom to breathe
clean air and drink clean water, and more. President Biden, through executive action,
fan establish clear actions to: Fight corruption that’s undermining public confidence in
American Democracy, Enhance transparency of corporate lobbying, Prevent foreign
money from influencing our elections, Create a White House Office of Democracy that
can ensure that the U.S. Government is using every tool available to protect voting
rights. Ask President Biden to implement these strategies to help strengthen our
democracy and continue our commitment to an inclusive, secure, fair and accessible
electoral system!!
Sen. Mark Kelly: Call (202) 224-2235 (DC); Email via his website at
https://www.kelly.senate.gov/contact/. Tag the Senator at @senmarkkelly.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema: Call (202) 224-4521 (DC) or (602) 598-7327. Email via her website at
https://www.sinema.senate.gov/contact-kyrsten. Tag the Senator at @senatorsinema.
Rep. Eli Crane: Call (202) 225-3361 (DC) or email via website at
https://crane.house.gov/contact. Tag the Congressman @RepEliCrane
President Biden: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House,
202-225-2777 (DC) or email via website at:
https://mikejohnson.house.gov/contact/
Tag the Congressman @RepMikeJohnson
Senator Mitch McConnell:
Email: https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm
Call: 202-224-2541
Senator Tommy Tuberville:
Email: https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/contact-old/contact-form/
Call: 202-224-4124