TO: YWCA Leaders
FROM: YWCA USA Public Policy & Advocacy
DATE: May 6, 2016
SUBJECT: 2016 Legislative Priorities and YWCA Advocacy Day
Dear YWCA Leaders,
YWCA USA is pleased to share with you our 2016 federal legislative priorities for the second session of the 114th Congress. The priorities outlined in this document remain consistent with our 2015 health and safety, work and family, and racial justice and civil rights priorities while also reflecting a realistic appraisal of the opportunities for legislative action in this presidential election year. The 2016 priorities also incorporate new opportunities to advance our mission that relate to our focus on disparities in the education and justice systems for girls of color from this year's Stand Against Racism, as well as our continuing collaboration with national-level partners in the economic empowerment and violence against women sectors.
While these priorities would typically be shared with you at the start of a legislative session, we have taken additional time to review and analyze our priorities during the onboarding of YWCA's new Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy Catherine Beane. During this time, we have continued to monitor legislative activity and to conduct the monthly federal legislative calls. The team has also been meeting with partners and allies to better assess our strategic opportunities in 2016, and undertaking intensive research and analysis to develop policy priorities that are in close alignment with YWCA's Mission Impact Framework. This legislative priorities document is the result of this strategic review and will provide a clear roadmap for our policy advocacy over the remainder of the year. We greatly appreciate your patience during this process.
Moving forward, you can expect to hear from us more frequently regarding opportunities to engage and advance these federal legislative priorities. Since we won't be meeting in Washington, D.C. this year, one of these opportunities will be our first-ever in-district YWCA Advocacy Day which will be held in August. We will focus on a trio of economic empowerment policies detailed in our legislative priorities document: paid sick leave, paid family and medical leave, and "safe" leave. Although our initial "save the date" announcement on the March monthly legislative call/webinar had indicated an earlier time frame for this event, a mid-August date will enable more strategic targeting of our activities. In particular, this window of time is in between the Republican and Democratic conventions in late July and Congress' return in September to wrap up outstanding business before their October/November in-district campaigning. August is a prime time for YWCAs to ratchet up pressure on Members of Congress to support economic empowerment policies that would be highly beneficial for women – a key constituency that many Members will be looking to reach. Securing additional co-sponsors for these important pieces of legislation and a commitment to be original co-sponsors when the bills are reintroduced in January would be a significant contribution by YWCA to the overall efforts to build support in Congress.
We look forward to sharing more details with you later this month – please be on the lookout! Thank you for your continued support of YWCA's federal policy work!
Sincerely,
YWCA USA Public Policy & Advocacy
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