Action Alert!  Call Senator Menendez to Support the Federal Home Visiting Initiative!

This just in from our colleagues in home visiting around the nation:  The US Senate is in the final stages of drafting their healthcare reform bill this week.  Advocates at the national level have been working to encourage the Senate Finance Committee to include language in the healthcare reform legislation to establish a new federally funded home visiting program.

The time is now to reach out to our New Jersey State Senator, Robert Menendez, who sits on the Senate Finance Committee. Reach his office in Washington directly at: 202- 224-4744 OR call his New Jersey office at: 973-645-3030.

Here are the steps for your call:

• Call and ask to talk to the staff person who works on Finance Committee issues.
• Tell the staff person your name and where you live.  You're a constituent of the Senator's if you live anywhere in New Jersey State.
• Ask them to encourage the Senator to include guaranteed funding for evidence-based home visiting programs in healthcare reform.
• Discuss how home visiting has affected you, your family, or your community.
• Explain that home visiting programs serve a diverse population with numerous needs.  Programs in New Jersey include Healthy Families New Jersey, the Nurse-Family Partnership, Parents as Teachers and the Parent-Child Home Program.
• Finally, remind them that home visiting provides a range of positive outcomes for families, like the prevention of child abuse and neglect, school readiness and parental involvement in school, better health outcomes for children, and more positive parent-child relationships.
• Thank the staffer and again remind him/her to encourage the Senator to support these programs, which are tied to healthcare reform.

Remember to leave your contact information if they ask for it.

Act today!  There is no time to waste! Every call representing Healthy Families New Jersey counts!

Senator Menendez can also be emailed at: http://menendez.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm. Include all the above information in your letters!

Other members of the Finance Committee include:

Committee Chair  Sen. Max Baucus (Montana)
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa)
Sen. John Rockefeller (West Virginia)
Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah)
Sen. Kent Conrad (North Dakota)
Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine)
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (New Mexico)
Sen. Jon Kyl (Arizona)
Sen. John Kerry (Massachusetts)
Sen. Jim Bunning (Kentucky)
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas)
Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho)
Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon)
Sen. Pat Roberts (Kansas)
Sen. Charles Schumer (New York)
Sen. John Ensign (Nevada)
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Michigan)
Sen. Michael Enzi (Wyoming)
Sen. Maria Cantwell (Washington)
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas)
Sen. Bill Nelson (Florida)
Sen. Thomas Carper (Delaware)

Thanks for your support!