Urgent call to action on jobs bill that would take away another half billion dollars from our budget

It’s called FMAP, or the federal Medicaid matching funds that helped ease Washington state’s deficit by $500 million.

But on Thursday (May 27) at the 11th hour the U.S. House in Washington, D.C. stripped the FMAP provision from the jobs bill, after AFSCME had secured the support of a majority of the House to keep it in.  Our state budget assumes this money and without it we could be facing more cuts.

Our best shot now is to get FMAP included in the Senate bill, which will come up when Congress returns from the Memorial Day recess this week.  But doing so requires 60 votes and a lot of work in the coming days.

The situation we find ourselves in demands that we use every resource available to persuade members of Congress to support the FMAP funding in the jobs bill.  We cannot expect that things will just turn out OK.  We need union leaders and members calling EVERY member of Congress all this week demanding that they fix this.

The most important thing will be for you to pick up the phone and call the below members of Congress to express your outrage TODAY.

Here’s what you can tell them:

“Hi, I’m calling about the decision to strip the Medicaid funding from the jobs bill.  This was a huge mistake, and one that I’m extremely angry about.  This money is meant to help states shore up budget shortfalls, and we were counting on this money for our state for next year.  Without it, we’re looking at massive new layoffs, particularly for public employees – and that’s going to lead to a higher deficit thanks to increased demand for government services and less tax revenue.  Not to mention a setback to the economic recovery.

“This isn’t just a regular vote for us.  This needs to be fixed and fixed now.  We need you to communicate that with the House leadership and make sure to help us get FMAP money back into the jobs bill when you return from recess.”

Call NOW!

• Baird, Brian | 360-352-9768 | WA-D (3rd Dist.)
• Dicks, Norman | 360-479-4011 | WA-D (6th Dist.)
  Inslee, Jay | 360-598-2342 |WA-D (1st Dist.)
• Larsen, Rick | 360-733-4500 | WA-D (2nd Dist.)
• McDermott, Jim | 206-553-7170 | WA-D (7th Dist.)
• Smith, Adam | 253-896-3775 | WA-D (9th Dist.)

Finish your call by saying:

“Thank you for taking a few minutes to help with this important effort! Please let me know if you have any questions.”