Good Morning to All,



Yesterday I met with a constituent aid who works for Congressman Wittman in Virginia. At his advise I would like to try another approach at getting tracking for our proposed grassroots legislation.

In Government 101 you learn that all bills begin in the House, and more specifically in the Ways and Means Committee in the House. This means that in order for any of the proposals we have thus far sent to our congressmen/women must eventually get passed along to the Ways and Means Committee in the House, get approval there and sent to the Senate for its approval before going to the President to sign. This is a lot to ask for a grass roots movement that does not even use real names and has no lobbyist.

Here is my idea: I am attaching a copy of the names of all of the members of the Ways and Means Committee. Look at it closely. IF your congressional representative is on this list, it is imperative that you help our cause now and send him/her our proposal. Bills introduced by these 38 members of Congress have a far greater chance of passage than those sponsored by all the rest of congress. Did you know that when you send a proposed bill to a member of Congress, no matter how important or how well written, if it is not sent to the member in whose district you live, it will never be read and all you will get in return is a form letter. There is an unwritten law (or maybe it is written) that says congress works only for the constituents who live in their district.

Soooo, if your Congressman/Women is on the Ways and Means Committee, you have a better chance to get our proposal seriously looked at than most. Please don't take this as just more pushing from Alli, this is serious stuff that needs everyone's attention. I am going to add another column on the Tracking Report that will include contacts on the Ways and Means Committee.

BTW, I was told by a guy who has looked at lot of legislative proposals that ours is extremely well written for its background information and simplicity of the proposed changes. The 3 things that it makes clear are: distilling does not produce alcohol, the proposal seeks fairness in the law (most politicians like fairness), and the health and safety myths are well explained. Keep in mind that if you get a chance to speak to your legislator, on the phone or in person, you need to make your argument in 30 seconds or less - any more than that and will lose their attention.

Things have calmed down for now, so lets get back to work. Look closely at the names on the Ways and Means Committee. Do you see your congressman/women? Do you know anyone who does live in the district of one of these folks?

BTH, The aid I spoke with yesterday was impressed enough with our proposal that he has called the Congressman's scheduler to set up a meeting with me and the Congressman. Might be two weeks or might be 2 months depending on his schedule. I have no idea how he will receive our idea, but I am told that he is a big advocate of fairness in government - hell that is all we want. Will report on our meeting after it happens.

OK Folks, the forum trolls say the single piece of paper with 38 names on it is to big for the attachment devise. Beets hell out of me. here they are:

Committee on Ways and Means - Committee Members

Sam Johnson - TX ........................... Todd Young - IN
Kevin Brady - TX ............................ Mike Kelly - PA
Paul Ryan - WI ........................... Tim Griffin - AR
Devin Nunes - CA ...........................Jim Renacci - OH
Pat Tiberi - OH ........................... Sander Levin - MI - Ranking Member
Dave G. Reichert - WA ...........................Charles B. Rangel - NY
Charlas W. Boustany, Jr. LA .......................... Jim McDermott - WA
Peter J. Roskam - IL ........................... John Lewis - GA
Jim Gerlach - PA ........................... Richard E. Neal - MA
Tom Price - GA ........................... Xavier Becerra - CA
Vern Buchanan - FL ........................... Lloyn Doggett - TX
Adrian Shith - NE ........................... Mike Thompson - CA
Aaron Schock. IL ........................... John B. Larson - CT
Lynn Jenkins - KS ........................... Earl Blumenauer - OR
Erik Paulsen - MN .............................Ron Kind - WI
Kenny Marchant - TX ............................ Bill Pascrell. Jr. - NJ
Diane Black - TN .............................Joseph Crowley - NY
Tom Reed - NY ........................... Allyson Schwartz - PA
...........................Danny Davis - IL
...........................Linda Sanchez - CA

Please excuse any typos in your favorite congressman's name. Alli

Heya ALi,

I hear "tell" that's 4 lashes with a noodle (cooked)...

Try (remove the whitespace]

[ list ]
[ * ] One Potato One
[ * ] Two Potato Two
[ /List ]

Works out to

• One Potato One
  
• Two Potato Two
  

So ....
[ list ]
[ * ]Sam Johnson - TX [ * ]Kevin Brady - TX [ * ] And so onn...
[ /List ]
Be comes;

• Sam Johnson - TX
  
• Kevin Brady - TX
  
• And so onn...
  

Sorry, but the regular VB Code doesn't support multiple columns unless you use insert a table with the buttons on the tool bar... (The reason the lower lines are scrunched is because I put no data in them...)

Like so;
[TABLE="class: grid, width: 500, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]Sam Johnson - TX[/TD]
[TD]Todd Young - IN[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kevin Brady - TX[/TD]
[TD]Mike Kelly - PA[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Paul Ryan - WI[/TD]
[TD]Tim Griffin - AR[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Devin Nunes - CA[/TD]
[TD]Jim Renacci - OH[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Pat Tiberi - OH[/TD]
[TD]Sander Levin - MI - Ranking Member[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Dave G. Reichert - WA[/TD]
[TD]Charles B. Rangel - NY[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

If you don't see the Table controls on yer toolbar - go to user options and select the advanced editor You can align to either side or center,have borders or, like the US, not show any border, etc

Cheers...

That is awesome, Biscuit! Please let us know how it goes.

John Lewis has the proposal. Will work with my Brother on follow up with it. Should be a no brainer for Mr. Lewis to back our movement.

Forum members. Just a little movement can make a difference. Work who you can with what you can. We control what happens.

That's terrific. If we can get a couple of the guys on that committee thinking about our proposal. it may go a long way toward getting us some of the attention we desperately need up there. Thanks for your efforts. Alli

"[ATTACH]935[/ATTACH]Biscuit,
According to my tracking report, no one from Texas has sent a copy of our proposal to any of the Ways and Means Committee members. I don't have any recorded indications of any follow-up from the Texans who have sent proposals to their congressional reps.

Here is the latest update.

Alli"

The way it is looking for the WM Committee. Working on the four from Texas, 2 in Ga. 1 in Tenn. 1 in Mass. 1 in Wash. This covers about coast to coast. I'n sure we can do a few more, but it does show we are not just a regional group.

Just saw this thread. I'll be sending a package to John B. Larson in CT today. Just gotta find his contact info.