House Passes H.R. 1—Keep Fighting

On February 19, the House passed H.R. 1 by a vote of 235-189. The bill cuts the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act by $102.9 million by completely eliminating the Tech Prep program. However, there is still hope for stopping these cuts! Our next line of defense is in the Senate. The Senate is expected to begin working on this bill on February 28, since both chambers are on recess next week.

It is crucial that you continue to fight for a restoration of funds to Perkins! Although the process has moved to the Senate, the House will still be involved because both chambers have to agree on the final bill. The recess provides us a great opportunity to keep the pressure on Members of Congress to restore Perkins funding!

TAKE ACTION

Continue to CALL your Senators and tell them to restore funding to the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act! You can call the Capitol Switch Board at 202-224-3121 (Senate) and ask to be connected to your Senators' offices. It is critical that calls continue to these offices from as many different people as possible.

Try to speak to the staff member that works on education and appropriations issues, if that staff member is unavailable, leave a detailed message.
Use the talking points and chart on ACTE's Web site to help make the case.
Thank the staff member for their time, and report on the conversation to Jamie Baxter at ACTE.

Follow-up with House offices:
If your Representative voted for H.R. 1, call that office to express your disappointment and explain how crucial funding for Perkins is!

If your Representative voted against H.R. 1, call and thank him or her for voting against the bill and continue to explain how necessary Perkins funding is to your students, community and economy!

Remember, Congress is on recess the week of February 20. Reach out to state and district offices and look for area town hall meetings or other community events. Take advantage of this time and visit your Representative and Senators in the state and district! Use ACTE's recess guide for tips on how to make the most of the recess.

Visit www.acteonline.org/saveCTEfunding.aspx for more information on how you can get businesses involved in these efforts and other actions you can take to save CTE funding!