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How to Take Action

1.To participate, reach your Members of Congress via phone or email.

CALL: The Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121) can connect you to your Senators’ or Representative’s offices.

EMAIL: Go to each Member’s Web site and submit your comments there.

To find their Web sites, use these online tools:

House:www.house.gov/representatives/find/#listrep
Senate: www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

After identifying yourself as a constituent, tell them that the sequester must be averted and any deficit reduction agreement to replace it should take a balanced approach.

Some sample talking points:

• Millions of older adults and family caregivers in our state are already struggling every day just to pay for daily expenses and stay healthy.

• They depend on federally-funded programs like meals, senior housing, energy assistance and elder abuse protection to stay independent in their own homes and communities.

• If Congress allows the sequester cuts to take effect on March 1, the impact on these programs would be devastating. Vulnerable seniors in our state could suddenly find themselves without the critical assistance and support they need to buy food, pay their heating bill, get help with daily living and afford decent housing.

2. Use social media to weigh in with lawmakers as well as other advocates and concerned consumers.

Use the #NoMoreCuts hashtag in your Twitter messages, encourage your Facebook followers to weigh in this week, and help your fellow aging advocates around the country raise the volume on the risks older adults face from arbitrary sequesters or rash policy decisions!

It is your voice and your message that can make all the difference.

When 66.7 million family caregivers in the nation come together and make our wishes known, things will get done.