TODAY is Virtual Hill Day for Perkins Advocates! Contact Your Congressional Representatives Now!

February 28, 2018

Prepared by: Greg Marak (gmarak@bosewashingtonpartners.com)

The Perkins Loan Extension Act of 2017 (H.R.2482/S.1808) – currently has 243 cosponsors in the House and 22 cosponsors in the Senate! We need Congress to do the right thing and extend the Perkins Loan Program while they consider the future of all student aid programs during the Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization process.

Today, February 28th, Perkins supporters across the country will contact their Congressional Members in the House and Senate and those in Leadership asking for support for the Perkins Loan Program.

Please join your colleagues for a Virtual Hill Day by calling, Tweeting or emailing your Congressional Members to let them know how critical the Perkins Loan Program is to your students, institution or organization and ask them to include a Perkins extension in the appropriations bill.

The CALL TO ACTION is critical and can have a significant impact! All of the information you need is on our COHEAO website and below:

Phone Calls

• To obtain the phone number for your Representative’s Office, Click Here and enter your zip code.
• To obtain the phone number for your Senator’s Office, Click Here.
• For an example script for your call, Click Here.

Emails

• To find the email address for your education staff member in the House and/or Senate, Click here. (Excel spreadsheet). The sheet is also attached.
• For an example script for your email, Click here.

Education & Workforce, HELP & Appropriations

Chairwoman Foxx and Chairman Alexander should hear about this issue at the national level. 

• To reach Chairwoman Foxx by email, please use the Contact Us form on the House Education and the Workforce Committee website. The Education and the Workforce Committee’s phone number is (202) 225-4527.
• To reach Chairman Alexander please use the Contact Us form on his website. The Senate HELP Committee’s phone number is (202) 224-5375. 

You can also contact the House & Senate Appropriations Committee.

• To reach Chairman Frelinghuysen by email, please use the Contact Us form on the House Appropriations Committee website. The Appropriations Committee’s phone number is (202) 225-2771.
• To reach Chairman Cochran please call (202) 224-7257. 

 Social Media

Social media, particularly Twitter, is also an excellent way for you, your colleagues, students and others to engage your legislators. Please tag your Senators and Representatives, as well as key offices, using the hashtag #SavePerkinsNow.  The Twitter handles of key legislators are as follows:

House: @VirginiaFoxx, @SpeakerRyan, @GOPLeader (Kevin McCarthy), @USRepRodney (Chair of Appropriations Committee), @HouseAppropsGOP, @TomCokeOK04, @NancyPelosi, @BobbyScott, and @Rosa_DeLauro

Senate:  @SenAlexander,  @SenateMajLdr (Mitch McConnell), @JohnCornyn, @SenThadCochran, @SenateApprops, @RoyBlunt, @ChuckSchumer, @PattyMurray, and @SenatorLeahy

Here are a couple of sample tweets:

If Congress fails to extend Perkins Loans in the FY18 funding bill, nearly 500,000 students will lose access to $1 billion in low-cost loans this year. @VirginiaFoxx & @SenAlexander, we must #SavePerkinsNow 

Thank you for supporting Perkins Loans, @BobbyScott and @PattyMurray. We still need your help to #SavePerkinsNow for 500K students by adding an extension on the FY18 funding bill.

Please Share Your Outreach with Us

• It is extremely helpful to COHEAO’s advocacy efforts to track the calls and emails to Congress. Please take a few minutes to let us know about your outreach by entering your info here.

For further assistance, please email Greg Marak at Bose Washington Partners.