Information on the "super committee"

Family Voices Indiana reminds its members that the budget agreement included a "super committee". This panel will be tasked with searching out more than $1 trillion in spending reductions from the mandatory-spending side of the budget, which includes Medicare and Medicaid. Families with children with special health care needs and/or disabilities will need to continue to be engaged in the process to protect programs vital to our children’s health and quality of life.

“Super Committee” members:

Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas (Republican and committee co-chair): chairman of the House Republican Conference

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington (Democrat and committee co-chair): member of the Budget and Appropriations committees

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland (Democrat): ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona (Republican): member of the Finance Committee.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts (Democrat): member of the Finance Committee

Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania (Republican): sits on the Senate Budget and Banking

Committees

Sen. Max Baucus of Montana (Democrat): chairman of the Senate Finance Committee

Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio (Republican): member of the Budget Committee

Rep. Xavier Becerra of California (Democrat): senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee

Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan (Republican): House Ways and Means Committee chairman

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina (Democrat): veteran of the Appropriations Committee

Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan (Republican): chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee

Below is an announcement from Families USA filled with excellent talking points and related tools for the upcoming Super Committee negotiations. As the committee's work gets underway in earnest after Labor Day, Family Voices Indiana will have more tools like this to share with you; but we both felt like these offered a very good start for any of you who are attending recess activities.

Formatting issues may prevent you from viewing the entire announcement. You can also find this information here:

http://www.familiesusa.org/

As we prepare for a busy fall, we have new resources to share with you that we hope you will find useful while we work to protect Medicaid and programs that serve low-income people in the super committee process. Families USA has developed talking points on "Medicaid, Deficit Reduction, and the Super Committee.” To see the talking points, click here. The National Women’s Law Center has new state-specific resources for super committee advocacy. The 50 state-specific fact sheets can help advocates make the case for why any plan for deficit reduction must protect programs vital to the wellbeing of women and families; make millionaires and corporations pay their fair share; and promote job growth, ensuring lower deficits and a stronger economy in the long term. To see the fact sheets, click here. The HIV Health Care Access Working Group (HHCAWG) and the AIDS Budget and Appropriations Coalition (ABAC) sent a sign-on letter to the super committee co-chairs, urging them to consider the impact on people living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS as they develop a proposal for deficit reduction. To see the principles outlined in the letter, click here. We also wanted to share a new online advocacy tool that Families USA has developed. Essentially, by typing in a zip code, you are able to tweet all of your elected officials AND, simultaneously, sign a Twitter petition in support of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. You can check it out here: www.standupforhealthcare.org/tweet