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Members Urged to Participate in Stimulus Lobbying Blitz
Members of NAHB are being urged to contact their members of Congress and seek their support to enact housing stimulus legislation before the July 4th recess by calling 1-866-924-6242.
The grassroots effort coincides with a blitz by the association’s lobbyists on Capitol Hill, who last week contacted more than 100 lawmakers to relay to them the urgency of moving quickly to pass housing stimulus legislation that will avert an economic crisis, jump-start housing, save jobs and restore confidence.
The lobbyists presented each lawmaker with detailed economic data for their congressional district; media reports on record foreclosures, surging unemployment, sky high oil prices, and a deepening credit crunch crisis and housing slump; and recent ads produced by NAHB’s Public Affairs that ran in USA Today and National Journal stating that “America is hurting” and Congress needs to enact housing stimulus legislation now.
NAHB Executive Vice President and CEO Jerry Howard last week met with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to discuss strategies to move the legislative process forward and to push for the best overall package of proposals in any final housing stimulus bill. In an interview with Congressional Quarterly, Howard cited the need to pass housing stimulus legislation now and discussed NAHB’s outreach efforts to key members of Congress, including Sen. Baucus.
In conjunction with the lobbing blitz, NAHB on June 11-12 ran a new ad in Roll Call and Politico using the same theme that “America is hurting.” The ad says: “In the month since the House adopted housing stimulus legislation, another 49,000 Americans have lost their jobs and 190,000 home owners have gone into foreclosure. America can’t afford to wait another month. It’s time for Congress to enact a final housing bill.”
Utilizing Builderlink, NAHB’s national grassroots program, employees from Centex sent more than 6,000 letters to Congress calling on their individual lawmakers to pass badly needed housing stimulus legislation before the July 4th congressional recess.
NAHB has expanded its outreach this week to get its members and the general public involved in this effort. The association has issued a Legislative Alert urging all members to phone their federal lawmakers, share their stories on how the housing downturn has affected their businesses and local communities, and call on their representatives and senators to pass a housing stimulus bill before July 4.
In addition, NAHB has created three rotating ads that prominently appear on the front page of nahb.org . The ads appear on the public site as well as the members-only section of nahb.org. A separate smaller banner on the inside Web pages of nahb.org contains a similar message and links to the Legislative Alert.
For more information on the grassroots campaign, e-mail Molly Murray at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8282.
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