February 2008
The Friends Committee on National Le-gislation is the oldest registered peace lobby organization of Capitol Hill, having been in operation for 64 years. It is governed by the General Committee of representatives from 26 yearly meetings from across the country. These yearly meetings account for a range but not the whole of the Quaker religious spectrum -- FUM, FGC, and Conservative YMs. The organization’s policy and legislative priorities and budget for the coming year are set by this General Committee at its annual meeting each November. Ross Capon and Marion Ballard of our meeting currently are a members of the General Committee. Ross was named as a representative from BYM, and Ma-rion by the FCNL Nominating Committee as an at-large member. Marion is clerk of the Finance Committee, and Ross is a member of that com-mittee.Every two years, in advance of the next Congress, FCNL seeks input from monthly meet-ings on what its legislative priorities should be. This fall we will be electing members of the 111th Congress which will take office next January. This spring BFM and monthly meet-ings elsewhere will receive materials asking where we think FCNL should focus in its work. Over the past number of years, the P&SJ Committee has taken the lead in organizing the discussion of the meeting’s response -- normally inviting members to attend a meeting of committee where the priorities are discussed and then forwarding BFM’s recommendations to FCNL following that discussion.
FCNL organizes its lobbying work in four broad areas that reflect the four elements of its mission statement:
1) We seek a world free of war and the threat of war; 2) We seek a society with equity and justice for all; 3) We seek a community where every person’s potential is fulfilled; 4) We seek an earth restored.
FCNL has a relatively small staff of 40 including interns and part-time field representa-tives, so it is not possible for all of these four elements to get equal treatment in terms of staff time and resources. In seeking a world free of war and the threat of war, for the last six years a lot of time and energy has gone into ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This part of the mission statement also covers FCNL’s nuclear disarma-ment work where it is among the leaders of the national disarmament community.
The work on preserving civil liberties in the post-9/11 era (lobbying against warrantless wiretaps and anti-torture legislation) falls under seeking equity and justice for all. Also in this area is FCNL’s work in supporting cultural integrity and tribal sovereignty of Native Americans.
Seeking a community were every person's potential may be fulfilled expresses itself in FCNL’s work on trying to reduce military spend-ing and redirecting that money into domestic programs that reduce poverty and address human and community needs. Much of this work is done in coordination with other groups which focus more directly on these issues.
FCNL has used its new green building in a variety of ways as an actual tangible example of how it is seeking an earth restored. Last July, it held a celebration for finally obtaining the documents showing that the building was LEED certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. Sixteen members of Congress from both parties attended and toured the building, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who stated her commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of congressional buildings.
In December, FCNL tallied up a number of areas where it saw the work of its small staff and the lobbying by its supporters around the country as having had an impact on legislation passed in 2007.
No New Nuclear Bomb Plant: FCNL’s Quaker Nuclear Disarmament Program led the lobbying strategy that resulted in four separate committees in Congress zeroing out funding for a new, multi-billion nuclear bomb plant. The program is effectively discontinued.
Congress Reaffirms Ban on Permanent Military Bases in Iraq: For the second year in a row, Congress approved the FCNL-initiated pro-posal to ban the U.S. government from estab-lishing permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.
No New Nuclear Weapons: FCNL’s Quaker Nuclear Disarmament Program led the lobbying strategy that resulted in Congress ap-proving legislation which includes a provision eliminating all funding for the administration’s proposed new nuclear bomb, the “Reliable Rep-lacement Warhead” program (RRW). The Presi-dent signed the legislation just before the new year.
Congress Bans Cluster Bomb Exports: Congress approved, and the president signed, legislation which includes a one-year ban on the export of most types of cluster bombs, providing a first clear victory for FCNL’s campaign to ban cluster bombs.
Stopping Nuclear Proliferation: Con-gress approved legislation which increases fund-ing for nuclear non-proliferation to more than $500 million above the President’s budget re-quest. The money will primarily be used to secure and destroy old stockpiles of bomb-grade nuclear materials overseas.
With a budget of a little more than $4 million, FCNL is a small player in all the lob-bying that goes on in Washington. But the work of its professional staff on behalf of or against particular legislation (say for example further funding for the war in Iraq) is amplified by the lobbying that its constituents around the country do, either through visits to their legislators’ dis-trict or Washington offices or through phone calls, e-mails, or letters. FCNL has a sophis-ticated website (www.fcnl.org) that allows sup-porters who receive its weekly legislative action alerts to contact their members of Congress, and provides sample language for letters or e-mail. From July 1, 2006, to June 30, 2007, more than 105,000 such messages were sent to members of Congress by FCNL supporters through this electronic system. Of these 34% or more than 35,000 messages related to the Iraq war. Some 12,000 or 12% dealt with civil liberties related legislation.
To amplify its voice as a lobby group FCNL engages Friends and others at the local level through its ongoing “War Is Not the An-swer” campaign. It now has yard sign distributors in all 50 states and more than half of of the 435 congressional districts. In the past six years, it has distributed more than 400,000 yard and window signs, bumper stickers, and other materials to people around the country and around the world. Each month it distributes about 22,000 news-letters to contributors as well as to monthly meet-ings and Friends churches and to all 535 members of Congress. It also is engaging a younger gene-ration of more tech-savvy individuals through My Space and Facebook and has more than 1,000 on its list serve to young adult Friends.
FCNL provides information and analysis that has allowed members of BFM to engage with our members of Congress. In the last year the P&SJ Committee has facilitated several lobby visits. In January Bob and Jane Nutter, Ross Capon, Carolyn Byerly, and Liz Hofmeister met with an aides to Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski about the Iraq war and how to disengage. While we were at Cardin's office, the senator briefly stopped by and talked with us and shared his thoughts and some of what he has been doing. Bob, Jane and Liz and Stacey Fitzsimmons met personally with Congressman Chris Van Hol-len in late February about Iraq war funding.
FCNL is a voice for Quaker concerns. But in the end, Quakers as individuals have to be the ones to carry our own concerns to our elected representatives.
