Advocate on Social Media to Restore Perkins Funding

Following the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, which will restore most of the sequestration cuts for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014, Congress has now turned its attention to creating an appropriations bill that will set funding levels for individual programs like Perkins. The House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations subcommittees, which have jurisdiction over funding for education and workforce development programs, will determine which individual programs get funding restored within the overall total increase available. 

Last week, ACTE and the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the appropriations subcommittees, urging them to restore funding for Perkins to the pre-sequestration level as part of the FY 2014 appropriations bill. ACTE will continue to work with the committees to ensure that Perkins funding is restored, but they need to hear from you too!

Connecting with lawmakers through Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets is a quick and easy way to spread the message of restoring Perkins funding! Click on the names of the members of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees to find information on contacting them through social media. Take just a few minutes to send a tweet, post on Facebook or share our funding infographic.

House	Senate
Jack Kingston (R-GA) – chairman	Tom Harkin (D-IA) – chairman
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) – ranking member	Jerry Moran (R-KS) – ranking member
Hal Rogers (R-KY)	Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Nita Lowey (D-NY)	Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Mike Simpson (R-ID)	Patty Murray (D-WA)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-NY)	Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Steve Womack (R-AR)	Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)	Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)	Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Mike Honda (D-CA)	Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
David Joyce (R-OH)	Jack Reed (D-RI)
Andy Harris (R-MD)	Mark Kirk (R-IL)
	Mark Pryor (D-AR)
	Mike Johanns (R-NE)
	Jon Tester (D-MT)
	John Boozman (R-AR)
	Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
	Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

Sample Tweets:

• @senatorharkin funding for #CareerTechEd is critical to keeping our economy moving in the right direction! Restore Perkins CTE funding! 
• @jackkingston it is time to make investing in #CareerTechEd a top priority in FY 2014 appropriations bill! 
• @jerrymoran support my #CareerTechEd students by restoring Perkins CTE funding to pre-sequestration level in FY 2014 appropriations bill!

Sample Facebook Posts:

• Funding for the Perkins CTE Act supports career and technical education that serves millions of students at high schools, tech centers and community colleges across the country. 
• Sequestration cut Perkins funding by $58 million in the 2013-14 school year alone. It is time to make investing in CTE a top priority!
• I urge you to restore Perkins CTE funding to the pre-sequestration level in the FY 2014 appropriations bill!