Environmental education (EE) advocates from every state and Congressional district are needed to help secure the future of the field. NAAEE and our allies are calling on educators, students, and other advocates to each take a few minutes to request that their Members of Congress support EE by “signing” an electronic support letter to the House and Senate appropriations committees. You will be asking your legislators to endorse two funding letters: for the EPA Office of Environmental Education, including the crucial grant program, and NOAA’s Bay Watershed Education and Training program and the Environmental Literacy Plan grants.

We are usually successful with our advocacy because our requests are modest, they are closely linked to the good work that you and your colleagues do in your local communities, and because these are the easiest requests you can ask your Rep. or Senator to do. At this time of year they have staff assigned just for this purpose. 

The biggest reason we hear from Members of Congress about why they didn’t sign these letters is because “I wasn’t asked”!

Later this week we’ll send you a follow up email with all the instructions and sample messages you’ll need. If you didn’t receive this email directly from NAAEE, please visit https://eepro.naaee.org, sign up for free, and then sign up for the Advocacy Group to get the campaign instructions later this week and future emails.

There will be two weeks to contact your House members, and another week or two to get in touch with your U.S. Senators. In the meantime, please check in with your state EE Affiliate to see if they have a locally organized campaign - if not, maybe you can start one!

We will have our usual first Thursday call this week on March 2, 1-2 pm EST to answer your initial questions, and will have several more calls throughout the campaign to make sure everything runs smoothly. (You can also email us anytime.) If you are new to our advocacy, or want a refresher, please review our concise online guide. 

We are optimistic this year because we have such a solid funding foundation with the increases for EE in both agencies this fiscal year, and because the appropriations leadership from both parties are determined to get the job done.