Urgent Action for Women and Families
	The final days of the 111th Congress begin November 16. With your help, we can make critical progress for women and families, including those who need it most.

On November 16, the House and Senate will reconvene for a lame duck session to complete the business of the 111th Congress. On the agenda are issues of great importance to women and families. The National Women’s Law Center is pulling out all the stops to get a just and fair outcome on these critical issues.

Please make an emergency donation for women and families today.

Here are some of our urgent lame-duck session action items:

1. Responsible Taxes

The Bush-era tax cuts will expire on December 31 unless Congress acts. The Center is working to ensure that cuts for individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples earning more than $250,000 a year expire as scheduled and that recent improvements in tax credits for working families are renewed. Otherwise, a single mother with two children working full-time at the minimum wage will lose nearly $1,500 and the very wealthy will receive an average tax cut of more than $100,000.

2. Pay Equity

Women in America still make only 77 cents for every dollar men earn. To narrow the wage gap and strengthen wage discrimination protections, the House passed the landmark Paycheck Fairness Act in January 2009. We expect the Senate to take the bill up next week. Your support will help us mobilize even more women and men to tell the Senate that Women are Not WorthLess and that it should pass the Paycheck Fairness Act now.

3. Unemployment Insurance Coverage

The federal emergency unemployment insurance program for workers out of a job more than 26 weeks expires at the end of November. More than a million people will face cutoffs in December alone if Congress does not act quickly. With your support, we will urge Congress to extend this emergency program.

4. Child Care and Head Start

Congress must complete a final spending bill to prevent funding cuts to child care, Head Start, and other essential programs. If Congress fails to act to preserve recent increases in funding, newly opened classrooms will be forced to shut down, child care providers may find themselves out of business, and parents will lose essential child care. We’ll press policymakers to pass a spending bill that averts these devastating consequences.

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Our experts are working round the clock to urge Congress to act on these and other critical fronts, including confirmation of 23 highly qualified judges who have been waiting for months for a floor vote and lifting a ban on abortion care for U.S. servicewomen using their own private money in military health facilities overseas.

Only days are left to enact these urgent measures. For women and families across the country, please make an emergency donation today.

Sincerely,

Nancy Duff Campbell Co-President National Women’s Law Center

Marcia Greenberger Co-President National Women’s Law Center

P.S. For more than 35 years, the National Women’s Law Center has led the fight for women and families through good times and bad. We’re used to winning tough fights, and we have a track record t