I traveled to Washington, D.C., last week for an advocacy conference that included two days of whirlwind visits to Capitol Hill, meeting with nearly 25 members of Congress.

These MoCs, (Members of Congress) from red and blue states alike had many issues of concern in common and lots of interesting things to share.

• Change is needed, coming and going to be historic! Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) said it best. “Sometimes you don’t know when you are making history. But this year, we know that in 30–40 years we will look back at this [November] vote, and it will tell us what our country is all about and where we are going for the next 200.”

• Renewable energy is a hot topic on the Hill. Many members of Congress—particularly those from Washington, Montana and Ohio—feel renewable energy must be a huge focus to help decrease our energy dependence on foreign oil while creating U.S. jobs. Check out the new movie Fields of Fuel that just recently won the People’s Choice Award from Sundance Film Festival. (Think a younger-generation, cutting-edge Michael Moore on the environment, with guest clips of our own Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Jay Inslee.)

• We are paying for it through the nose, with no tissues in stock! The Iraq war is costing us, by some estimates, $1 billion a day. Think veterans’ mental and physical health and debt payments for the next 100 years!

All the while, I kept thinking about how what I was hearing applied to our local community and Pyramid clients.

• The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program, which provides free fresh produce in public schools, in the Farm Bill might be expanded.
• Title VII that trains nurses and doctors to work in diverse communities needs more funding.
• “Our country has a sick care system, not a healthcare system. Let’s focus resources on prevention and wellness,” as urged by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA).
• From treatment in military courts to privacy at medical facilities, women in the military need better response and protection related to sexual assault. Thanks to Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) for their work to make it happen.
• And so much more…

Whatever issues you might follow, just remember that “democracy is a contact sport,” as Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS) likes to say. Get your helmets on …

Eight million children in the United States have no health care coverage.

None. When they’re sick or injured, they either go to the emergency room or don’t get any care at all. Yes, this is happening in America!

For years the Republican-controlled Congress and the White House refused to provide coverage to children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid coverage, but not enough to purchase their own insurance. When kids fall through these gaping holes in the U.S. health care “system,” we all lose.

Here in Washington state, we’ve been providing health care coverage for these kids anyway. Bully for us. Shame on the Republicans who also refused to provide any relief for Washington taxpayers who have been rightfully paying for coverage for these children.

At last, Aug. 1, (despite the truly baffling threat of a veto by the President) the newly Democratically controlled U.S. House voted to extend health care coverage to 5 million of these children by boosting taxes on cigarettes. A fair trade if there ever was one, I’d say.

But Congressman Dave Reichert voted to prevent it, as did Cathy McMorris and Doc Hastings. Do they think it’s okay that kids can’t see a doctor? Do they like what cigarettes have done to our families? I dunno – it’s a head-scratcher. But what’s clear is that they voted to leave America’s kids (and Washington’s taxpayers) in the ditch. They didn’t want to help either Washington taxpayers or the millions and millions of kids across the country who can’t see a doctor when they need to. It’s sickening, really.

I predict that this brain-cramp of a vote will play a major role in Reichert’s defeat next year when he runs for reelection. Anyone who votes to deny health care coverage to America’s children doesn’t represent American families, particularly the tens of thousands who live in his suburban and rural King and Pierce Counties district.

Thanks to Congressmen Inslee, Baird, Dicks, Larsen and McDermott for the doing the right, if obvious, thing for our kids!

Wonky though it may seem to some, the state legislative session that ended April 22 is going to make a real difference for Washington state and its residents, not to mention Pyramid’s clients, many of whom championed budget requests or policy changes this year and won.

• Climate Solutions helped Washington state become a leader in reducing fossil fuel consumption that will reduce global warming and enhance the clean energy industry.
• NARAL fought for a sex education bill that will now require schools to teach sex education and provide medically accurate and comprehensive information about sexual health.
• The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle secured capital funds to increase security at secular, Jewish human service agencies throughout Puget Sound.
• The Washington State Budget & Policy Center’s research findings played a decisive role in convincing the legislature to hold off on re-imposing an inequitable property tax initiative.

These achievements prove that nonprofits can have a major impact on our communities by having a major impact on our government. They prove that advocacy creates change. Consider the positive impacts of this year’s legislative decisions:

• 100,000+ additional kids will receive health care coverage.
• 9,700 more students will be able to enroll in higher education.
• More funding will support immigrants transitioning to citizenship and preparing to enter the workforce.
• Same-sex couples will have rights to hospital visitation, organ donation authorization and inheritance when there is no will.
• Washington state will become the second state to have paid family leave (up to five weeks) to care for a new child or adopted children.
• Statewide carbon emissions will be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020, 75% of 1990 levels by 2035 and 50% of 1990 levels by 2050.

Your organization might not be directly engaged in advocacy right now, but—directly or indirectly—advocacy could be an important tool for accomplishing your mission. Ultimately every nonprofit in our community is affected by legislative decisions like these because they improve the world in which we live.

Gee. What a surprise. The tobacco companies are adding more nicotine to cigarettes.

Will it ever stop?

At what point will federal and state legislators say “Enough!” to the duplicitous messages coming from the tobacco companies?

Every year smoking-related illness continues to kill millions of Americans – almost all of whom began smoking as adolescents.

Talk about a Weapon of Mass Destruction!

Yet this Administration and this Congress – with a Senate that’s led ironically by a heart surgeon from Tennessee (oh the conflict!) – has done nothing to rein in the companies who market nothing more than death.

Touting their commitment to the health and safety of America’s children, the Republicans are happy to stand in the way of stem-cell research and they’re happy to pump millions into meaningless, ineffective and ultimately counter-productive “abstinence only” curricula. All in the name of “our children.”

Yet they stand idly by while the cigarette companies devise more efficient ways to kill these same children.

Here’s an idea to get the attention of the administration and Congress: a gaggle of wealthy progressives should buy a tobacco company, say RJR Reynolds. They should then market a cigarette called “Saddam.” The motto would be “We’re Most Delicious!” or “WMD.”

That’d get ‘em moving.