The Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities (ECAP) has been promoting its "First Things First" agenda for the FY 2008 budget with local events all over the country since February.
The "First Things First" agenda is premised on the belief that public services need to be expanded to ensure equal opportunity and prosperity for all Americans. To this end, ECAP has requested that Congress, for FY 08:
- Provide $450 billion for domestic discretionary spending.
- Increase outdated benefit levels for Food Stamps, fund SCHIP at levels adequate to cover all eligible children, restore funds cut from child support enforcement, and strengthen the unemployment insurance program.
- Reject new tax breaks for the wealthy and special interests, and any changes in the tax system, such as an AMT "fix," that do not make the system more progressive and that do not, at a minimum, replace lost tax revenue.
To promote the "First Things First" agenda, ECAP partners have held local events across the country and released reports documenting the impact of federal budget decisions on specific states. Over the last four weeks, ECAP partners have released reports in Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Tennessee.
ECAP is also planning to hold press events throughout March and April in West Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri to release state-based reports in those areas.
OMB Watch has been an ECAP partner since its inception in 2005, when the campaign was founded to oppose another round of tax cuts for the wealthy that were being paid for with cuts to domestic service programs. ECAP's membership is diverse, including labor unions, religious organizations, anti-poverty groups, and national advocacy organizations for women, the elderly, the environment, and children. Its strategy has been to engage grassroots networks and local media outlets on national budget issues to educate the public and Congress about growing needs throughout the nation.
