A BRIEF UPDATE FROM YOUR LOBBYIST IN D.C.:
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While the impeachment proceedings have dominated headlines recently, rest assured that the Secular Coalition for America and our partners have kept our eyes on the ball as this administration continues to attack the separation of church and state.
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Since our annual Lobby Day in September, when our constituents met with nearly 100 lawmakers and staff, we have continued building momentum toward expanding access to secular recovery options through federal funding. That hard-won support will yield results, but first Congress needs to fund the government—something that isn't always a given.
In fact, to avoid a government shutdown, Congress recently passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) that maintains federal funding at current levels. This CR simply kicks the can down the road, but it will hopefully lead to a final deal before Christmas that funds the government for Fiscal Year 2020.
If Congress does pass FY2020 funding before the end of December, their focus will shift to FY2021 come January. We are already gearing up to bolster our lobbying efforts on that front, and will fight tooth and nail for appropriations that increase access to secular recovery programs for years to come.
You can get more insight into our work around secular addiction program funding, in partnership with SMART Recovery, in the article pictured below.
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We have also been educating Members of Congress about the chilling effect of "flagging" campaigns on Facebook that target atheists, agnostics, and in particular, Ex-Muslims.
For years, extremist groups have successfully shut down atheist Facebook groups by directing hundreds of people to use Facebook's reporting tools to report secular content as offensive or as a violation of Facebook's community guidelines. Thanks to our member organization, Ex-Muslims of North America, which brought this issue to our attention, we have been able to point to a number of individuals and groups who have had their content or pages targeted by the religious right. We are proud to advocate on their behalf.
We continue to work with our champions on Capitol Hill to bring this matter to Facebook's attention—please keep an eye on your inbox for an update on this critical issue in the next few weeks.
Finally, I want to thank you ahead of tomorrow's holiday. Your steadfast support makes our lobbying work possible and I truly appreciate it.
With deep gratitude and Happy Thanksgiving wishes,
Sarah Levin
Director of Governmental Affairs
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P.S. Thanksgiving kicks off one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year and leads into Giving Tuesday on Dec. 3. If you're participating in Black Friday or Cyber Monday, please consider supporting SCA through Amazon's "Smile" program, which will donate a percentage of what you spend to the SCA.
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