Ways to Get Involved in Development of National Defense or Veterans Legislation

You and what you do can have an impact on the policy and readiness of our military and veterans. Congress enacts legislation every year that impact your benefits, your family, your employer, the Navy, and our National Defense. You can get involved at the community level and still influence National Defense and Veterans’ Policy. All politics is local and is about people. People make the difference. Some suggestions on how to participate:

Recruit Members and Get Them Involved!

Join our electronic mailing list. AUSN members get our legislative updates. This is a source to share information about defense and Veterans. Send the Naval Reserve Association your e-mail address to be included on this broadcast. Pass along the information.

Write your Congressman & Senators. Using snail mail, fax or e-mail (www.house.gov, or www.senate.gov), let your representatives in Washington, D.C. be aware of how you feel.

Listen/Call In to Talk Radio Shows. Make sure you call into radio shows to explain why the Military is or is not in a position to impact and influence National Defense.

Write a Letter to the Editor. The “Letters to the Editor” section is often the most wisely read section of the newspaper.

Create an “Information Network”. Sharing information is a key to persuading the general public.

• Fax Lists. Create a fax list of uncommitted individuals, send them information.
• E-Mail Lists: Send facts about your position on defense to friends and relatives and mark the e-mail for further distribution.

Go to Congressional Town Hall meetings in your district, representing AUSN and the issues

Visit Congressional offices in Washington, D.C., if you are in the area.

Keep sending email and fax letters to district offices and Washington, D.C.

Give input to Commissions – like the Commission on the National Guard and Reserve

Within the Association of the United States Navy

Recruit a Member. Our impact on Capitol Hill relates to our strength in membership. The more reservists and retirees who belong to AUSN the better impression we make.

Volunteer. The workload of AUSN on the hill is substantial. A number of positions and committees exist than can use your support as to how the Association positions itself on various issues.

• V.P. Legislation: develop long-term legislative and education programs that address Naval Reserve missions, force structure, equipment procurement, pay, allowances and benefits.
• Resolutions Committee: Published statements that are distributed to DOD and Congress with the AUSN member’s position, as voted on at the National Conferences.
• Legislation Committee: Working with the V.P. of Legislation, this committee helps lay out a strategy to take the issues to the hill.
• Subcommittee, Capitol Hill Flying Squad: A group of members who will donate an occasional ½ day on hot issues to help visit a number of Congressional Offices.
• Subcommittee, National Defense Network: Endorse AUSN issues as a recognized supporter of your Congressman or Senator, working issues with the local office, or through personal correspondence and phone call. Use a silver bullet to help the Naval Reserve.
• Grass Roots Support: Writing letters, faxes or e-mails on Defense related issues. While blanket letter campaigns don’t have the same impact as working close to your own congressional office, staffers still tally the public positions.

Keep the pressure on your Congressional offices – district and Washington, D.C. – for the issues that impact the Reserve Components, Navy, National Defense, and Veterans.

Within the Navy

• Submit issues to the Reserve Policy Boards. Boards are starting to look at the broader and bigger readiness picture.

The Naval Reserve Association has been invited to testify and submit issues before both the Naval Reserve Policy Board, and the Reserve Forces Policy Board. Send us copies of your issues, and they might be included in what we submit.

• Issues to the CNO’s Retiree Counsel. The Navy Reserve has a representative, a retiree called back on two-week active duty, with whom you can submit retirement issues.

Help Get Out the Vote:

Vote early, vote often. While you can’t vote more than once, help others who are like minded to go to the polls.

• Telephone Trees: An effective way to remind people to vote in your area.
• Give rides to the polls: Visit older neighbors, a nursing home or high school, and offer rides to the polling places.

If you have a position on National Defense, you need to be as proactive as those “other guys” are. After all, Washington, D.C., is a political town, and the best lobbyists are regular citizens who come to Washington simply to tell their story.

Resolution #1 “…BE FURTHER Resolved that this Association pledges its best efforts to such a program of cooperation and dedicates itself to the high purposes of working for those things which will improve the Navy and make it better able to perform its role in the national defense of our country by presenting the viewpoint of the Naval Reservist, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Association shall ever seek to measure its actions by the yard stick of patriotism rather than that of self-interest.” Washington, D.C. 9/18/1954