AEE 595 - Lesson 4

Lesson 4
Sources of Information
for Advocates

Introduction:

How many of you are familiar with the Abbot and Costello skit, "Who is on First?" If you haven't seen this classic skit, you should. There was considerable confusion about the name of the player on first base. This amusing skit illustrations the importance of having the right information.
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Where do advocates go for information? An advocate needs to be able to track commmittee meetings, legislation, and legislators. This lesson will explore some sources of information that you should use as as a public policy advocate. Several years ago an organization that I belong to nearly sneaked a bill through the NC Legislature because some of the people who would be opposed to the bill were not using the tools in this lesson to monitor what was going on downtown. So this information is important.

Learning Objectives:
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Identify your elected officials at the federal and state level.
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Examine current active legislation.
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Explore sources of information regarding legislation.
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Investigate point of view from legislation websites.

Instructional
Activities:
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bullet Take the pretest on sources of information for advocates.

bullet Read chapter 5 "Know Your Issue" in the text. Pay special attention to section 5.3 - Conducting Legislative Research. This section lists numerous other sources of information that are not specifically identified in this lesson. They are good sources and should be used. We just didn't want to overwhelm you by listing them all in this lesson.

bullet The Internet has made searching for information about legislators and legislation easier. THOMAS, from the Library of Congress, is a valuable resource. See if you agree by examining the about section, then go to the main site and explore “Yesterday in Congress” and “On the House Floor Now” in the Current Activity section. You can also search for specific pieces of federal legislation at the Thomas site. Please spend some time getting familiar with this site. You will be using it for your weekly assignment.

bullet govtrack.us is a site similar to THOMAS but it is an independent, non-government web site. Spend some time exploring this site, especially the "Trackers". This is a very useful tool.

bullet What sources do the legislators use to follow legislation? Congress has a research service (CRS) here is a recent CRS report. This agency works for Congress but we wanted you to be aware of their existance. You might want to work for them someday.

bullet To follow a bill closely you should watch its path through BOTH the House and Senate.

bullet The above links are for the Federal government. How about the State government? In North Carolina the General Assembly has a web site where you can look up information about members of the legislature, bills, and even search for words in bills. Please spend some time familiarizing yourself with this site. if you are not a North Carolina student, see if your state has something similar.

bullet One organization closely involved with agricultural and extension education is the Farm Bureau. What legislation is the North Carolina Farm Bureau tracking, and advocating for/against? If you do not live in North Carolina the American Farm Bureau national site provides links to state sites.

bullet Find your officials using the ACTE selector then examine the issues affecting Career and Technical Education. Pay particular attention to the “Legislative Alerts” and “Current Legislation.” Advocacy in action--the alerts may suggest requests or comments that you could pass on to your elected officials.

bullet The National Association of Agricultural Educators offers a similar service where you can identify who you elected representatives are. Please type in your zip code, click on go, and then explore the information that becomes available to you. A question to ponder - why do the various extension agent web sites not have this type of information?

Lagniappe:
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You might enjoy browsing the current crop of political cartoons at http://www.politicalcartoons.com/.

Assignments: Icon of note pad

Your assignment for this week is to download and fill-out the Advocacy Planner. This is a made-up page that might be found in the Franklin Day Planner for a lobbyist. Basically you are going to have to find information from the web sites mentioned in this lesson and fill in the slots on the planner page. The instructions are here.

Send this assignment as an e-mail attachment to gary_moore@ncsu.edu and send a cc to sbbriert@ncsu.edu.

This is due at the end of next week-- June 26.

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