Within a single week, both the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees and full committees completed work on Justice appropriations. The Senate committee has recommended $6 million for the CASA program for FY 2013, and the House committee recommendation has come in at $4.5 million. The measures will be voted upon in the House and Senate in the next few weeks.

At this step, there is no need to mobilize your networks for additional outreach to congressional offices. National CASA will continue to explore every option that might become available to increase the level of funding. We do have some influential appropriations members who are searching to see if additional funds can be added for CASA. The next best opportunity may be in conference committee, which may be delayed until after the November elections. We will surely notify you if it becomes time to mobilize again.

Many thanks to you and all the advocates that you know who reached out to Congress. We appreciate your support. And we are most grateful that Congress rejected the Administration’s elimination of all funding for the CASA program.

Please contact Carmela Welte with any questions that you may have.

We would like to give a special thanks to Kimberly Langin for organizing a letter writing campagn that sent over 100 letters to congress!