Women on Capitol Hill have been sheroic this week. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA; 202-224-3553; fax 415-956-6701; e-mail) deserves a thanks from women for her spirited defense of abortion rights during the debate on S.1692, passed by the Senate to outlaw the so-called "partial-birth abortion" procedure. And members of the House, led by Lynn Woolsey (D-CA; 202-225-5161; fax 202-225-5163; e-mail) and Nita Lowey (D-NY; 202-225-6506; fax 202-225-0546; e-mail), marched in on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee trying to spring the women's human rights treaty (CEDAW), where it's been bottled up for 19 years. Ignoring the fact that the U.S. is the only industrialized country on the planet not to ratify the treaty, committee chairman Jesse Helms (R-Not-a-Gentleman; fax 202-228-1339, e-mail), called on Capitol Police to escort the women out, and asked them to "please be ladies". Give these women a call or fax TODAY, to show your appreciation for all they do for women's rights. And tell Helms we don't appreciate the U.S.A. being listed with the likes of Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iran for our non-support of the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women).

Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ; 202-225-3765; fax 202-225-7768), sore at having lost the battle to include his anti-abortion amendments in the foreign appropriations bill, is at it again. This time Smith is attaching language curtailing U.S. aid in worldwide planning to a bill mandating that the U.S. pay its United Nations dues. If the U.S. does not pay its back dues, we could lose our vote in the U.N., and lose our moral standing as a voice for women worldwide (women like those in Afghanistan, who are denied basic human rights and have no freedom). Calls and faxes should be sent to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL; 202-225-2976; fax 202-225-0697; e-mail) urging him to rein in Smith, and send the President a U.N. dues bill without crippling anti-abortion clauses.

CALLS COUNT -- WEEA RESTORED

Thanks to all the activists who called members of the House last week to urge that funding for the Women's Educational Equity Act by continued. The 25-year-old program (and the only one specifically targeting gender equity in education) was restored on the House floor this week. Rs had eliminated it in committee (WFF 10/15), basically saying girls -- who lag far behind om computer and technical courses -- are equal enough. **** Pushed by calls from WFF readers and others, with help from an unlikely source (Dub-ya -- do you think he reads WFF?) who condemned the move, R's in Congress also dropped their plan to pay for tax cuts for the rich by downsizing the earned income tax credit for the poor (WFF 10/1). Brava, activists!

Senator Jesse Helms (Hypocrite-NC) has reared the ugly head of racism in the Senate once again. Helms is holding up the nomination of former Senator Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL), an African American, to be ambassador to New Zealand, saying "I don't like her...I would not have liked her if she was lily white. Race has nothing to do with it. No former Senator has been rejected for an ambassadorial post since 1835. Urge other members of the Foreign Relations Committee to reject Helms' pettiness and approve this nomination at fax 202-224-0836 (Rs) or fax 202-228-3612 (Ds).

For the first time in 25 years, the U.S.A. will have no Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA), if the House Education and Workforce Committee has its way. The already tiny $3 million WEEA program was cut from the bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (H.R.2). In addition to axing WEEA, all other provisions benefitting girls were eliminated. The list includes programs for teacher training to combat gender bias in the classroom, programs to encourage girls to enter technology, and drop-out prevention to help pregnant and parenting girls stay in school. H.R.2 will pass in some form soon, and women's advocacy groups in Washington are urging activists to contact members of the House. Urge them to restore the gender equity provisions when the bill comes to the floor probably in the next 10 days. Remind your member that WEEA can be funded for 29 years for the price of one F-22 bomber at 202-225-3121.

The Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S.622), an amendment to the Senates Commerce/Justice/State Appropriations bill (WFF 8/13; 9/24) seemed sure to survive the House/Senate conference committee in some form - though conservatives didn't want gender included in the definition of a hate crime. The bill is now in danger of being killed altogether, since no compromise was reached on gender and disability. Advocation led by NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund are desperately fighting to keep HCPA in the appropriations bill, and they need grass-roots help for a vote TODAY or MONDAY. Make calls to Senate negotiators, thanking them for support and asking them to hang tough: Hollings (D-SC 202-224-6121), Leahy (D-VT 202-224-4242), Lautenberg (D-NJ 202-224-4744), Inouye (D-HI 202-224-3934), Obey (D-WI 202-225-3365), Roybal-Allard (D-CA 202-225-1766), Serrano (D-NY 202-225-4361).

That's the title of a blockbuster PBS special on the lives of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, to be broadcast nationwide on November 7 and 8 at 8:00 PM Eastern time. This remarkable documentary, by award-winning filmmakers Ken Burns and Paul Barnes, chronicles the most important struggle of the 20th century - the fight for women's suffrage - through the lives of Stanton and Anthony. A General Motors Mark of Excellence presentation, the program will serve as a teaching tool for generations of students in the next millennium. A massive grassroots effort to increase viewership of the film - including a poster and flyer campaign, promoting viewing parties, and talks at women's colleges around the country is being supported by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation. For more information on how you and your organization can become part of this education effort, contact the foundation at fax 202-463-0182, or send them an e-mail. Let's be sure every TV in the nation is tuned in to Anthony and Stanton on November 7 and 8.

...that's the plight of many immigrant women who are battered by their husbands after they come to reside on U.S. soil. The Battered Immigrant Women's Protection Act will be introduced in the House next week and will restore a variety of legal protections that were originally guaranteed in the Violence Against Women Act, but lost in subsequent immigration bills (including protection for U.S. military wives). The bill also provides access to food stamps for immigrant women and their children who are fleeing violence. Calls are needed to House members, particularly moderates, to urge co-sponsorship of the bill. Reach your member at 202-224-3121. For more info on the bill or a factsheet explaining the provisions, contact NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund at 202-546-1100.

Mother used to say "sometimes you can't win for losin'," and that's how it feels for women in the budget fights raging on Capitol Hill this week. The GOP is attacking the poorest families, mostly headed by women, in a pair of budget proposals designed to finance their spending bills while hiding their $17.9 billion raid on Social Security. Scheme #1 is an accounting gimmick to distribute the earned income tax credit. (EITC - a 25-year-old incentive program for the working poor) in 12 monthly installments instead of a single lump sum. That means that families counting on the annual payment to pay off debts, make a down payment on a car, or pay tuition will be out of luck -- the small monthly checks will not cover anything major. Scheme #2 is a big cut in the Labor/HHS appropriation, hitting welfare-to-work programs the hardest. One-stop career centers will be forced to cut services, and women trying to leave the welfare rolls will find even less help in locating work. Ask your GOP members of Congress why the party of the rich must kick the backs of working poor women and urge them to keep hands off the EITC and fully fund the President's request for Labor appropriations at 202-224-3121 (or e-mail your Representative and Senator).

Citing the cost of retrofitting bathrooms and separate berths, the Navy has recommended that submarine duty remain closed to women. The "Silent Service" accounts for 1 in 10 navy jobs - presently off limits to women. Even though the Navy acknowledges that women have succeeded on war ships and combat jets, the arguments were similar to those put forth in 1978, when Congress struck down the confinement of females to shore duty. Tell Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig that by our calculation 850 submarines can be modified for females for the price of one F-22. Fax him these facts at 703-693-9545.