VICTORY! U.S. Institue of Peace Funded! Just rec'd:

[BrendaBrick]

Victory: USIP Funded!

It's official. The House and Senate voted to fund the United States Institute of Peace throughout the rest of this fiscal year and the president is expected to sign soon. Despite a February House vote to zero out funding for the USIP, the Institute's work will carry on. Thank you for being a part of this campaign to save the Institute's valuable work and mission!

Because of our shared work the new USIP headquarters will continue to stand as a beacon of hope from across the Lincoln Memorial. The Institute will continue to provide the analysis, training and tools that prevent and end conflicts. And events will carry forward like yesterday's on "Political Transitions in Afghanistan," and last week's with former Israeli President Shimon Peres. The hundreds of Institute peacebuilding experts will continue to lead our nation to be even better at making peace than at making war.

Together, we generated over 38,000 messages to Congress and the President from the 9,400 plus people who signed our petition, and made countless phone calls to Congress. With your support, we delivered petition signatures to over 40 key Senate offices. Together, our message got through: Saving USIP is essential for our national security and our commitment to global peacebuilding.

Through this shared challenge, our community grew stronger. We were part of a strong group of organizations who rallied together: from the Alliance for Peacebuilding, National Peace Academy, the Friends Committee on National Legislation and many others. From General Zinni, to Senator Leahy, and Secretary Clinton many leaders stood with us. And our friends at Ben & Jerry's and Yoko Ono helped immensely with their tweets and posts. Today we celebrate this victory!

And as we celebrate we know that soon the FY 2012 budget negotiations will again likely call into question both investing in the work of peacebuilding, and investing in USIP. It is sobering to consider the extent of cuts made to several programs that support domestic and international peacebuilding, just in this budget deal. Indeed we must remain vigilant and double-down in our advocacy for continued and growing investments in this field.

Consider a donation today to help us sustain our advocacy initiatives into the future.

in gratitude,

-Aaron

"For everything that matters, Carry on!" -Peter, Paul, and Mary

http://www.thepeacealliance.org/about-tpa.html

[xchrom]

1. Awesome. nt