MOAA national and our member-leaders throughout our state councils and chapters are at the mid-campaign mark for this year’s Advocacy in Action (AiA) event … and they are making solid progress.

Your lawmakers are already home for their spring break, working on their own campaigns. There is no better opportunity than right now to contact your representative and senators. Congress needs to hear our concerns so they can represent our interests and influence legislation being drafted as we speak.

[ACT NOW: Ask Your Lawmakers to Support MOAA’s Advocacy in Action Campaign]

Even with this strong start, we need to ensure the broadest reach and continued engagements from our members across the country and overseas. We are seeing good engagement from larger states, and we know they will continue to garner even more support from council and chapter leaders and their members.

For smaller states, we rely heavily on our membership base engagement – that’s every member and the folks you know. Your letters, sent from the Legislative Action Center links in this article, will ensure the widest signal rings loud and clear throughout Congress.

While meetings are important, phone calls and letters are important, too – they contribute to the surround-sound effect we seek.

[FROM MOAA’s PRESIDENT: Your Critical Role in This Year’s Advocacy in Action Campaign]

Our council and chapters leaders completed over 50 meetings with legislators and staff members as of April 13, and MOAA members and supporters have sent over 2,000 letters seeking support and co-sponsors for AiA issues. Collectively, we have contacted over 300 offices, more than halfway to the objective of hitting all 535 offices in person, virtually, or via phone or letters.

Numbers matter: the numbers of congressional offices contacted, the emails sent, the calls made — any and all communication with lawmakers to let them know how important AiA issues are to MOAA members and those we serve.

[RELATED: Advocacy in a Virtual Environment: How to Make Your Voice Heard]

Please follow the links on our three topics and send the letters to your legislators:

• The Major Richard Star Act (H.R. 1282, S. 344) would provide concurrent receipt of both retired pay and VA disability pay for combat-injured veterans who were not able to complete 20 years of service due to their injuries. Send a letter today.
  
  
• The Stop Copay Overpay Act (H.R. 4824) would support affordable mental health care for TRICARE beneficiaries by reducing copays which were doubled just a few years ago. Send a letter today.
  
  
• Ensure a competitive pay raise for all uniformed services – already slated to be 4.6% as proposed by the president, but it could be more. The pay raise fell below private-sector increases from 2014 through 2016, leaving a combined 2.6% gap that has yet to be restored. Increasing the pay raise to 7.2% would overcome the previous gap and help servicemembers through historical inflation. Send a letter today.

We appreciate your help to make sure we contact all 535 members of Congress. Want to do more? Find your nearest chapter and see how you may be able to help with local efforts.