With only a few days of negotiations left, now is the time to make your voice heard. Urge your senators and representative to uphold one key principle as they finalize a deficit reduction plan: Protect programs for low-income families and individuals and ensure deficit reduction does not increase poverty.

In late May the Senate took an important step in standing up for middle- and working-class families by voting against the Republican budget proposal, a draconian plan that sought to strip underserved communities of critical resources while providing millions of dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and corporations.

Contact your senators today and ask them to protect the programs supporting low-income Americans in the debates over next year’s budget and reducing the national debt.

As the budget battle over funding for the rest of this fiscal year rages on, House Republicans are already gearing up for the release of their budget proposal for fiscal year 2012. Not only will this proposal likely continue the troubling pattern of deep cuts to programs supporting vulnerable families and children but it will also likely propose to restructure some of these programs—a move that would negatively impact families, communities, states, and the overall economy.

One in seven Americans is living in poverty and one in three Americans is scraping by on low incomes. Services such as childcare, affordable housing, food assistance, and job training are more critical than ever to help families meet basic needs and strive for a better future.

Thank you working with Half in Ten to advocate for strong policies benefiting low- to moderate-income families. We urge you to deepen your commitment to improving the lives of struggling families by endorsing a goal to cut poverty in half in ten years.

President Barack Obama has proposed a tax package to extend the middle-class tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000. The package includes a 13-month extension of federal unemployment insurance programs and extensions of the improvements to refundable tax credits that benefit low- to moderate-income working families.

The federal unemployment insurance program is set to expire on November 30, 2010. If this happens 2 million jobless workers will lose their benefits during the holiday season alone, putting families and children at risk while hurting economic recovery.

Unemployment is at a historic high and jobless workers across the country are doing all they can to keep their families afloat. The unemployment benefits these struggling families receive kept at least 3.3 million Americans, including 1.5 million children, from falling into poverty in 2009 alone.

Last year’s recovery act included pivotal steps to enhance and transform the lives of Americans living in poverty. One such step was the creation of the TANF Emergency Fund, a $5 billion fund designed to help states meet the growing need for assistance and increase employment opportunities available to low-income families.

If Congress does not extend this critical funding stream by September 30, 2010, states will no longer be able to partner with the private sector to offer the successful subsidized job programs or the additional assistance families need to weather the recession. Write Congress today to pass legislation extending the TANF Emergency Fund.