To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate

Tell Congress to invest in America and stop the budget cuts!

Congress should deliver a federal budget that invests in our people and communities, in the jobs, health, education, housing, roads, and child care that build prosperity for all and prevent poverty.

Congress should help all of us, not just the powerful few, by closing tax loopholes that now shift trillions to the wealthy and corporations and by stopping Pentagon waste.

Why is this important?

The Senate and House are making critical budget decisions that will deeply affect all Americans in 2016. All members of Congress need to hear from constituents before April 15 that cuts to programs that help Americans are not acceptable.

The U.S. House and Senate have each advanced a budget outline that calls for the wrong choices: more tax breaks for corporations and the rich and more funding for the Pentagon, along with less funding for needed investments. Past budget cuts have kept 67,000 low-income families from moving into affordable housing; denied child care to hundreds of thousands of children in low-income working families; reduced job training and education aid; left our roads and bridges in disrepair; and left millions of poor Americans with less food each month by cutting food stamps. The new plans would make all this worse.

It does not have to be this way. A federal budget that makes the right choices can both preserve and expand essential services. Closing even some tax loopholes and reducing Pentagon waste would fund universal pre-k, make college more affordable, create jobs, and dramatically reduce hunger, homelessness, and poverty.

The good news: There are many more steps before the funding cuts outlined in the House and Senate budget plans could be enacted into law. Even before the ink is dry on a new budget, Congress will be under pressure to change it. But without our voices, the pressures are to increase Pentagon spending, threatening human needs programs even more.

Your signature on this petition will make a difference -- but we must act now to send Congress a strong, united message that we oppose upside-down priorities.