Congress takes its spring break April 3-21, so votes will be hot and heavy next week. Two of the most important votes for women: child care and minority business enterprise. Quick calls are needed in the Senate with the message: Support the Dodd or any other amendment to the Budget bill that reserves mandatory spending for the Child Care Development Block Grant. Call the House to help defeat an anti-affirmative action amendment to the transportation bill (HR 2400), that would wipe out the measly 8.8 percent of federal contract awards that women & minorities now get (women own 34% of all businesses.) Message: the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program is important for women and must be preserved. Call 202-224-3121 or e-mail your Representative or Senator in Congress.

The Women's Rights National Historic Trail Act of 1998 (HR 3240) has been introduced by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY). The Act directs the Secretary of the Interior to study alternatibes for establishing a national historic trail to commemorate and interpret the history of women's rights in the U.S. If you think as we do that such a trail would be a great way to mark the millenium, call your Reps. today (202-224-3121) to ask that they co-sponsor this bill.

This week has been declared minimum wage week by members of Congress seeking another small raise for low-paid workers. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-MO) have introduced a bill to raise the minimum wage by $1 per hour by the year 2000. Almost 60% of the minimum wage workers are women, and the last raise in '96 did not close the poverty gap (to bring the minimum up to the purchasing power it had in 1968, it should be $7.33). A mother with two children toiling full-time at the current $5.15 per hour still falls $2,600 below the poverty line. This same woman would have to work full-time, year-round, without a vacation, for nearly 13 years to earn what a member of Congress rakes in in one year. Tell your member of Congress to help get women out of poverty by getting behind the minimum wage increase (isn't that what welfare reform was about?). Ask them today to sign on as a co-sponsor at 202-225-3121 or e-mail your Representative or Senator in Congress.

The Abigail Adams National Bankcorp, that is. Adams bank, the nation's sole remaining woman-controlled and majority owned bank, is in danger of a hostile takeover by a power-hungry male stockholder who is also a convicted sexual harasser. Adams' other stockholders have filed papers to halt this takeover with the Securities and Exchange Comission, but the SEC has so far refused to review the papers. Send a mesage demanding enforcement action "in the matter of Adams Bank" to Richard Sauer, Division of Enforcement, SEC, at voice 202-942-4777; fax 202-942-9637; [email protected]. Do this TODAY. Loss of the bank is imminent if the SEC doesn't act -- it could happen as early as Monday.

WFF is an action newsletter, not an opinion journal. Nevertheless, we can't help pointing out that the ongoing scandals surrounding the White House would most likely not be happening if the Prez were named Hillary instead of Bill (after all nobody would care much about his hobbies if he were first spouse). As to the Jones, Lewinsky, Willey & Willie show, when opportunities for feminist action arise, you'll be the first to know.

Thanks to the untiring efforts of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund in helping to draft the bill, the Violence Against Women Act of 1998 will be introduced March 19. The bill strengthens and extends the original VAWA with many provisions, including education and training for judges, $1 billion for battered women's shelters, workplace protections, and a prohibition on refusing insurance to domestic violence victims. Urge your member of the House (202-225-3121 or send e-mail) to join chief sponsors Conyers (MI), Schumer (NY), and Morella (MD) to become an original cosponsor. (Many weak-willed weenies signed onto the original VAWA only after passage was certain in 1994, so they could get get credit. Tell 'em you want to see their -ah- names on the line now.). Read the bill at www.nowldef.org.

In a White House ceremony commemorating International Women's Day, both President Clinton and U.N. Secretary Annan called on the U.S. Senate to ratify CEDAW, the global women's rights treaty (WFF 2/27). President Clinton is sending a letter to the Senate this week urging ratification. Thank him at 202-456-1111 or send him E-mail.

Before you reach for a green beer on St. Patrick's Day, reach for the phone to call or fax Pete Domenici (R-MN, 202-224-0642; fax 202-224-4835), chair of the Senate Budget Committee. The comittee will finalize the Budget Bill on March 17. They will set aside (reserve) funds from the expected $1.50 increase in cigarette taxes for certain priorities. At this point, Domenici plans only to mention Medicare in this reserve language. It is important that child care also be included, to assure that mandatory money will be available for a major child care investment. The Children's Defense Fund's Child Care NOW! Campaign is urging calls to Domenici and the White House (202-456-1111) to reinforce this message: Show your support for families. Include $20 billion for child care in the tobacco reserve. Learn more about the Campaign at 202-662-3665 (voice), or www.childrensdefense.org

Whereas the State Department...reports that China enforces its 'one-child policy' using coercive measures including severe fines of up to several times the annual income of the average resident, and sometimes punishes nonpayment by destroying homes. So reads the preamble to a bill calling for the President to initiate passage of a resolution on human rights in China at the 54th Session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, starting on March 16. Urge the House International Relations committee (fax 202-225-2035; or 226-3581) to send HR 364 to the floor for a vote, and the Prez to follow through at fax 202-456-2461; E-mail [email protected].

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), now being written behind closed doors by 29 mostly rich governments, will hurt women -- by limiting a government's ability to regulate foreign investment, and allowing corporations to sue governments that try to enforce living wages, environmental laws, and affirmative action. Get the facts and sample letters at 202-546-4996 (www.citizens.org). Then urge Alan Larson at the Dept. of State (fax 202-647-1888) to safeguard the rights of women in any negotiations. Fax a copy to the President's Interagency Council on Women at 202-647-5337.