Last week, ACA and other groups met with members of Congress and key administration officials in the Nation's capital. Events included a National Press Club luncheon, a Cosmos Club dinner and meetings with the Department of State, the General Accounting Office, the League of Women Voters, the Association of American Retired Persons, the Voice of America and National Public Radio. A major effort was made to underline the importance of private US citizens living abroad. Subjects discussed included the Census, Social Security, Medicare, and Taxes.

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On April 11th, 2002, the US Senate approved by a vote of 99 to 1, a Voting System Reform Bill designed to streamline the nation's election procedures, help states buy new voting machines, and prevent ballot disputes such as those which followed the 2000 Presidential election. Like the bill approved late last year by the House, this action sets minimum federal standards for the conduct of elections across the country. Election and voting procedures now vary widely from state to state and county to county. The Senate bill however is more prescriptive than the House version, and it also includes the requirement that voters who registered by mail must show identification at the polls, which the House bill does not. Now both bills must be melded to reach a final piece of legislation which preserves, consolidates, clarifies and protects the voting rights of all Americans. To read more about the Senate Bill see Robert Pear's article in the April 12, 2002 edition of the New York Times (To read this article on the Web, you have to submit a free registration).

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The Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas is circulating a petition in response to the bills recently passed in the House and Senate on Voting Reforms. FAWCO's petition holds that these bills do not fully address the voting obstacles encountered by civilian US citizens abroad. Specifically, the petition calls for support for legislation that will: "facilitate procedures for voting from overseas; ensure the timely distribution of election materials so that all ballots can be received and counted on time; (and) implement procedures for providing statistics on voting from overseas in order to further refine the process, for the 4.1 million civilian United States citizens living and working abroad." ACA urges its members to consider signing this petition. To read the full text and/or to add your signature to it, go to PetitionOnline.

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Siskind's Immigration Bulletin of 19 April 2002 reports that the INS has just issued a proposed regulation that would limit the authorized stay in the US for most pleasure visitors to 30 days instead of the current six months. A few exceptions were noted to the rule but according to the Bulletin they "do not come anywhere close to addressing the problems that the new rule will likely cause."

Upon arrival in the US, it will be the visitor's responsibility to prove to the satisfaction of the INS inspector the amount of time they should be allowed to stay in the country. Extension applications are permitted only if at least one of the following conditions is present: unexpected events or compelling humanitarian reasons, members of religious denominations in the US solely to perform missionary work, people engaged in establishing a new office for purposes of an L visa, servants of people authorized to be in the US, employees of foreign airlines, or those who own homes in the US that they occupy on a seasonal or occasional basis.

The Bulletin also asserts that the proposal fails to take into account many other possibilities for extending a trip to the US, and also does not take into consideration many State Department memos on activities that can be done while on a visitor visa. For example, domestic partners of people working in the US are entitled currently to remain in the US in B status for as long as their companion is lawfully in the US. The impact of the new INS regulation on State Department decisions such as this is unclear.

Future ACA News Updates will report on the status of this proposed regulation.

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The Federal Voting Assistance Program announces the inauguration of its alternate web site: www.fvap.gov This web site is in addition to the current site at www.fvap.ncr.gov The two web sites are expected to provide access to voting information for all citizens, regardless of location. The FVAP can be contacted by telephone through the DoD Voting Information Center (VIC). Citizens may reach the VIC toll-free from 59 countries using the toll-free numbers listed on either of the two websites mentioned above. Additionally, the FVAP can be reached via e-mail at vote@fvap.ncr.gov or by post addressed to: Director, FVAP, Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, 1155 Defense Pentagon, Washington DC 20301-1155.

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The United Nations will be hosting a Special Session in New York on May 8-10, 2002. Heads of State and top officials will decide on the international community's commitments to children for the next decade and to take stock of the current worldwide situation. The Child Labour News Service calls this "the most important children's event since the 1990 World Summit for Children" and asserts that "many of the promises (for children and their rights) that sparkled so brightly in 1990 have gone unfulfilled" by many governments around the world. The Child Labour News Service reports that candlelight vigils are being organized across the globe on May 8th "to remind all governments that the promises made to children are a sacred trust. We will show the world that we care about the rights of all children and we want them protected. We will especially call on the US government to join the international community in finally ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child." To learn more about the UN event and the vigils, the Child Labour News Services advises referring to globalmarch.org.

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Among the far-reaching features of the web is internet radio and "streaming" which allow Americans abroad to listen to radio programs from around the world. Catherine Greenman's New York Times article (which appeared in the International Herald Tribune on Monday April 22, 2002), explains that "Internet radio is a broad term encompassing both traditional broadcast stations delivered via the Web and sites that offer their own-or your own-playlists. Internet radio stations work by compressing and transmitting audio files to your computer in a process called streaming. Streaming is different from regular downloading in that you can listen to the file as it is being delivered to your computer instead of having to wait until the whole file has been received." This useful article also details sites and technical requirements and recommendations and can be found at www.iht.com

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ACA will hold its annual General Annual Assembly on June 4th 2002 at 7 pm at the American Church in Geneva. All members are welcome to attend. For more information contact the ACA office (see address below).

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   World headquarters: 

   American Citizens Abroad ACA
   5 rue Liotard
   CH-1202 Geneva
   Switzerland
   Phone: +41 22 3400233
   Fax: +41 22 3400448
   email: acage@aca.ch

   In the USA:
    
   American Citizens Abroad
   1051 N. George Mason Drive
   Arlington, VA 22205
   USA
   Fax: +1 (703) 5273269
   email: jacabr@aol.com