New legislation, proposed by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) as Senate Bill 3496, would remove all US taxes on income earned abroad. ACA is participating in a worldwide campaign to get this new law passed.

The American Business Council of the Gulf Countries announced in their July 15th bulletin that Senator DeMint’s proposed legislation S-3496 Working American Competitiveness Act has made an important step forward with co-sponsorship by Senator Chuck Hagel in the Senate and sponsorship of similar legislation in the House by Representative Chris Chocola.

Now you can do your part to get this new legislation passed.

Click here for a complete position paper and action kit concerning this new legislation.

You can also help by contributing $100 to the "Eliminate Double Taxation" fund which ACA is helping to support.

On the radar screen--Related links:

• The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Latest News
• OAW 2006 Overseas Americans Week 2006. Our recent activity in Washington.

• Int. Herald Tribune
• Financial Times
• thestandard.com
• The Wall Street Journal

• National Taxpayers Union
• Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
• Americans for Tax Reform
• The Heritage Foundation
• American Enterprise Institute
• The Center for Freedom and Prosperity (15 pages pdf)

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Mary Ryan, former assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, passed away end-April. ACA wrote to Maura Hardy, her successor: "Mary was a good and loyal friend of the millions of us living abroad in the private sector overseas American community. She helped us with many of our most difficult problems during the many years of her service at the State Department. "

A long-time consular officer wrote ACA, "She did so much for the consular world and for each of us as individual consular officers that it is hard to imagine that she is gone. She was really the mother of us all and we are all grieving."

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FAWCO was founded in 1931 by Caroline Curtis Brown, then President of the American Women's Club in London, who believed that enlightened women, working cooperatively throughout the world, could do much to help achieve international peace.

Its objectives, defined at a meeting of seven clubs in London, were to "work towards international goodwill and the preservation of world peace, to help one another solve problems common to them all and to aid women whose citizenship rights were being ignored or restricted."

ACA has been proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with FAWCO for the last 28 years, working together to help the 4 million US citizens living overseas solve their myriad problems, and sharing ideas and projects to bring about positive changes in the way the US Government treats American citizens living and working abroad.

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Voting from abroad has never been easier, and mid-term elections this year make it particularly interesting to do so. The current administration's majority in both houses is far from solid; whether to shore it up or to challenge it, your vote can make a real difference.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program FVAP's motto of the year is "Responsibility has no Borders. Vote!" Tons of useful information, including an all-states Primary Election Calendar and Deadlines.

The non-partisan, non-profit Overseas Vote Foundation (overseasvotefoundation.org) has many features aimed at making voter registration close to irresistible. One of the latest additions is the Voter Help Desk (ovf-vhd.org).

Remember that even when working online, the bottom line is that it is a hard copy application that must ultimately be mailed to your district voter registration bureau.

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Thanks to Overseas Vote Foundation (overseasvotefoundation.org) for its active participation in preparations for the June Overseas Americans Week, including preparation of a photo-montage representing a spectrum of Americans living abroad that will be shown during the Washington event. Thanks also to the many individual Americans who shared photos and stories of themselves and their activities.

More information about the OAW is on their website overseasamericansweek.com

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ACA is now accepting nominations for its annual award to a State Dept employee who has been of outstanding service to overseas Americans.

ACA launched the Thomas Jefferson Award in 1994 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson, America's first Secretary of State, who himself lived outside the new republic for many years while promoting the political, economic and intellectual interests of his country. The positive response and the impressive nominations submitted for the awards to date indicate the importance and appreciation of the work of State Department employees for US citizens abroad.

Previous winners include personnel of all ranks based in Cameroon, Italy, Uruguay, Israel, Spain, the Philippines, the Caribbean, Washington and elsewhere, who have through their commitment, creativity and enthusiasm served, inspired and united "their" American communities.

Nominations for the award should include:

• One or more letters of recommendation, explaining why the candidate should be chosen for the award, citing anecdotes and examples of service to the local community;
A curriculum vitae of the nominee;
• A recent photograph of the candidate, if possible showing him/her among members of the local community that the candidate is serving or has served;
• Those submitting nominations should also provide their own name, organization and phone/fax/emails;
• The deadline for submission of nominations for the 2006 Thomas Jefferson Award is 30 June 2006.

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"So Far Yet So Near", collected stories of 40+ Americans who live or have lived abroad, is good reading. Each experience living outside the US is unique; everyone will learn from this collection. Read it yourself, of course, but also spread the word: give copies to friends and family; review the book for a publication or website; discuss it in your reading group. Order online here. Also available at amazon.com (click in via ACA website to get a small commission for ACA).

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Many thanks to all who participated in the annual ACA Fundraising Auction held 24 March in Geneva's Ramada Park Hotel. A broad spectrum of donors (see attached list) and an enthusiastic audience provided funds to help see ACA, a non-profit organization run by volunteers, through another year of helping YOU and other Americans based abroad.

ACA's website, e-newsletter and hard copy News Report provide relevant and frequently-updated news to Americans living around the world. In addition, hundreds of specific questions from overseas Americans are responded to individually via e-mail, and ACA, working by itself and in conjunction with like-minded organizations, constantly works to improve the US Government's relations with its citizenry abroad.

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Is your MEMERSHIP current? Even all-volunteer organizations have unavoidable overhead. Paying your dues makes a difference. Contact ACA () to check your status or pay securely online on this website.

Attend ACA's ANNUAL MEETING Geneva, 8 June 2006 at 19:00 and give your input to future directions. Contact the ACA office () for directions, or, if you cannot attend, send comments and suggestions for discussion.

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ACA Country Contact Leila Heron (Venezuela) recently finished a master's thesis exploring the interest in e-learning of a sampling of expat American women, and concluded that there is enormous potential in this rapidly-expanding field. She has written a short article on her findings. Persons interested in hearing more from Ms Heron, please make initial contact via ACA .

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The ultimate for pre-history buffs: NASA's site on the origins of the universe.jpl.nasa.gov gives a wealth of current scientific thinking, written in layman's language, as well as photos, diagrams and links that lead you on and on for example, hubblesite.org. Great also for students looking for science report materials.

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This News Update is, like ACA itself, of, by, and for Americans abroad. ACA is staffed through the efforts of volunteers, with its primary income source being membership fees and donations from private American citizens around the world.

WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE HANDS-ON TO ACA WORK:

1. NEWS UPDATE EDITORS. ACA is seeking to supplement its News Update staff. Work involves actually writing the News Update 2 - 3 times a year, under supervision of a Senior Editor, and monitoring raw material considered for the newsletter on a regular basis. Calls for e-mail access and an ability to write/edit succinctly and against a deadline. ACA takes pride in the global spread of its editors.
2. BOOK REVIEWS/REVIEWERS. ACA is interested in discovering books of particular interest to Americans abroad. It also seeks individuals willing to review such books. Reviewers get to keep the book, and to see their contribution in print. Click here for a list of books or contact the ACA office.

WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE TO ACA'S FINANCIAL SUCCESS:

1. ORDER YOUR PUBLICATIONS THROUGH THE ACA WEBSITE and we get paid for your business - at no cost to you. Go to the Book Review section and click on any link to amazon-com (USA) or amazon-UK. Any purchases you make when you have entered through the ACA portal, whether of items reviewed on the website or not, will generate a small revenue for ACA; Please make this extra click-to-give gesture to help us continue to help you. You can also order our new ACA book So far and Yet So Near directly from www.amazon.com USA or from www.amazon.co.UK and add your other orders.
2. JOIN US FOR OUR ANNUAL AUCTION. The FUNdraiser evening produces the single largest annual contribution to ACA's working budget. And the highest bids are for items ingenious and/or exotic. It's a good bet that someone in the attending crowd of internationals will be intrigued by even the most distant and/or unusual of objects or services.
3. IS YOUR MEMBERSHIP CURRENT? Renew by secure online payment or contact the ACA office . Membership is only US$40 a year (CHF 60). Of course, an outright contribution via check or charge card is the most obvious way to support the work of ACA and its worldwide volunteers working to help YOU. Secure payment using PayPal^®, or send a check to: ACA, 5 rue Liotard, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland.

Disclaimer: While ACA makes every effort to be accurate in the information it transmits, such information is not to be considered a substitute for specific and qualified professional advice.

JOIN US!