The ACA Organization: ACA is a voluntary association of U.S. citizens living outside the United States. It has offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Washington, D.C., and more than 8,000 members living in more than ninety-five countries. ACA "country contacts" serve as catalysts in their local American communities and help facilitate the two way flow of information within the organization.
 

The Vocation of ACA: ACA believes that overseas U.S. citizens in the private sector are one of the most important assets that the United States has to promote and protect the interests of all Americans throughout the world. ACA believes that the U.S. Government should ensure that all American citizens enjoy a full and equal measure of human rights, no matter where they live, and should be able to compete on a level playing field in all of the marketplaces of the world. Finally, ACA believes that it is important for the overseas American community to establish and maintain a fruitful dialogue with appropriate leaders of the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. Government at home and abroad on an on-going basis.
 

The Origin of ACA: In August 1978, American Citizens Abroad (ACA) was created in Geneva, Switzerland as a non-profit association under Swiss law. ACA's founders had been working with the staff of a U.S. Senate Committee to draft legislation calling upon the President of the United States to prepare a report for the Congress to:
 

(1) identify all United States statutes and regulations which treat United States citizens living abroad differently from United States citizens residing within the United States, or which may cause, directly or indirectly, competitive disadvantage for Americans working abroad relative to the treatment by other major trading nations of the world of their nationals who are working outside their territory;
 

(2) evaluate each such discriminatory practice; and
 

(3) recommend legislation and any other remedial action the President finds appropriate to eliminate unfair or competitively disadvantaging treatment of Americans living or working abroad. ⁽¹⁾"

Working together with overseas Americans in other countries, ACA prepared a detailed background study identifying more than 50 issues that deserved attention and redress. This report was presented to the White House in late 1978, and it was subsequently endorsed as the official reference document for the preparation of the President's report to the Congress.
 

When Congress received the President's report in 1979, there was considerable dissatisfaction with the way some of the issued had been addressed, particularly in the area of taxation of Americans living abroad. At ACA's urging, the Senate staff rewrote the request to the President in more specific language and asked that a new report be prepared to not only look again the problems that U.S. laws and regulations were causing for Americans abroad, but also to analyze how these difficulties might be affecting the ability of overseas Americans to compete in world markets⁽²⁾.
 

Once again, ACA drafted a new report putting overseas American concerns into an international competitive perspective and adding a number of new issues to be considered.
 

Congressional Publication of the ACA and White House Reports: The Senate published both of ACA's reports to the President, and the two Presidential Reports to the Congress in a special committee report in August 1980.⁽³⁾
 

ACA Follow-up Activities: ACA has been actively involved in lobbying the Congress and the Executive Branch to seek redress for the specific grievances that were identified in these early reports, and other issues which have been identified since then. For more than twenty-two years, ACA representatives have been testifying before Committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and have met with senior officials in the Executive Branch to discuss appropriate and effective ways to reform legislation and regulations that cause difficulties not only for individual overseas Americans but also for the United States.
 

ACA Successes to Date: ACA has been instrumental in helping bring about incremental changes in a number of areas including laws on citizenship, taxation, and the overseas hiring of U.S. citizens by the U.S. Government.
 

A New Congressional Request to the State Department in 1994: During the 1990s, ACA worked with the Congress to draft a new call for investigation of the generic concerns of overseas Americans. The Conference Report on hearings for the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for FY 1994/95 urged:
 

"the Department of State, in cooperation with other relevant Departments of the U.S. Government, and with the active participation of the overseas American community, to undertake a review of U.S. laws and regulations that may impede the ability of American citizens abroad to compete in world markets with citizens of other nations on a level playing field"⁽⁴⁾.
 

ACA Fundraising: ACA solicits contributions from individuals, corporations and other institutions. ACA does not receive any funding from the U.S. Government. Donations from corporations are both in cash and in kind. Although several large donations have been received from individuals, and generous corporate donors have been of considerable support, most of the funds for ACA's activities come from small individual donations, and from annual fund raising events such as the ACA annual auction in Geneva.
 

ACA Award Programs: ACA has two annual award programs.
 

The Thomas Jefferson Award is given each year to a State Department or Foreign Service person who has performed outstanding service to the American community abroad.
 

The Eugene Abrams Award is given to a senior American citizen living outside the United States who has contributed exceptional volunteer service to the local, national or international overseas American community.
 

ACA News Reports: ACA prepares and distributes printed news reports, press releases, and other forms of communications on news and views of interest to the overseas American community.
 

ACA on the Internet: ACA has a major website (http://www.aca.ch) with regularly updated web-pages providing news and commentary of interest to Americans abroad. The website has links to many other useful sites. Messages can be sent to ACA email at acage@aca.ch.
 

Joining ACA: For Americans living and working overseas, membership in ACA is not only an easy and efficient way to keep up to date on U.S. laws and regulations that influence the competitive environment in which they live, and but also a vehicle by which they can make their voices heard in seeking redress for their grievances. Corporate members enjoy these same opportunities and services.
 
 

1.

¹ Section 611 of the State Department Authorization Act of 1979 (PL 95-426)

2.

² Section 407 of the State Department Authorization Act of 1980 (PL 96-60)

3.

³ Senate Foreign Relations Committee Report on "U.S. Law Affecting Americans Living and Working Abroad", August 1980.

4.

⁴ Conference Report 103-482 to Accompany HR 2333, Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 (PL 103-236). For the full text of this mandate see Annex 1.