Amplifying the Concerns and Policy Solutions of Frontline Communities

V4P’s policy program works to engage the voices of grasstops influencers, a key element of any successful policy effort. When policy advocacy works best, it creates an echo chamber from a broad spectrum of stakeholders — both grassroots and grasstops. V4P partners with grassroots organizations while bringing together influential voices and mobilizing them to contribute this grasstops element.

V4P utilizes numerous strategies to maximize the impact of member contacts with elected officials, including intimate meetings between members and policymakers; one-on-one phone, email, and in-person contacts on the campaign trail; private letters from members to policymakers they know; and others. V4P staff track policy progress, synthesize information, and prepare briefing documents and detailed talking points for each contact. 

This process results not only in more informed elected officials but also in a more informed grasstops community that advocates for a variety of issues important to communities with very different life experiences than their own that they may not otherwise focus on.

One recent example of V4P members’ successful advocacy is helping to pass the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), sweeping federal legislation that achieves multiple V4P advocacy priorities, including closing tax loopholes and investing in clean energy initiatives, as well as decreasing the cost of prescription drugs. V4P members have continued their advocacy for priorities not included in the bill, including investments in the care economy (paid leave, child care, in-home care) and additional tax reforms. V4P members have also fought alongside environmental justice communities to oppose the weakening of environmental standards and pipeline fast-tracking that was agreed to in a backroom negotiation to pass the IRA.