The annual trek to Washington

Before going to Washington, I had a nice birthday party the Sunday before, at home. Then, my actual birthday; Paul and I went out to eat after attending an interesting book presentation at the American Library in Paris (Forgotten: the Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes....) On Claire's birthday, I left -- but not straight to DC. I flew to Orlando to visit the cousins, there. The flight to Philly was an hour late and the line to get through immigration a bit long, but since I only had carry-on, I managed to run to the other terminal and catch the flight to Orlando. The plan was that I would rent a car, but when I took out my licence I took a look and discovered Paul's licence! So, no car rental for me and this meant that Paul must be driving with my licence. I caught a cab and went to Maitland for a very agreeable weekend -- an art show, a visit to an orchid farm, a great dinner at home with littler cousins, dinner out, brunch, a movie (Hail Caesar) and then a Sunday flight to DC.
In DC, I had reserved the same airbnb apartment V. and I had shared two years ago in the Adams Morgan section between the Woodley Park and Columbia Heights metro stations. I arrived by about 3 and my roommate, CLF, arrived at about 10 at night. I had time to go to the supermarket, eat, and take a nap. When CLF arrived, we started talking like old friends, already, and sat down to work, assembling the handouts.
I posted blurbs about our days on facebook, only about meetings that I was able to attend:
"Today, we start our rounds of Overseas Americans Week -- AARO and FAWCO. In fact, this year, we have two delegations: this week's and another to follow at the end of the month."
"First meeting done -- my Congressman's office. The Legislative assistant we met with this year seemed more aware of our issues. She had researched FATCA, for example, so my remarks were not new. This year, though, although we present our overall goals, we are concentrating a one issue, which is the passport revocation business in the FAST Act. She acknowledged that the office had received the letter from the Americans Abroad Caucus heads and would see that the Congressman considered signing it."
"Second meeting -- in Mick Mulvaney's office. He's a co-chair of the Americans Abroad Caucus. What I had not realized before was that the bills go to the Representatives' offices until about 36 hours before the vote. They are parsed among office staff for a quick read through. This explains why everything is a reaction to a passed bill rather than proactive. So we, the organizations, are the ones to alert the caucus to the problems, not the other way around."
"After that, the group spllit and I went to my Senators' offices, first Senator Casey, then Senator Toomey. In both cases, very good meetings. In Senator Casey's office, I met with two people, one legislative aide who was very aware of the FATCA issue and "I brought up the passport revocation business and also expressed my disappointment that the Senator was associated with the idea of not allowing people who had renounced (ostensibly for tax reasons) to re-enter the US. She was accompanied by an aide, more an intern, from Australia, who immediately understood the absurdity of citizenship-based-taxation.
"Immediately after that meeting, I rushed off to Senator Toomey's office. He wasn't around in 2010 for the HIREAct, but he is against FATCA. His aide was very interested in the implications of the passport revocation part of the FAST Act and has bookmarked it in order to keep an eye on it...."
"Then a meeting, very nice, in Carolyn Maloney's office and we talked about the letter that is being drafted and should be ready before we leave (fingers crossed) and how to target Representative's offices with high vollume of voters residing overseas."
"After all that, we all met with H. D. P. -- a very good meeting of the minds." This was particularly interesting, as he is an American living in the DC area who had been thinking of moving, which is how he got interested in the issues of living overseas. He's become a real expert, very helpful in the facebook group, always informative, not inflammatory, and he's even drafted comments and testified at Congressional committee meetings.
"Second day -- my first meeting was in Congressman McGovern's office. He is a member of the Americans Abroad Caucus and the meeting went very well. His staffer was aware of our issues and said she would have the Congressman take another look at the bill on the creation of a commission for his sponsorship. And she'll be looking out for the letter from the Caucus co-chairs on the passport revocation issue."
"Second appointment in Representative Carson's office (IN). He is also a member of the Americans Abroad Caucus and the staffer working with the caucus is the legislative director -- a good thing. He told me that he's heard from many constituents abroad about FATCA and other issues. Proof that your letters count.  Write to your representatives even if they sometimes seem unresponsive, volume will make them sit up and listen, eventually."
"We all got to Representative Beyer's office. He's the former ambassador to Switzerland and now the representative in northern Virginia, around Washington. He's very aware of the problems faced by those of us abroad and or constituents relocating from the US."
"In the afternoon, we had back to back meetings in Senator Rand Paul's and Senator  Ted Cruz's offices. Good meetings.Yes, Keith, we mentioned the conversation you had about the social taxes on income. We found out where Gray, Paul's tax expert from last year went (to a think tank); we had a very good discussion with Cruz's deputy legislative director, who is very much aware of all the tax issues we have and the discussions going on about territorial taxation for corporations and equivalent resident-based-taxation for individuals. He is also aware of the passport revocation implications for US citizens who live abroad."
"Third day -- Meeting 1 done at the Tax Foundation, where good questions were asked and they were truly interested in the individual taxpayer's situation."
".... The meeting at the Tax Foundation was good and concise, so we didn't have to rush to the next meeting in Senator Rubio's office. His aide told us that the Senator was firmly in the "RBT" group. Good to know. He was also concerned about the passport revocation punishment in the FAST Act."
"Then, we all headed to a meeting in Senator Crapo's office, where the implications of citizenship-based-taxation on home-based businesses was not lost.The Senator is in favor of territorial taxation for corporations and the jump to residence-based-taxation for individuals is a tiny step.
After lunch, we headed to the American Banker's Association for another good exchange. Of course, they have no influence over foreign institutions, but since US banks have been clearing out US citizens with foreign addresses, it is good to have these exchanges to see what we can do to help the US banks see the market potential of having us as customers rather than leaving us without accounts."
"Okay, sorry for the lack of updates today, but we were on the move all day.
We started with caucus members' offices: Reps.Capuano (MA), Davis (CA), and Doyle (PA). Again, they all emphasized how important it is to have contituents writing to them. Even if you think they are brushing you off and sending you replies that have nothing to do the subject, keep it up."
"We had time before the next scheduled meeting, so we stopped by Mia Love's office. In this (Facebook) group, earlier this week, someone had posted the article about her proposing a bill that would make bills stick to a single subject. It's a laudable idea, but one that will not really get far, since every expense requires a "pay for", and that guarantees unrelated subjects getting into a bill. However, it seemed to us that perhaps she might be interested in the Americans Abroad Caucus -- that she would see how these other subjects tend to affect us. Her chief of staff came out and was very, very interested."
"Then we stopped by Steven Russell's office, on the suggestion of T.M., and again had a most interesting meeting."
"Then, it was time for a brisk walk over the hill to Senator Hatch's office, where the two staffers we met with asked very pertinent questions. We wanted to visit that office because he was instrumental in the FAST Act. They couldn't tell us who, precisely, came up with the passport revocation provision and they were suitably appalled at the effect it could have on non-US residents. They asked lots of questions."
"Our last meeting on the hill was with Senator Sanders staffer on the budget committee and again, he truly wanted to understand the difficulties due to FATCA, due to our system of taxation. He asked good questions and will talk to the boss."
"Our last meeting on the hill was with Senator Sanders' staffer on the budget committee and again, he truly wanted to understand the difficulties due to FATCA, due to our system of taxation. He asked good questions and will talk to the boss."
"The day ended meeting with our old friend who has become a commissioner on the Election Assistance Commission. Discussion of voting, rather than taxes, for a change!"
"This morning (Friday) -- light schedule -- we had an appointment at Rep.Connolly's office and had a very constructive meeting with suggestions how to be more effective, how to, perhaps, change the language of the position paper on the passport revocation, address committee staffers of upcoming bills... We need  to better monitor upcoming bills."
"We stopped in to "report" back to Reps.Maloney and Mulvaney's offices. And then, we had time to stop at Rep. Perlmutter's office because over in the Americans Expatriates group, one of his constituents had mentioned whom to contact. I've finished for this week. Off to see my aunt and uncle in Bethesda and then return home tomorrow. It's been a good week. Please write to your representatives. Be polite, and diplomatic, and be to the point. Inform them. We can't see them all, although we hope next year, with a new Congressional Session starting, we will be a larger delegation to visit more offices."
There were only three of us for this Overseas Americans Week, so two more are going this weekend for three days of meetings next week. I spent some time preparing those appointments, too. And I still have to do my thank you notes for all the meetings I was in. Oof!

Happy New Year 2016

It's not a very original title for a blog post and I realize I ended 2015 with a sad note, since my last post of the year was after the terrorist attacks in November. For us, though, the year ended very well. We went to Claire's for Christmas and had a short family visit. Not everyone went this year. Louis and Gwen went to her folks this time and Emma and Gabriel stayed home, with a thought to going to his dad's, but that visit got put off a week.
I finished my knitting projects for the year and am ready to get started on this year's. Just waiting for some measurements to come in (you know who you are).
This month will be taken up with preparations for Overseas Americans Week, which will be in early February this time. There's only a month left to prepare!
My voter registration/ballot request is off -- that's my New Year's day tradition, now. We overseas voters have to do this every year!
Paul hasn't given any indication of big projects coming up. We hope to have Dan visit in February, after my return from the States. I know we want to get down to the south in the Spring, maybe late winter. There's been a request to return to England in late May, early June and that would be a great time to do some touring. We haven't made any summer plans, although I know we've been invited to join the UK bunch, so we just need to know when and where. If the Pierwige crew want to get together, they'd better set it up, now!
I think our plan is just to stay well, to babysit when asked, to see other family whenever possible. We'd like to have a nice, calm year, with no catastrophic news concerning us, our loved ones, or the world. We hope the same for everyone else. Exceptional good news is, of course, welcome!
There's no big family picture this year.

A lot has happened since the last post

Yes, it's been an eventful week, starting on Friday the 13th, in the evening. It was covered extensively in the news, so I am not going to rehash it, nor go into my feelings. I've been in touch with family and friends and gave some immediate reactions via Facebook.
I will say, however, that staying away from the constant live coverage on TV is good. It's not easy to avoid getting caught up in the frenzy of speculation, but once I decided that when the cycle was over and I was seeing or hearing the same thing again, I turned it off and didn't go back until later in the day. There's something to be said in favor of the old days, when the news was a program at a set time in the evening and that was it. Yes, it is convenient to be able to turn the TV (or internet site) on to the news as soon as you are aware of something happening, but very soon you realize that the journalists don't really know what's going on, just that it is going on. Once you know there is something going on, is there any real need to keep up with the speculation? Analysis is another thing, entirely, and French TV has some pretty good programs that do good analysis.
Avoiding the TV and not being able to concentrate on much else -- if I turned on the computer to write, I got caught up in facebook updates -- I knit. That has a very calming effect. I've almost finished the complicated jacquard sweater I've been working on.
President Hollande has made some good speeches. He does seem good in crises. One of his proposals is to rescind French nationality to dual nationals who threaten figures of authority (police, military,...). As a dual national and mother of dual nationals, I feel such a law is dangerous. I sympathize with the feeling that the terrorists who are dual nationals are taking advantage of their dual nationality, so I understand why this "quick fix" to the problem sounds so good, but in geo-politics the definition of friendly and enemy state is ever-changing. This law would make dual nationals of any dual nationality second-class citizens in France. Here is the letter written to the President by one of the children of an American friend of mine who holds elected office in Paris: http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/anne-lebreton/decheance-nationalite-francais-binationaux_b_8588582.html

A non-birthday party

The kids cooked this up. Paul has a big birthday this year and has repeatedly said he doesn't want a big to-do. They organized a family lunch.
First most of the family from England arrived to spend the school holiday with us. That allowed the little cousins (Parisian and English) to get to know each other a bit, have a sleepover, watch movies, play on the trampoline, take a bateau mouche tour of Paris. Later in the week, the last two from England arrived and the ones from Tarn-et-Garonne drove up. So, we had all four of our kids on the weekend. Even if the Parisians went home to sleep, we still had a houseful. Fun and games. I had done most of the cooking the week before, so it was just a matter of defrosting....
One sad note during the week, though. A dear friend from the baseball crowd died. He was the one, the papa of the minimes team, who greeted L when he signed up, 11 years old. Later, I was one of the two moms that took over the team management and he went on to taking on more club responsabilities and scoring. He recruited me as a scorer and mentored me. Since I gave up scoring a few years ago, I hadn't seen him as much, but was also glad to see him when I could. Last June, he came to the European championships with his wife -- always happy to see them, but that's when he told me he was sick. I'll miss him. It was wonderful to see how much the baseball community loved him and turned out for the funeral -- all the "kids", now grown men, the scorers, the federation officials, the PUC (our club).
On Sunday, we went into Paris for lunch. And the surprise was finding P and G, who had come up from Six-Fours and their kids and grandkids.....
Sorry, no pictures of this on the blog -- family will get the link to the album, maybe not immediately as I have some sorting to do!