Congressional Handbooks Arriving Soon
Check your mailboxes! OFN recently distributed the 2008 version of the U.S. Congress Handbook, containing contact information, committee listings, and district maps for Senators and Representatives to our Members. This useful tool will provide the information you need to leverage your organization’s advocacy efforts both in Washington and at home.

The NEXT American Opportunity Advisory Board Meets
In early April, OFN hosted a meeting of the Advisory Board for “The NEXT American Opportunity: Good Policies for a Great America,” our forthcoming book setting out an ambitions policy agenda and linking opportunity finance to housing, small business, the environment, asset-building and preservation, federal funding innovations, rural America, and the nonprofit sector. The Advisory Board reviewed policy recommendations proposed in the book’s papers, and developed top recommendations for each chapter as well as overall policy recommendations to advance opportunity finance. The book will be published in July, and will also be available for download as individual chapters and papers.

OFN Responds to Federal Reserve
Amidst the turmoil in the housing and credit markets, The Federal Reserve System recently released a proposal for new rules to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis. OFN submitted a comment letter that urged the Fed to introduce even stronger regulations to help protect borrowers from loan abuses.