A Week In
Washington DC


About OAW OAW Organizations OAW 2013Position PapersPhotosContactPrior Year Reports

Position Papers for Overseas Americans Week 2013

 

  • Overall Goals
    OAW urges Congress and the Administration to rethink certain policies that restrict the effectiveness of the six million overseas Americans as ambassadors for American interests abroad and creators of domestic jobs.
     
  • Participating Organizations
    Organizations participating in this year's OAW are AARO, ACA and FAWCO
     
  • Residence-Based Taxation
    A major impediment for Americans living and working around the globe is their present double tax liability under the current citizenship-based taxation (CBT). We propose the adoption of residence-based taxation (RBT). Full proposal.
     
  • FATCA
    FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, negatively impacts and penalizes American citizens overseas and U.S. economic interests.
     
  • Banking
    Americans living and working overseas should have the right to banking and investment services and should not be subject to discriminatory policies that restrict or shut down banking relationships.
     
  • Voting Reform
    Military and overseas voters still face obstacles in casting their ballots and having them counted. Despite overall improvement in the ballot request and return process almost one quarter of potentional overseas voters in the last election could not vote because they received their ballot too late or not at all.
     
  • Citizenship of Children Born Abroad
    All Americans should enjoy an equal right to transmit U.S. citizenship to their children at birth, including children born to or adopted by a U.S. citizen abroad. Proposed modifications in Sections 301 and 309.
     
  • Social Security
    Since 1983, the Social Security Administration has been authorized to apply the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) offset to Americans' U.S. old-age pensions in cases where individuals also have a pension from non-Social Security covered work – including work abroad. Americans who have worked abroad represent only five percent of those affected by WEP and should be exempted from its application.
     
  • Consular Access
    OAW is seeking the urgent passage of long-delayed legislation that would restore consular protection to Americans who are arrested abroad and foreigners who are arrested in the U.S.A. To date, Congress has not passed such enabling legislation with respect to the Vienna Convention. As a result, Americans travelling abroad have been denied the consular protection that citizens of nearly every country in the world enjoy.
     
  • CEDAW - Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
    The U.S. Senate should ratify CEDAW and ratification should proceed without reservations. The U.S. government should support and implement CEDAW to promote an international framework for global equality and women’s empowerment.
     



The Overseas Americans Week program is organized by the following overseas American action groups:

 

Overseas Americans Week