During Overseas Americans Week 2010 (OAW), the co-chairs of the Americans Abroad Caucus, Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Joe Wilson (R-SC) formally requested that the House Financial Services Committee hold hearings on the difficulties overseas Americans encounter with opening and maintaining bank accounts in the US and overseas.

Now we need your help to ask the leaders of that committee to listen. Just go to http://financialservices.house.gov/contact.html and complete the form to send your message to the committee.

We suggest that you insert into the "city" and "state" fields either the city and state where you vote or the city and country where you live overseas.

For your background, click here to read the letter sent by Representatives Maloney and Wilson. Feel free to use the following brief model to prepare your message. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Andy Coyne.

Model Letter:

Dear Chairman Frank and Ranking Member Bachus,

As a member of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, I urge you to take note of the letter sent to you on April 21 by Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Joe Wilson, the co-chairs of the Americans Abroad Caucus, and promptly hold hearings on the difficulties encountered by overseas Americans in opening and maintaining bank accounts in the United States and abroad. We are counting on the Committee on Financial Services to investigate these issues and ensure that overseas Americans have access to necessary financial services under reasonable conditions.

Regards,

[Your name and location; for example, Andy Coyne, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia]