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2/18/19 

Contact Federal Government Officials


1.   The House is scheduled for District Work Periods this week, returning to Wash. DC next Monday, Feb. 25. (Source: House Majority Leader Calendar)  On Tuesday, the Senate is scheduled for a pro-forma session only. (Source: Senate Floor Schedule) 

2.   Trump’s “emergency” declaration “sets a precedent that a president can, without regard to an actual existence of an emergency . . . evade the normal democratic process and fund projects on his own,” said law professor William Banks, co-author of “National Security Law and the Power of the Purse.” “This is a real institutional threat to the separation of power . . . to bypass Congress to build a wall on his own initiative that our elected representatives have chosen not to fund.”  The National Emergencies Act expressly provides a procedure for Congress to terminate a state of emergency by passing a resolution; Congress has never used this procedure, but they should do so now.  Let’s tell our MoCs to support the resolution Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Joaquin Castro (D-TX) plan to introduce this week: 
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democratic-lawmakers-vow-fight-trump-s-emergency-declaration-n972091 or https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-15/ocasio-cortez-plans-bill-to-block-trump-s-emergency-declaration

3.   In these trying times it is important to remember our values, and to let them guide our actions. One such value is compassion, another is fair-mindedness, and both are at stake in a current Congressional fight over whether federal contractors will get backpay for work they did during Trump's government shutdown. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trump-blocking-contractor-back-pay-gov-t-funding-deal-lawmaker-n971226  Many of those contractors work for low wages, living paycheck-to-paycheck, and have been left in dire financial straits, so let's call our MoC's to either stiffen their resolve or demand that they heed our call to do the right thing. 

4.   Trump’s “national emergency” for a wall allows him to divert money already appropriated for his own use. Some possibilities include the $600 million that is expected to come from the Treasury Dept.’s asset forfeiture funds, $2.5 billion from a Pentagon drug prevention program, and $3.6 billion from the Pentagon’s military construction budget, which provides money to improve housing, medical facilities, roads, and other aspects of military life. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-wall-money-military-housing-base-repairs/story?id=61109794 Let’s make sure our MoCs know that we want the money to be spent on the programs for which it was appropriated.

5.   The Senate has postponed a vote on naming Ronald Vitello the Director of ICE after many questions arose regarding is professionalism. One of the issues in question was a tweet in which he compared Democrats to the Ku Klux Klan. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-ice-director-senate-vote-ronald-vitiello-twitter-kkk-nominee-homeland-security-committee-vote-a8777791.html Let’s tell our Senators to vote against confirming Vitello.

6.   The Democratic National Committee needs a little encouragement to put its money where its mouth is. It has long descried the corrupting influence of corporate PAC donations on politics, but it has voted down a ban on taking such donations. Some members, including senior leadership, are afraid to forego any tool for defeating Trump and the GOP, even though these donations contribute less than .1% of the DNC's fundraising.  http://www.democraticnationalcommittee.org/contact.html, https://democrats.org/about/our-leaders/). https://www.vox.com/2019/2/16/18226344/democratic-national-committee-corporate-pac-donations-tom-perez   Clearly, they are failing to see the cost they continue to pay for this hypocrisy, so let's encourage these well-intentioned but timorous souls to embrace the courage of their convictions by letting them know that we expect them to walk the walk on getting big money out of government, and that we will support that position financially.

7.   Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said on Friday that he is not yet sure how much money he will divert to Trump’s declared national emergency of wanting to build a border wall:  https://www.apnews.com/0b937cc0aa034cee882781224d69869e  Let’s let Acting Secretary Shanahan know that the right amount is zero dollars if he is actually focused on his role of defense of our nation: Acting Secretary Shanahan, 1000 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1000 or on DOD Contact page: 
https://www.defense.gov/Ask-Us/

8.  “The newly obtained emails from 2017 and 2018 indicate that David Bernhardt, a former industry lobbyist, has been personally involved with intricacies of new policies at the Interior Department that benefit oil companies and other industries.”  Bernhardt is Trumps new nominee to head the Dept. of the Interior.  https://www.revealnews.org/article/trumps-choice-for-interior-department-secretary-had-big-role-in-eliminating-bird-protections/  Once again Trump is supporting a person to undo the very department that the leader should protect.  Let’s tell our senators to not allow this to happen. 

9.   As we head off today to one of the hundreds of national protests in response to Trump’s declaration of a national emergency: 
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/16/trumps-national-emergency-order-nationwide-protests/2886436002/ , let’s also take a moment to let President Trump know that we consider his presidency to be the national emergency: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500 or comment line: 202-456-1111 (staffed by volunteers) or on Twitter @realdonaldtrump

10. For those of us trying to keep up with the ever-growing rules and regulations changes that need public comment, here is the weekly update provided by one of our own:  Here is this week's list. A number of things that weren't posted yet were posted this week, including the WOTUS rule and payday loans. There is a Homeland Security Teleconference - info at top - that includes CPB on child care (!!!!!!) and there's public participation in that you can submit comments beforehand. You must preregister - info. included here. Also, ICE Tip form - this is new to me and they are seeking comment. Also energy efficiency rollback and coal fired plants - anything EPA is a rollback of Obama regs. Here it is. https://drive.google.com/open?id=14hoXucYfL58BRFCLR-PNrP7kpxX_FLiq

11.  The 39th mass shooting in 2019 occurred last week.  The shooter in Aurora, Illinois was a felon and should not have had a gun.  “The great majority of Americans support background checks, probably because they trust a decades-old network of digital information that seems to turn up everything from that one late gas bill at a college apartment to the vehicle identification number for every car ever purchased. We don’t know how a felony conviction fell through the cracks. Nor do we know why, once the mistake became clear, efforts to correct it fell short.”  https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/aurora-beacon-news/opinion/ct-abn-shooting-editorial-st-0217-story.html We need national background checks, but we need the teams to enforce the violations and collect guns from owners who are not allowed to have them. Let’s make sure our MoCs, federal and state, are working on sensible gun laws and funds for the enforcement of those laws.  

12. “Trump's border wall threatens 93 endangered and threatened species, including jaguars, ocelots, Mexican gray wolves and cactus ferruginous pygmy owls, according to a new study by the Center for Biological Diversity. The study also found that 25 threatened or endangered species have designated "critical habitat" on the border, including more than 2 million acres within 50 miles of the border. Trump's border wall is a disaster for people and wildlife alike," Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. "It could drive magnificent species like the jaguar and ocelot to extinction in the United States."  https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-border-wall-endangered-species-2410320620.html  and  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/how-trump-us-mexico-border-wall-could-impact-environment-wildlife-water/  There is no emergency for the Wall; there is an emergency for species threatened by the Wall. Let’s call our MoCs and governors, ask them to pressure the WH and reverse the Fake Wall National Emergency. 

13. In what is being called an “outrageous” and “unprecedented” move, Christine Ciccone, formerly a senior official at the State Department and now an assistant secretary at Homeland Security, has failed to agree to an interview with investigators “despite repeated requests made to both her and her attorney over many months”;  the State Department Office of Inspector General is looking into allegations of politically-motivated retaliation against career diplomats and civil servants by Ciccone, a “key witness,” and other political appointees at State. Three congressional Democrats--House Foreign Affairs Chair Eliot Engel, House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings, and Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations—have demanded that Ciccone’s current boss, Kirsten Nielsen, take action to uphold the inspector general office's legal authority:  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-appointee-dodging-investigators-political-retaliation-case-government-watchdog-says-n971881 or https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2019/02/15/daily-202-trump-shows-fresh-disdain-for-the-rule-of-law-with-national-emergency-declaration/5c65aa641b326b71858c6b8e/
Let’s join them in pressing Nielsen to act to preserve the critical function of governmental oversight: 202-282-8495 or Secretary of Homeland Security, Washington DC 20128.

14. ”No one should be surprised,” economist Robert Reich observed, that Trump—famous for stiffing his workers--reportedly refused to sign any government funding deal that included back pay for the estimated 580,000 federal contractors, including low-wage janitorial, food, and security workers, who were furloughed or forced to work without pay for over a month due to the shutdown: http://time.com/5513935/shutdown-government-contractors-back-pay/  Trump claims to be opposed to offshoring manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries, but outsourcing government work, if it relieves the government of the need to pay workers, is apparently just fine.  Perhaps it is time to let our MoCs know that we expect the federal government to hire directly the workers it needs--as well as demand back pay for outsourced workers, who are at the mercy of the federal government although technically not employed by it.

15. While it appeared that the National Butterfly Center might be spared by the legislation for the border wall, the “national emergency” may well negate that.  http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/trump-declares-national-emergency-will-tap-these-funds-for-border-wall  The day before a judge dismissed a court case that might have stopped the wall’s impact on the Center.  https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/430117-federal-judge-dismisses-lawsuit-by-butterfly-conservationists-over  The ruling will be appealed, but additional funds are being sought through this account:  https://www.gofundme.com/protect-the-national-butterfly-center  Let’s help if we can.

Election/Voting

1.    Postcards to Voters' Campaign 145: Nadia Holubnyczyi for Floral Park NY Village Trustee was a short list that came and went this weekend. (We can read more about Nadia at Newsday.) Now we can request addresses for Campaign 146: Judge Lisa Neubauer for WI State Supreme Court. (More at Wisconsin Law Journal.) The election is scheduled for Tuesday, April 2. Let's request 5 addresses today.

2.   Postcards to Voters' volunteers will be watching the special election results on Tuesday for Campaign 144: Ibraheem Samirah for Delegate in Virginia.  Thanks to everyone who helped support this campaign. 

Other Actions

1.    As the field of Democratic candidates keeps growing, we need to focus on their positions on policy issues.  Political Charge is helping us do that by highlighting individual candidates and where they stand on seven issues.  Let’s make sure to follow this blog to keep up with these.  The first is on Kamala Harris:  https://politicalcharge.org/2019/02/15/kamala-harris-the-7-issues-guide/

2.   Experts in authoritarianism advise us to keep a list of things subtly changing around us, so we’ll remember.  Amy Siskind is keeping that list for us.  Amy writes, "This was a jarring week as Trump declared a national emergency after Congress refused to fund his wall — perhaps his most brazen authoritarian act yet." Let's review Amy Siskind's list Week 118.

3.   If we are looking for a handy list to use with our postcarding group, one of our has one to share:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YK18UGgAcoHfy4uA5fEkzA41bCgoHOGqUDDxfWElKcM/edit

4.   If we are a Democratic woman running in the 2019-2020 election cycle, we can check out Emerge’s first national candidate boot camp of the year. Emerge is one of the top trainers for women candidates, with over 4,000 alumnae, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed and nine of the newly elected Virginia House of Delegates. Now we can learn their winning techniques when we join them in Washington, D.C. from March 22-24. In this three-day intensive workshop, experts in the field will share top notch strategies for campaign planning, fundraising, messaging and more.  We can click here to find out more and then apply now:   
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeD2BF1xe4HunL5Mkg_T2NkzIX4wRjsCMy1QPR0oHKEtSwBhA/viewform  To learn about the Bootcamp, we can read this report of last year’s workshop here:  https://www.fastcompany.com/90232409/inside-the-candidate-bootcamp-where-the-future-is-indeed-female

State Actions

1.    MOST:  California is the first state to sue the administration for declaring a national emergency, that is clearly not an emergency. Trump himself admitted he didn’t need to do this, he simply wanted to get the wall built faster.  
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/15/695251288/donald-trump-we-ll-see-you-in-court-california-to-sue-over-emergency-declaration. Let’s ask our state attorney general to join California’s lawsuit. We can find contact information for our state attorney general here.

2.   KY:  Bipartisan Senate Bill 18 would make discrimination by employers for pregnancies, childbirth or related conditions illegal. We can support this by calling our Representatives at 1-800-372-7181 and asking for their support of this bill, currently assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Let’s show our support for working Kentucky Moms and their children now!  We can read the key section of the bill here:  https://legiscan.com/KY/bill/SB18/2019  Or the full text here:  https://legiscan.com/KY/text/SB18/2019

Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize

1.   Today, at locations all over the country, there will be nationwide protests against Trump’s “national emergency”.  As Dan Rather tweeted on 2/14, “I’m old enough to remember when “national emergency” actually meant an emergency to the nation and not an emergency to a damaged political ego.”   Let’s find one and attend:  https://www.crisisresponse.us/event/crisis-response/search/ Whether or not we can make it to a protest, there are other actions we can take:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mA529ynVBLQTBpPNTtBlLdLsOrqs0WzyX-b-7TSvI4s/edit

2.   On Friday, February 22, from 9:00 AM to 2:30 PM (EST)  DemLabs is holding a Digital Storytelling workshop in Washington, D.C. Experts will review their storytelling projects and the apps used to create them.  The workshop is free, but space is limited. RSVP here.

3.   On March 15 there will be Youth Climate Strikes all over the world.  Let’s keep an eye on this site for updates of where and when we can attend and help: https://www.youthclimatestrikeus.org/ 

Reading/Watching

1.    Fact-checking President Donald Trump’s claims about a national emergency – https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/feb/15/donald-trumps-news-conference-about-national-emerg/

2.   America’s Original Identity Politics - https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/02/07/americas-original-identity-politics/

3.   Trump’s Followers Believe His Lies About the Wall: No evidence—not even from Fox News—can shake their faith - https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/trump-followers-believe-lies-wall.html





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