Contact Federal Government Officials
Find senator’s contact info here: https://goo.gl/RLiotu
Find representative’s contact info here: https://goo.gl/5i7SXC
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Many newspapers,
including New York Times and Washington Post require
subscriptions, but without one we can see a few articles each month. We can also check with our local libraries to
find out how to get online access through them.
1.
The
New York Times is reporting that one of Trump’s lawyers floated the idea of a
presidential pardon for Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. Sarah Huckabee Sanders
is denying the report (https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-white-house-press-briefing/h_4e107f5dd3968cad05094d58e45c95e7). This should serve as a reminder that Trump cannot be trusted
not to obstruct the investigation even more than he already has. Let’s take
this opportunity to call our reps and tell them we want immediate
action on proposed bipartisan bills to protect the special counsel, like the Graham-Booker
Special Counsel Independence Protection Act or the Tillis-Coons
Special Counsel Integrity Act, and a
commitment to vote to override any vetoes of these bills by Trump if they’re
passed. We can also sign up for MoveOn’s texting team to help encourage other
activists to do the same here.
2.
After
weeks of speculation, Trump finally fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David
Shulkin (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/28/trump-says-hell-nominate-white-house-doctor-ronny-jackson-to-be-va-secretary-490886). In doing so, he once again
insisted he was doing what was right for our veterans. But what’s really right
for our veterans is fully funding the services they were promised instead of
wasting money on a parade to stroke Trump’s ego. Let’s call our senators and
ask them not to confirm the next VA secretary without a vote on legislation
barring federal funds from being used on Trump’s military parade.
3.
Students
in Wisconsin marched fifty miles, from Madison to Paul Ryan's Janesville
office, urging the Speaker of the House to move forward gun control legislation
in the House (https://bit.ly/2J3E5nh). Let's help amplify their
message by calling Speaker Ryan and telling him we want gun control legislation
to be brought to the floor for a vote and urging our own members of Congress to
push him, too. We can specifically mention the Automatic Gunfire Prevention Act
(H.R. 3947), which would ban bump stocks, and the Zero Tolerance for Domestic
Abusers Act (H.R. 3207), which would work to close the "boyfriend
loophole" which allows non-married domestic abusers to purchase firearms. We
can reach his Janesville office at 20 South Main Street, Suite 10 Janesville, WI 53545 or by phone at (608) 752-4050, and his Washington D.C. office
at 1233 Longworth House Office Bldg Washington, DC 20515 or by phone at (202) 225-3031.
4.
A
Politico investigation this week found Trump and his administration responded
far more aggressively to hurricane damage in Texas than in Puerto Rico in spite
of the fact that the devastation in Puerto Rico was far worse (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/27/donald-trump-fema-hurricane-maria-response-480557). Trump abandoned Puerto Rico, and
we need to step up. Congress has not moved forward the Puerto Rico and Virgin
Islands Equitable Rebuild Act (H.R. 4782) to ensure folks on the island get
the assistance they need, and the Treasury Department cut disaster relief loans
to Puerto Rico by more than half. Let’s contact our MoCs and tell them to
prioritize this legislation, and second Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello’s
call for Congress to loosen restrictions on Puerto Rico’s ability to obtain
relief funds.
5.
Trump
has decided to end Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Liberian immigrants (https://reut.rs/2pNTkIl, https://nyti.ms/2GeWmjH). This means that thousands of
Liberians who have been living in the U.S. for years, escaping civil unrest,
war and a recent Ebola outbreak, will be forced to return to Liberia by March
2019 (https://bit.ly/2GfzjkL). To help protect these individuals, as well as others who have had
their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) revoked, let's urge our MoC to cosponsor
and support legislation which would help provide a pathway to citizenship (S. 2144:
SECURE Act, https://bit.ly/2DZFyHr) or permanent residency status (S.2275/H.R. 5072: Liberian Refugee
Immigration Fairness Act, https://bit.ly/2E1OvQO; H.R. 4253: American Promise Act, https://bit.ly/2Fk8U5b). We can find language to use from
the American Friends Service Committee here.
6.
Trump’s
picks for the U.S. sentencing commission, a bipartisan independent agency
that is tasked with analyzing sentencing data and helping to reduce sentencing
disparities, are unacceptable. William G. Otis has endorsed the view that
blacks and Hispanics are more violent than whites, and that racial disparity in
the prison system is due to “making choices” and not systemic racism (http://www.crimeandconsequences.com/crimblog/2013/06/the-pc-attempt-to-intimidate-j.html). Henry “Hang ‘Em High”
Hudson once proudly proclaimed that he “lived to put people in jail” (https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/15/if-you-can-t-kill-it-join-it). Let’s tell our senators we want
them to oppose these nominations.
7.
With
Congress on break, supposedly holding Town Halls to hear the views of their
constituents, let’s tell our MoCs that we support spending on services for
low-income and elder residents, opioid addiction, the arts, libraries, etc.
---all the things conservatives wanted to cut and are now grumbling about “out
of control spending.” We should remind them that if they didn’t want to see
rising deficits, they should not have voted for a tax bill which has given Wall
Street bankers their biggest raise in four years (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-bankers-get-biggest-raise-in-4-years-thanks-to-their-bonuses-2018-03-27).
8.
Republicans
in Congress are pushing H.R. 620, legislation that would make it more difficult
for Americans with disabilities to get their rights enforced (https://qz.com/994853/republicans-in-congress-think-the-americans-with-disabilities-act-is-too-easy-to-game-so-they-want-to-make-it-harder-to-enforce/). This legislation passed the House,
and now we need to make sure our Senators let it die. Let’s contact them using
scripts from 5Calls.
9.
A
new government study, obtained by NPR and later posted by the Department of Education, suggests that thousands of young
teachers committed to spending four years in low-income schools have had their
TEACH grants suddenly converted by the Department’s “servicer,” FedLoan, into
expensive loans, sometimes for minor errors in paperwork. A group
of TEACH grant recipients are suing, as is the Massachusetts AG, but the
Trump administration is arguing that loan servicers should be protected from
state laws and lawsuits (https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/28/596162853/dept-of-education-fail-teachers-lose-grants-forced-to-repay-thousands-in-loans). Let’s tell Betsy DeVos that we
don’t want these unscrupulous “servicers” protected—or employed--by federal
agencies: 202-401-3000 or Dept. of Education, 400
Maryland Ave. SW, Washington, D.C. 20202. And let’s ask our MoCs what they are
doing to protect these teachers.
Election 2018 – General
1. Trump won the Arizona Eighth
Congressional District by 21 points, but national Republicans are rushing
hundreds of thousands of dollars in for the last weeks before the April 24th
special election there. (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/27/arizona-special-election-republicans-485678). They’re worried, and we’re going
to give them more to be worried about. Let’s sign up to phone bank voters for
Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, the Democratic nominee, at this link.
Election 2018 – By State
Other Actions
1.
The
American Civil Liberties Union is asking that if we know of anyone being affected by Trump's new ban of transgendered individuals
serving in the military or who are planning to join the military that we encourage them to
contact Chase Strangio either on Twitter @chasestrangio or by email
at cstrangio@aclu.org ASAP.
2.
St.
Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman says he will propose changes to the city's
investment policy to keep city funds from being invested in gun manufacturers,
wholesalers and retailers (https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2018/03/26/st-pete-mayor-calls-for-divesting-city-holdings-in.html). Let's ask our mayors to do
the same.
3.
From Indivisible Ventura: The ACLU and the Brooklyn
Defender Services have created “WE HAVE RIGHTS”, a national immigration defense
campaign that will provide critical information to communities threatened by
Immigration & Custom Enforcement (ICE) and engage the broader American
public in an urgent conversation about immigrant justice in our country. Help
share this information with their great social media kit.
4.
The
Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal has released an extensive report
detailing the practice of modern-day redlining, in which people of color are
more likely to be denied mortgages than their white counterparts (https://bit.ly/2HeWE78) To help put this information
to use, Reveal has also created an interactive map, with accompanying FAQ
article, where we can check to see how our neighborhood banks measure up: https://apps.revealnews.org/redlining/. Let's check out the map, then
use the actions under the "How you can help" heading to fight back
against discriminatory lending practices in our communities (https://www.revealnews.org/blog/you-had-questions-about-modern-day-redlining-we-have-answers/)
5.
Delta
Airlines has not only discontinued its NRA discount program, it provided three
free charter flights to bring Parkland students to Washington DC last weekend,
despite recently losing money when the state of Georgia punished them for their
actions by eliminating a tax break on jet fuel. (http://www.wfla.com/national/delta-air-lines-donated-flights-for-dc-march/1075022084). Let’s thank Delta here. We can also comment on their Facebook and Twitter pages.
6.
If
any of us are concerned about FB tracking our every move, we can try changing
web browsers and using this fix from Mozilla. “In the wake of revelations over
Facebook’s data collection practices, Mozilla has launched a new extension for
its popular Firefox web browser that can prevent Facebook from tracking user
activity around the web”: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/mozilla-launches-facebook-container-extension-to-block-facebook-tracking/ar-BBKNmXF.
7. Devin
Nunes may be at risk of losing his seat in Congress to a Democratic candidate,
thanks to some stellar fundraising (and his attempts to cover up for Trump). Andrew
Janz raised more than $600,000 in February via the website ActBlue in the race
for California’s 22nd Congressional District against Nunes. The $635,931 gave
Janz the second-highest fundraising total for House Democratic candidates
behind Conor Lamb. (http://www.fresnobee.com/news
Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize
1.
The
walkout on March 14 was a major national event. The march on March 24 was even
larger than the first Women’s March — well over a million people. Next, on April
20th, the anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, American students
will walk out of class and protest. This effort is led by students, and we can check
out their website here. We can find events near us or learn how to create our own here: https://act.indivisible.org/event/national-school-walkout/. On the same day, the Network
for Public Education (NPE, the organization run by Diane Ravitch who SHOULD be
our Sec. of Ed.) will host its own protests, taking more of an all-school approach:
http://protectourschools.com/. Schools who take part in this
can get free pizza: https://pizzasaves.org/ Let's find a way to share
the information and be part of the day.
States
1.
CORRECTIONS:
In yesterday’s list, the Pennsylvania action item read “Let’s contact our state
legislators and ask them to publicly commit to impeaching judges now or for any
partisan reason” where it should have read “ask them to publicly commit to *not*
impeaching judges now or for any partisan reason.”
2.
OK:
Oklahoma legislators are taking steps in the right direction, but they are
still not meeting the demands of the state’s underpaid teachers (http://kosu.org/post/oklahoma-house-passes-teacher-pay-raise-plan-teachers-union-says-walkout-still). Let’s join the Oklahoma Education
Association in contacting them and letting them know we stand with teachers,
and want them to pass a budget plan with better pay and more funding for our
kids: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-lawmakers-pass-a-real-plan-by-april-1st.
3.
OH: The Ohio
Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has proposed an open season for bobcats
that would allow those with permits to trap and kill bobcats in certain
areas. The open season would begin on Nov. 10, 2018 and
end January 31, 2019. The ODNR is expected to act on this in April.
Let's read more at The New Political. If we are Ohioans, let's submit public comments to the ODNR opposing bobcat trapping.
Reading/Watching
1. A retired Supreme Court Justice calls
for a repeal of the Second Amendment: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/john-paul-stevens-repeal-second-amendment.html
2. “Republicans Declare War on the
Courts After Rulings That Threaten Their Majorities” - https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/republicans-declare-war-on-the-courts-after-rulings-that-threaten-their-majorities/.
3.
With
Nevada collecting $35.9 million through seven months of recreational pot sales,
the industry is running ahead of the anticipated pace. Let's read about this
at Las Vegas Weekly and use this revenue data to help drive
change to cannabis laws in our own states.
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