3/6/18
Contact Federal Government Officials
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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.
GOP
leaders in Congress announced that they will be pivoting from gun laws and
immigration this week and taking up other legislation. http://thehill.com/homenews/house/376533-action-on-gun-and-immigration-screeches-to-a-halt-in-congress
They are clearly counting on the public to
“move on” from the immediate aftershocks of the Parkland shooting and the fate
of the DREAMers and trying not to risk taking stands on controversial issues in
an election year. They’re also counting on the president to pull back from some
of his recent positions on gun control that die-hard NRA supporters in Congress
oppose, such as universal background checks and raising the age to buy firearms
to 21. http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-essential-politics-20180302-story.html. Let’s
tell our MoCs and the White House that we will not stand for inaction and the
time to take up common sense gun laws is now, before another mass shooting. We
can start with asking their support for the Toomey-Manchin proposal, which
would expand background checks for gun show and on-line gun purchases.
2.
What appears
to be more important to the Senate, and could be voted on as early as today, is
a vote on S.B. 2155, The Economic Growth and Recovery Act that would
gut key portions of the Dodd-Frank act by exempting any bank with less than
$250 billion in assets from regulations. (The current threshold is $50
billion). Among these are many of the banks who received TARP money because
they deemed too-big-to-fail. Let’s tell our Senators that anything too big to
fail is big enough to be regulated. Democrats in IN, ND, MT, VA, MO, WV, ME,
MI, CO, and DE have joined Republicans in supporting this bill, which would
also risk re-opening the doors to discriminatory lending. We need to call our
Senators now and ask them to vote NO on this dangerous bill. We can read a fact
sheet on this bill from the Center for American Progress here
3.
A
bipartisan group of senators is introduced legislation last week, S.B. 2456, to address the opioid epidemic, framing it
as a follow-up bill to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA)
signed into law in 2016. Dubbed CARA 2.0, the legislation includes a host
of policy changes, such as establishing a three-day initial prescribing limit
on opioids for acute pain, beefing up services to promote recovery and aiming
to increase the availability of treatment. We can read more about CARA 2.0
at The Hill. Let's contact our senators in support of
S2456; we want to see them take action on the opioid epidemic.
4.
The
proposed budget from the White House once again guts funding for PBS and NPR.
These are important voices of fact and reason in our increasingly extreme media
environment and are often used to shape/direct our activism, so let's make sure
our MoCs know that when the time comes for them to pass a final budget, we will
be watching. Also, here is a petition to express our support for public
broadcasting en masse: http://go.traindemocrats.org/page/m/32e8657d/b55a9ac/eb19f57/74d3a484/3317289661/
5.
Although
the State Department has been allotted $120 million to combat Russian election
meddling but zero dollars have been spent:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/world/europe/state-department-russia-global-engagement-center.html (non-paywall version of same
information:http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/State-Department-was-granted-120-million-to-fight-Russian-meddling-but-it-has-spent-0-_166063824 ) Let’s tell Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson that we expect the State Department to effectively engage against
this threat: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, US Dept of State, 2201
C St NW, Washington, DC 20520
6.
Congressional
Republicans have included 80 anti-environment riders and dark money rule
changes in spending bill. The Senate version of the massive
"omnibus" appropriations legislation that Congress must pass byMarch
23 to avoid a government shutdown includes a measure that would relax the
limits on how much money national parties may spend in coordination with presidential
campaigns. The House version of the bill includes language to
open the door to campaign spending by churches. Among the environmental riders
are 12 riders to block enforcement of the Endangered Species Act,
including protection of the Sage Grouse, whose numbers are dwindling across 11
western states. Let's read more at Inside Climate News. Let's contact all of our MoC's to let
them know that we oppose these anti-environment riders and want to keep dark
money and church money out of politics.
7.
Rep.
Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Pete King's (R-NY) bipartisan background check bill,
H.R. 4240, has 200 cosponsors, yet not all of them have signed onto the
discharge petition: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4240/cosponsors Once the petition reaches 218
signatures, it would bring the bill to the House floor for a vote. Let's check
to see if our representative has signed the discharge petition, and if they
haven't, give them a call to ask that they do so
8.
Amid the
tumult of Mueller’s investigation and a possible trade war, Congress are
allowing themselves to grind to a halt about immigration and sensible gun
legislation:
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/376533-action-on-gun-and-immigration-screeches-to-a-halt-in-congress Let’s let our MoC know that we expect
action on these fronts or we will eagerly hire their replacements.
9.
Interior
Secretary Ryan Zinke's proposed rule to expand offshore drilling has an open
comment period until March 9th http://wapo.st/2B2L8aH http://bit.ly/2FF6Gxq We can leave a comment voicing our
opposition to offshore drilling expansions here:
http://bit.ly/2CWJi0F For those of us on the coast, we can
also check to see if any of the remaining public hearings will be in our
area:
10. Following Trump's decision to end
cost-sharing subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, Congress has still not
worked out a solution http://n.pr/2zfsgYt These subsidies are needed in order to
reduce the price of health insurance for low-income people, and to help
stabilize the insurance market. When combined with the repeal of the individual
mandate for health insurance (part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act), this could
have a huge impact on prices. While there have been efforts to come up with a
solution that will have enough support to pass a hyper-partisan Congress,
nothing has been finalized http://n.pr/2FKRkbe Let's be sure to call our MoC and tell
them that we want them to pass legislation which appropriates cost-sharing
subsidies, such as the Murray-Alexander Bipartisan Health Care Stabilization
Act of 2017:
11.
The
organizers of the March for Science and the American Psychological Association
have penned an open letter to Congress, making the case for reinstating
federally funded research on gun violence. The letter specifically requests the
repeal of the Dickey and Tiahrt amendments, and for Congress to provide funding
for the CDC National Violent Death Reporting System. Let's read the
letter, then add our names and/or organizations: https://www.marchforscience.com/gunviolence We can also send an e-mail or tweet
directly to our representatives http://p2a.co/msmQ6B5
12. Trump has nominated Howard Nielson Jr. for a
lifetime appointment as a federal judge from Utah. Nielson has a longstanding
history of bigotry, including arguing that a gay judge shouldn’t be able to
hear cases involving LGBT issues. He also advocated for the use of torture
under the Bush administration (http://www.newsweek.com/president-trumps-new-judicial-nominee-believes-gay-judges-shouldnt-hear-lgbt-771447). Our senators need to know that this is not
someone we want on the federal bench. We can use this script from 5Calls for talking points and to get in touch.
13. Friday is the deadline to submit public
comments to the Department of the Interior on offshore drilling, a proposal
that is being met with strong opposition by environmentalists. http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/376514-trump-drilling-plan-faces-backlash
To submit a comment go to this link and click the “Comment now” button on the
upper right hand corner. Talking points can be found from the Center for
Biological Diversity here.
Election 2018 –
General
1.
Music
lovers/resisters, heads up! Let's volunteer to "register voters at
concerts with HeadCount. Meet cool people, see great music, and change the
world one voter at a time." https://www.headcount.org
2.
The
Movement for Black Lives is kicking off another voter registration campaign with
#WrinkleTheVote. Following its successful #WakandaTheVote, where we registered
voters as they waited in line for Black Panther, this time we'll be having
registration drives while people wait for Wrinkle in Time. Let's bring
#WrinkleTheVote to our local communities; we can text WARRIOR to 91990 to help
set up a registration event, or fill out the form here: https://ejp.m4bl.org/wrinkle/ We can also spread the word by sharing
the graphics from the Movement for Black Lives Facebook page http://bit.ly/2tijA2x
3.
We’re a
week away from the March 13th special election for the Pennsylvania
18th. Democratic nominee Conor
Lamb, a U.S. marine and federal prosecutor who will fight for workers’ rights
and is refusing corporate PAC donations, is just three points behind Rick
Saccone, an anti-union, anti-choice, pro-tax scam reactionary. (https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics/conor-lamb-fundraising/index.html) But this is a tough district and Conor
Lamb needs our help to turn out every voter he can. We can sign up to
phone bank for him at bit.ly/FlipThe18th. We can also join Indivisible and text
voters for Conor Lamb by signing up at https://www.indivisible.org/text-team-pa-18/, OR text with OpenProgress here.
4.
#PostcardstoVoters
just launched their 58th campaign in support of Shelley Mayer running for NY
State Senate. This crucial special election could determine which party
controls the State Senate. If we have time to write just 5 postcards
apiece, we can reach every Democratic voter in her district. We can get in on the fun by emailing Join@TonyTheDemocrat.org or by texting JOIN to 484-275-2229 We can read more about the election here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cuomo-endorses-pol-shelley-mayer-pivotal-state-senate-seat-article-1.3831802
Election 2018 –
By State
1.
TX: Today’s the day, Texas! Time for Texans to
have prochoice champions who will protect and defend or reproductive rights. We
can use the #VOTEPROCHOICE voter guide to find out who's prochoice on our
ballots. Election Day is TODAY, TUESDAY, MARCH 6. We can find the guide here. When we click on
it, we can find background information on candidates, find our polling place,
choose a time to vote and get a reminder.
https://voteprochoice.civicengine.com/ We
can learn more about ProChoice Voting from this video too: https://www.facebook.com/VoteProChoice/videos/1641610972590045/
Other Actions
1.
From one
of our own: This is an amazing piece of
journalism by a seasoned and outstanding journalist - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/12/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier After all the derogatory blasts 45
has made toward journalists, here is a significant profile. Let’s write
our appreciation to the author Jane Mayer and the editor David Remnick at the
New Yorker magazine: 1 World Trade
Center, New York, NY 10048 This is what keeps America free!
2.
5calls.org is launching a new platform, which will
enable us to create teams with our own action items and it will even allow us
to contact state legislators and governors. 5 Calls is hosting a webinar
on March 11th, where we can learn more about this service. We can register
for the webinar http://bit.ly/2D23byx And for those of us who would like to
set up a team, we can sign up here:
3.
The same
group that arranged to have shoes take the place of actual prohibited marchers
at the Paris climate talks in 2015, is doing it again. Avaaz is now collecting children shoes to create “a
massive monument to our kids by laying 8000 pairs of children's shoes on
the Capitol lawn to represent every single child we've lost since the Newtown
shooting.” We can see where to drop off
or send shoes here: https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/shoe_donation_11/
4.
Sulfide
mining is highly dangerous and has been called “America’s most toxic industry”
by the EPA, with a 100% track record of pollution. The foreign PolyMet
Mining Corporation has proposed to dig the first ever copper-sulfide mine in
Minnesota, threatening local water supplies, the Lake Superior watershed, and
the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the most-visited wilderness area in the
country, which includes 190,000 acres of pristine waterways. We must urge
the MN DNR to deny the Permit to Mine for PolyMet and urge the MN Pollution
Control Agency to deny all PolyMet pollution permits. Comments are due Tuesday
March 6 by midnight CST for the permit to mine and Friday March 16 for the
water quality permits: http://polymet.mn.gov/ More details here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DBHCo1v-U8GK_Phtt1o5qNuBbHUaUX1wDYyX_iG-Rds
5.
The
Giffords Law Center is “so proud to release the Annual
Gun Law Scorecard—every
year, we grade each state based on the strength or weakness of its gun laws.
Over the years, the Scorecard has brought forward a
straightforward but compelling truth: by investing in proven solutions to gun
violence, working both with lawmakers and community-based leaders, we can
drastically reduce gun death rates and shore up public safety from this
widespread crisis that takes more than 38,000 American lives each year.” Let’ check out this resource and use the
information when we speak to our federal and state MoCs.
Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to
attend/organize
1.
April
20th, 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, a national student-led WALK-OUT
will commence. Start: 10a.m. Ends: End of your school day. http://nationalschoolwalkout.us/ We can learn more here: https://twitter.com/rosemaryCNN/status/968413051203420161
States
1.
MOST: Commercial contracts between a pharmacy and a
Pharmaceutical Benefit Manager (PBM) are a widespread feature in the
distribution and sales chain between original manufacturer and the end
consumer. In some cases, these arrangements include restrictions that mean a
pharmacist is prohibited by a contract with a PBM from informing consumers that
the drug they want to buy has options and could be purchased at a lower cost if
the consumers paid out of pocket rather than purchasing through their insurance
plan. These terms are referred to as "gag clauses." A growing
number of state legislative proposals in 2018 seek to block gag clauses. Let's
take a look at this article from the National Conference of State
Legislatures to find out the status of anti-gag clause legislation in our own
states. If such legislation is still open, let's contact our appropriate state
representative or senator to let them know we support blocking gag clauses.
2.
MA:
Let’s tell our state rep, https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator, and Speaker Robert DeLeo, robert.deleo@mahouse.gov or 617-722-2500, that we want the Automatic Voter
Registration Act, H.2091, to come to the floor for a vote. More info here:
https://lwvma.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/AVR-summary-DOTH25045.pdf
3.
WA:
State Senate lawmakers voted 31-18 on a version of SB 5992 that would ban the
devices known as bump stocks. Six Republican senators joined every Democrat to
approve the bill. The bill now goes to Gov. Jay Inslee, who has signaled
he would sign it. Let's read more about it at The Seattle Times. Let's contact Gov. Inslee to voice our support for the bump stock
ban.
Reading/Watching
1.
“Why You Should Go to Puerto Rico for Spring
Break” - https://www.teenvogue.com/story/puerto-rico-spring-break-tips-info
2.
“The NRA Lobbyist Behind Florida’s Pro-Gun Policies”
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/the-nra-lobbyist-behind-floridas-pro-gun-policies
3.
Even as the Republican administration threatens
to diminish or eliminate the Endangered Species Act (ESA), successful species
recovery continues to happen. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has
finalized a rule declaring the Eureka Valley evening primrose successfully
recovered under the ESA. The wildflower grows on sand dunes in the area of
Death Valley National Park and was protected under the Act in the late 1970s
because of threats from off-road vehicle recreation. Let's read more at
the Center for Biological Diversity.
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