Contact Federal Government Officials
Fax legislators
for free:
Or use Resistbot: https://resist.bot/
Or use StampsLicked to have
messages hand-delivered to our own legislators:
https://stampslicked.org/
White House
contact: https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house
1. White House Chief of Staff
Mick Mulvaney has said we cannot rule out a shutdown again in a few days: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/white-house-chief-staff-mulvaney-won-t-rule-out-possibility-n969801 Let’s let our MoC know that we have no
interest in American workers being held hostage again by Trump’s racism and we
certainly have enough information to know we do not need a wall.
2. “Drone footage of new border wall in New Mexico shows that the
Trump
administration's border militarization is already
damaging ecosystems and wildlife. Trump waived 25 laws that protect clean air, clean
water, public lands and endangered
wildlife to
speed construction of 20 miles of new walls.”
https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-border-wall-damage-video-2628369474.html Let’s ask
our MoCs why laws that protect us all are being ignored for a bit of a wall
that has not real consequence other than political.
3. While the Social Security
2100 Act—https://larson.house.gov/social-security-2100—introduced by Rep. John Larson (D-CT), the newly-minted
chairman of the House Social Security subcommittee, may not be perfect, it has
been endorsed by groups ranging from the Congressional Progressive Caucus to
Social Security Works to a number of unions and organizations focused on
disability or aging: https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/427835-a-bill-to-boost-social-security-will-finally-get-a-full-and-fair-hearing Republicans blocked consideration of a bill
expanding social security benefits and securing its future the last time one
was introduced; let’s make sure our MoCs know that this time, we want them to
support social security expansion, not cuts in this vital social safety net.
4. The Office of Refugee
Resettlement (ORR) has long had the responsibility for overseeing the care and
safety of unaccompanied minor children who somehow arrive in this country
without parents. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/programs/ucs In a hearing
last week, held by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, Jonathan White, an
ORR employee revealed that when he questioned family separation, he was told it
was not happening. The rise in the
number of children coming into care made him question that answer. “I do not believe separation of children from
their parents is in the best interest of the child,” White added. “Neither I
nor any career person in ORR would have ever recommended such a policy
proposal.” https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/evev87/trump-official-helping-oversee-migrant-shelters-says-he-found-out-about-zero-tolerance-policy-on-tv We’ve
reached a crisis level of children separated from parents. Let’s tell our MoCs that we want them to
continue working on bringing this out into the open and reuniting families and
letting ORR do their regular jobs which already help so many children.
5. “The Senate Judiciary
Committee will soon vote on whether to advance William Barr, whom Donald Trump
has nominated to replace Jeff Sessions as our next attorney general, the
nation's highest law enforcement officer. But if confirmed, William Barr poses
a real threat to the rights of women and families, as well as people of color,
immigrants, and LGBTQ people.” Let’s
join the National Women’s Law Center in opposing Barr’s nomination: https://act.nwlc.org/onlineactions/aipzW_MSk0avb77pkH122A2
6. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
is officially re-introducing a Medicare for All (M4A) bill in the House; it is
not the only Medicare expansion bill on the table, but both the Budget and the
Ways and Means Committees have committed themselves to considering W4A as well
as the other proposals for Medicare expansion this spring: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/22/democrats-medicare-for-all-obamacare-1094146 National Nurses United have begun a campaign
in support of universal health care, running from now until February 13; we can
find “barnstorming” sessions near us here:
https://medicare4all.org/actions/ And we can support Democratic initiatives to
take on our nation’s most urgent problems by telling our MoCs that we support
universal access to healthcare.
7. "It is horrific and
unacceptable that migrant children are being locked up in Trump's Homestead
child prison camp, and even more alarming that the for-profit company that runs
the camp doesn't conduct background checks for child abuse on their staff.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senator-jeff-merkley-congresswoman-judy-chu-call-for-end-to-homestead-unlicensed-unaccompanied-migrant-children-facilities/ Let’s tell
our MoCs that children need to be protected so much better than this.
8. The Green New Deal movement
has captured the media’s attention with its resolution calling, at long last,
for a new and serious response to the intertwined problems of climate change
and economic inequality, but, as some have said, “The staying power of the
Green New Deal, and its impact on our future, will be determined by what happens
next as it is given substance and form”: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/429246-the-green-new-deal-is-it-sustainable It is up to us to make sure that this
resolution sparks real action, on the scale of the Depression-era New Deal, to
address the terrifying forecasts of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC): https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/ Let’s up the pressure on Congress to give
this new New Deal the “substance and form” it requires to save the planet;
Trump’s $5 billion wall allocation would, for instance, go a long way toward a
Green New Deal!
9. From one of our own: Regulations update ending 2/16/2019.
- still lots of banking stuff I don't fully understand but the big ones
are the changes to payday loans and Volcker Rule and community banks. San Diego
border wall, ACA and Snap changes - there were over 300 proposals open for
comment this week out of 900 postings - just this week. Meanwhile external
regulation trackers are getting better. I may make a shorter document and
provide links to the other trackers in the future. Here it is - https://drive.google.com/open?id=14NfDQq8p5TQX9xCaNIowS2L-2C9LxVZs
10. A much-needed drug price negotiation bill, the
Medicare Negotiation and Competitive Licensing Act (not yet numbered) was
entered into the House and Senate last week. It has over 110
cosponsors on the House bill, the most cosponsors on a drug pricing bill in
history. The bill states that if a drug company is charging too much for
a drug and they won't alter pricing, the government has the right to revoke the
monopoly and allow the drug to be produced by other companies (who, in turn,
would pay a royalty). This is crucial to driving down suffocating drug prices
in America. We can read more about this
bill and some related cost cutting ones here:
https://www.jurist.org/news/2019/01/senate-and-house-democrats-introduce-bills-aimed-at-reducing-drug-prices/ We can find
out the bill’s background issues here: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/final_-medicare-drug-price-negotiation-act-of-2019---summary Not
surprisingly Big Pharma is already pressuring co-sponsors to withdraw from this
bill, so it’s up to us to speak out by contacting our Representatives and then
spreading the word to our friends on a Social Media. If we have a drug pricing
story about our medications being too expensive causing us to ration or not buy
them, we need to let our Representatives know. If they are co-sponsors, we can
tell them to stay strong! They need to see support in their district, because
if they don't, they could withdraw. Let’s keep the pressure up and bring sky
high drug prices down! When we click on
this link, we can access a Social Media Toolkit to help us support the bill: https://www.birddognation.org/endthemonopoly
Election/Voting
Other Actions
1. Former Congressman John Dingell
(D-MI) died last week. He had served in
Congress longer than anyone else in history.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/rochelle-riley/2019/02/10/john-dingell-health-care-civil-rights/2812972002/ Let’s offer
condolences to his wife, who took his place in the House of Representatives. We can find her home offices at the bottom of
this page: https://debbiedingellforms.house.gov/contact/
2. If we had any doubt of the
influence of corporate money on our government, let’s watch this short video from Alexandria Ocasio Cortez testifying at the
House Oversight Committee. Then let’s check out how we can get involved with or
donate to End Citizens United, an organization that is working toward reversing
the Supreme Court decision to allow corporations and billionaires to invest
unlimited, untraceable money into our political system.
3. With voter ID laws
restricting access to the ballot box, Spread the
Vote is working
on raising money to obtain IDs for people who do not have the funds to get
them, in order to increase the number of people who are able to vote. Let’s
consider donating to this effort to put our government back in the hands of the
people.
4.
An international youth climate
strike is happening next month. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lesterfeder/europe-climate-change-protests-teens and https://www.ecowatch.com/youth-climate-strike-2627959531.html Let’s ask
our local young people how we can support their efforts.
5. The final regulations on GMO
labeling released by the USDA will contain many loopholes about what needs to
be labelled. https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/13064-usda-announces-gmo-labeling-standard. The Center for Food Safety has obtained
commitments from Campbells and Mars to be clear and transparent with their
labeling. However, other companies, like Kellogg’s, which has been on record as
supporting the rule, are planning to use QR codes to get around the
regulations. Many low-income and elderly Americans do not have smartphones, and
often those who do may not have a reliable data or wifi connection in a
supermarket. Let’s join the Twitter campaign to tell Kellogg’s to forego QR
codes and label their GMO products with text or a symbol, as Campbells and Mars
are doing. We can tweet them @Kellogg’s and find more information here.
6. The problem of climate change
can seem overwhelming, but here's one way to put it in perspective: if
we just install renewable energy tech for each piece
of fossil-fuel infrastructure as it wears out naturally, we would
keep global climate change under 2 degrees Celsius. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/01/how-much-will-current-fossil-fuel-tech-emit-before-retirement/ So, let's
push for renewable energy replacements every time a piece of fossil-fuel
infrastructure reaches end-of-life, whether that means a new power plant in our
district or our own aging car.
7. For her bat mitzvah project,
a young girl named Lana O’Neal is selling these beautiful shirts and donating
the proceeds to Immigrant Families together to help repair the damage caused by
Trump’s family separation policies:
https://www.bonfire.com/families-belong-together-8/?fbclid=IwAR0o3Lv2GNZ_CtJ0R0K47wAvEnE5OF14N6IrWxTunw14YaxfaTWxcN5px_o Let’s take a look, consider making a purchase,
and spread the word.
8. From one of our
own: Here is the big monthly issues/addresses list I do for
postcarding: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dpsBnPSHhYHy2iPuOgyeFKDWF-pfgtV78ocfgP40OG4/edit The write-ups are in reverse
chronological order, so the newest ones appear at the start of each section.
Please use/share/distribute as you see fit.
State Actions
1. MOST: “In the year since the deadly mass shooting at
a Florida high school, more and more states have passed laws making it easier
to take guns away from people who may be suicidal or bent on violence against
others, and courts are issuing an unprecedented number of seizure orders across
the country. Nine states have passed laws over the past year allowing police or
household members to seek court orders requiring people deemed threatening to
temporarily surrender their guns, bringing the total to 14. Several more are
likely to follow in the months ahead. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/more-states-adopting-gun-seizure-laws-after-parkland-tragedy Let’s check out our state and see if this law has
been passed; if not, let’s ask our state rep to introduce this bill.
2. MOST: From Act 4 Progress: Chicago and Baltimore States Attorneys
announced that they will be taking action to clear past marijuana convictions
and expunge the records of thousands of people facing extreme barriers because
of past convictions. Tell your District Attorney to do the same. Find your
district attorney here: http://bit.ly/2BoxRfK Sign the
petition here :http://bit.ly/2GuBunC
3. KY: If we are working for a campaign or planning
to, we can check out this 4 day immersive Digital Organizing Training
which includes hands-on, in-depth training specifically for electoral
campaigning. The workshop is run by digital organizers and trainers Beth Thorpe
and Beth Becker and will be held in Louisville from May 28-31. There we can
learn about building a digital campaign strategy, mapping engagement
paths for our supporters, best practices for building websites, writing
email blasts, managing social media and other digital organizing tasks and much
more. There will also be follow up up opportunities for mentorship, additional
training, and support for the 2020 election cycle here in Kentucky. Women,
people of color, LGBTQ, rural folks, are highly encouraged to apply. There will
be a few seats made available for allied advocacy organizations. We can find
out more and register here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/kentucky-digital-organizing-bootcamp-for-electoral-campaigns-may-28-31-2018/
Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize
1. 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.
2. 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: https://www.youthclimatestrikeus.org/
Reading/Watching
1. John Dingell: My last words for America - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-dingell-my-last-words-for-america/2019/02/08/99220186-2bd3-11e9-984d-9b8fba003e81_story.html?utm_term=.82f6bd88fe72
2. Russian-Style Kleptocracy Is Infiltrating America: When the U.S.S.R. collapsed, Washington bet
on the global spread of democratic capitalist values—and lost - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/how-kleptocracy-came-to-america/580471/
3. How You Help Trump (by George Lakoff) - https://medium.com/@GeorgeLakoff/how-you-help-trump-9d0139b9d4c9
4. Tax code changes leave Americans asking, 'What
happened to my refund?' - https://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/tax-code-changes-leave-americans-asking-what-happened-my-refund-n969366
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