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. On Wednesday, more than a
year after the Parkland shooting in Florida, the House of Representative
finally passed HR 8, a common sense gun control measure that expands the
kinds of gun sales requiring background checks. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/431855-house-passes-bill-expanding-background-checks-on-gun-sales
On Thursday, the House voted to approve HR1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act that would
extend the review period for background checks on firearm purchases. (More
at The Hill.) While the
votes were bipartisan, the bill will still face an uphill battle in the Senate,
and it’s not even clear whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will
bring it to the floor. Let’s put pressure on Senator McConnell and our own
Senators now to bring these up for votes and to pass them. Lives are at stake.
2. If we had any remaining
confidence in the integrity of the Republican party, it was soundly erased at
former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s hearing in front of the House Oversight
and Reform Committee on Wednesday. None of the Republicans questioned Cohen on
any of the evidence he presented; instead, they spent their entire time trying
to discredit his character. https://www.apnews.com/db45f379fdbd40309ab4ae650beab689 Let’s call
out all the Republican Representatives who are on the Committee for their
behavior and demand that they take the voluminous evidence that Cohen presented
seriously. Yes, we know that Cohen has been indicted for lying, but he lied to
protect Trump. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) summed it up all too pitifully well
when he said, "Our colleagues aren't
upset because you lied to Congress for the president. They're upset because
you've stopped lying to Congress for the president." We can find a list of members of the House
Oversight and Reform Committee here, with links to their Facebook and Twitter pages.
3. Sadly, but not surprisingly,
Trump’s summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un collapsed in Viet Nam:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/28/vietnam-summittrump-and-kim-play-down-hopes-of-quick-results-nuclear-talks Let’s let our MoC know that Trump is far
too ignorant of the complexity of these situations to be further enabled to
conduct diplomacy for us. We know this is not going to improve.
4. The Chairman of the House
Oversight Committee, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, powerfully
closed the Cohen hearings on Wednesday with these remarks: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4782909/elijah-cummings-closing-remarks Let’s take a moment to thank Rep.
Cummings for his leadership and these stirring words: https://cummings.house.gov/contact
5. As of mid-February, the
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has expired. Although funding for its
programs was secured in the spending bill, the act itself did not achieve
reauthorization (https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-violence-against-women-act-expired-20190220-story.html). Let's contact our MoC and ask them to take this
time to strengthen the bill and expand its reach. We can also ask that Congress
prevent VAWA from getting caught up in partisan conflict again by giving it
permanent reauthorization, rather than requiring a vote every year for funding,
and every five years for the bill itself.
6. With over 200 co-sponsors,
the Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4) was
introduced this week. The bill is designed
to restore the original Voting Rights Act.
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/431509-for-a-more-perfect-union-restore-the-voting-rights-act Let’s let
our MoCs know that this is the right thing to do.
7. If Michael Cohen’s testimony
before the House Oversight Committee was not enough to persuade us of Trump’s
total and singular commitment to his own self-interest, we might look to his
Cabinet appointments, especially the tone-deaf billionaire Commerce Secretary
Wilbur Ross. In an unusual rebuke of a Cabinet-level official, the Office of
Government Ethics, the executive branch's ethics watchdog, refused last week to
certify Ross' 2018 personal financial disclosure report; like his boss, Ross
has complex and largely opaque financial assets, and, like Trump, Ross has
failed to divest himself of those assets or disclose their details. "The
breadth and the brazenness of his ethical lapses are just staggering,"
said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who has called for a Justice Department
investigation into Ross. Ross is scheduled to testify before the House
Oversight Committee next month:
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/27/696824206/not-in-compliance-wilbur-ross-the-trump-official-who-keeps-watchdogs-up-at-night Let’s join Wyden and other MoCs in demanding
that both the DOJ and the inspector general at Commerce look into Ross’s
dealings: 202-353-1555 or U.S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001; 202-482-4661 or Dept. of Commerce, Office of
Inspector General, 1401 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington DC 20230.
8. House Democrats. on March 12,
will reintroduce the Dream Act with new language providing protections
for Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure
recipients. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reserved the bill
number HR 6 for the legislation. Let's read more at Roll Call. Let's contact our representatives to let them know
that we support the Dream Act.
9. Many leaders, including many
of our own like Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein, say that the Green New Deal (GND)
is unrealistic. They are political veterans, who know what they're talking
about, but the physics of climate change aren't negotiable, and the children of
today who will have to live in the world we're now creating
won't give a hoot about what we thought was/wasn't politically possible back in
2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/02/28/green-new-deal-climate-change-politics/ When
politics isn't up to the task of safeguarding our children's future, we must
create a new politics, and we can start by telling our MoCs to back the GND
now!
10. We are only ONE co-sponsor away from having the
majority of the House Democratic Caucus on board for HR 1046, The Medicare Negotiation and Competitive Licensing
Act Rep. Doggett’s bold drug pricing bill. Going beyond giving Medicare the
long-overdue ability to negotiate drug prices, the bill allows the government
to revoke Big Pharma patent monopolies, if the companies refuse to drop their
prices. We can call the Capitol Switchboard today at 202 224 3121 and tell
our Members of Congress to cosponsor HR 1046, the bill that protects
patients by leveraging prices with patent monopolies. This guarantees that
everyone gets their medicines, and that no one is left behind by rationing. We
can read more here about the bill in this fact sheet. Although it refers to an
earlier version introduced last year, the content of the bill is the same. https://www.citizen.org/sites/default/files/mncla-leave-behind.pdf We check our
Congressmembers cosponsor status here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1046/cosponsors
11. “Trump’s “zero tolerance”
immigration policies have made America’s historically weak anti-smuggling
efforts even weaker. Over the past two years, as smuggling networks have
thrived, the Department of Homeland Security has shifted money and manpower
away from more complex investigations to support the administration’s all-out
push to arrest, detain, and deport immigrants here illegally.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/human-smugglers-thrive-under-trumps-zero-tolerance/583051/ Let’s tell
our MoCs that we want money spent where it was allocated and not for Trump to
chase his unnecessary wall and appease his base.
Election/Voting
1. “So far in March, there are
22 elections scheduled. If one of these is your district, make sure you vote!
For everyone else, please share this with your network to spread the word in
order to increase awareness and turnout!” Let’s let Political Charge tell us about them and then let’s
help where we can: https://politicalcharge.org/2019/02/28/elections-in-march-2019/
2. There’s a special election on
April 2, 2019, in Wisconsin for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court. Let’s help
Lisa Neubauer, who is currently Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Court of
Appeals, defeat Brian Hagedorn, former chief legal counsel to Wisconsin’s
infamous Republican Governor Scott Walker, and start shifting the Wisconsin
Supreme Court in a more progressive direction. https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_elections,_2019 Let’s sign up with Vote Forward, https://votefwd.org/ , and send letters to Democratic-leaning
Wisconsin voters to urge them to vote. Even sending just five letters can make
a difference!
Other Actions
1. Not only does the governor of
Virginia have a problem with racism, the Virginia First Lady is under fire for
handing cotton to African American students on mansion tour. Before a huge
fireplace with iron cooking implements, Pam Northam held up samples of cotton
and tobacco to a group of about 20 children and described the enslaved workers
who picked it. “Mrs. Northam then asked these three pages (the only African
American pages in the program) if they could imagine what it must have been
like to pick cotton all day,” Walker wrote. “I cannot for the life of me
understand why the first lady would single out the African American pages for
this — or — why she would ask them such an insensitive question.” https://www.npr.org/2019/02/28/698947727/virginias-first-lady-criticized-for-racially-inapporpriate-mansion-tour Let’s ask the Northams (https://www.governor.virginia.gov/constituent-services/communicating-with-the-governors-office/ and https://www.firstlady.virginia.gov/) to take a
class on racial awareness and sensitivity. These repeated incidents show they
still don’t get it.
2. We all know that imaging
and audio technologies develop and change quickly, but it may come as a
shock to realize how much those developments have changed what we must do to
consume news responsibly. Just 2 years ago we heard Trump's infamous
"grab 'em by the..." interview clip, and while much was said about
it, the legitimacy of the clip itself was not questioned. Those days are gone
now, and we must learn how to better verify these types of information before
believing or sharing them: https://theconversation.com/dont-be-fooled-by-fake-images-and-videos-online-111873
3. If we are looking for
training to work on a campaign, we can take a look at The Arena’s latest
workshop to be held in Charleston, South Carolina, from April 12-16, 2019.
This five-day intensive training program focuses on equipping us with the
skills and knowledge we need to be successful in a specific role. But
regardless of roles, all the curriculum includes a heavy emphasis on
management, leadership, and digital and data literacy. We can pick from one of
seven training tracks, including Campaign Manager, Communications Director,
Finance Director, Organizing Director, Digital Director, Data Director,
Organizer. If we are Interested in
learning more, we can check it out, then apply here. But we must act FAST.
The deadline is TODAY at 11:59 Eastern Time:
https://arena.run/academy
State Actions
1. GA: “A
bipartisan group of women in Georgia’s state senate are mobilizing around a
resolution calling on the state to ratify the ERA, which would amend the U.S.
Constitution to guarantee equal rights regardless of sex. Their push comes as a similar measure died in the Virginia House of
Delegates last
week.“ https://rewire.news/article/2019/02/26/could-georgia-be-the-38th-state-to-ratify-the-era/ Let’s
contact our state MoCs and tell them we want them to support this effort
because we do.
2. MI: “Regarding the Read or
Fail legislation in our state: We acknowledge the importance of focusing on 3rd
grade reading as being critically important and fully-funded interventions and
support strategies are an essential component. However, the provisions of the
law related to mandatory retention are problematic for the reasons outlined [within].” Let’s read this and sign if we, too, are
opposed to the automatic retention of third graders next fall if they do not
meet certain reading criteria: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfgT7Nyw-jX1jSlJUGjW-zCVmq9O7gGrK9t3wW1EFpPfyjcgQ/viewform
3. TX: State
Sen. Angela Paxton has filed a bill, SB860, that would expand the authority of her husband,
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and perhaps soften the securities law he has
been charged with violating. Let's read more at Houston Chronicle. Let's contact our Texas state senators to let them know we oppose this bill.
Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize
1. If we are elected women or
self-identifying women activists, we can check out the free Power Through
Education webinar series, presented by Rep19 and Vote Run Lead. Organizers inform us that presenters will include,
“our country’s top thought leaders, elected officials and political experts.”
We can for as many webinars as you would like. but some webinars are limited
exclusively to elected women. All webinars will be at noon EST / 9am PST,
starting on March 6. Information will be sent out prior to the event. We
can find out more and register here. https://rep19.com/events
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 and help: https://www.youthclimatestrikeus.org/
Reading/Watching
1. Loyalty to Trump cost Michael
Cohen everything. Republicans pay heed- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/27/loyalty-trump-cost-michael-cohen-republicans
2. Why White School Districts Have So Much More Money - https://www.npr.org/2019/02/26/696794821/why-white-school-districts-have-so-much-more-money
3. Closing Homestead detention
center a noble goal, but reuniting migrant children with relatives should be
the priority -
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