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White House
contact: https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house
1.
THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS: The House will consider eight (8)
bills and 2 resolutions this week starting Monday. On Tuesday, the House will
take up resolution HRes271: Condemning the Trump Administration’s Legal
Campaign to Take Away Americans’ Health Care. Let's review the week's
House agenda at The Weekly Leader. On Monday, the Senate will
resume consideration of the bill HR268,Supplemental Appropriations Act, which has already
passed the House. We can check out the Senate Floor Schedule daily so we know what our Senators
will be voting on.
2.
MUELLER REPORT: Now that Trump loyalist, AG William Barr has taken
it upon himself to condense a 300-page report into 4 pages and make a
determination in 2 days about whether or not Trump obstructed justice when
Mueller couldn’t after a 2-year investigation, Republicans are seizing the
moment and calling for the resignation of House Intelligence Committee Chair,
Adam Schiff. https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/28/gop-adam-schiff-resign-1241749. Let’s
thank Rep. Schiff for continuing to speak truth to power in this fiery no-nonsense response, and
tell him that we want him to continue pushing for the full unredacted copy of
the Mueller report and investigating the many questions that remain unanswered.
3.
PACKING THE COURTS: The GOP is intent on getting as many conservative
judges into lifetime appointments as possible. The Senate is going to hold a
floor vote this week on S. Res. 50, a resolution that "is going to change Senate
rules to cut debate time for district court nominees from 30 to 2 hours.
Trump's going to get his judicial nominees through even faster." (This
move is also referred to as "the nuclear option.") Let's call our
Senators today to vote NO on this resolution. @Celeste_Pewter offers a
ready-made script here: https://twitter.com/Celeste_pewter/status/1111367970524020736
4.
MUELLER REPORT: The Trump Administration is banking on us losing
focus by the time the Mueller Report is actually released. Fortunately, Rep.
Jerry Nadler is keeping the pressure on Attorney General William Barr to
release it by this Tuesday, April 2:
https://www.apnews.com/94dcf13568b84118ad576e80cc68a250 Let’s continue to contact our MoC to
say that the report belongs to us and that we expect to see it without delay
and let’s contact The Justice Department to let Attorney General Barr know that
we find his delay tactics unacceptable: https://www.justice.gov/contact-us
5.
CMS ADMINISTRATOR’S MISUSE OF TAX DOLLARS: The Administrator of CMS (Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services), Seema Verma, has diverted millions in tax dollars to GOP
consultants to help amplify her efforts and improve her profile:
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/29/seema-verma-contracts-1306652 Let’s let Verma know that there is no
amount of polishing that will make her priorities shine and that we do not
approve of our tax dollars being used for this purpose: On Twitter @seemaCMS or
by mail to Administrator Verma, CMS, 7500 Security Blvd, Baltimore, MD 21244
6.
IMMIGRATION: Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen
and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan are traipsing
around Congress telling lies about refugees seeking US asylum at the Mexico
border. The ACLU has the facts: the majority of apprehensions at the border now
involve vulnerable families turning themselves in to border patrol agents; the
Trump administration’s unlawful policy of forcing these families to remain in
dangerous circumstances in Mexico is causing them to cross the border between
ports of entry; and contrary to the Trump administration’s inflated claims, the
number of people crossing the border outside ports of entry is “nowhere near a
historic high.” https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/ice-and-border-patrol-abuses/dhss-own-statistics-show-it-lying-about-border Let’s tell our MoCs: (1) no more funds for
the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, and (2) we want a new CBP that,
as the ACLU puts it, “prioritizes due process, human rights, and migrant
welfare, including access to asylum.”
7.
PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT: “On the eve
of Equal Pay Day, celebrated this year on April 2, House Democrats
passed a new law intended to help close the wage gap between men and
women.” https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/28/house-passes-new-bill-aimed-at-closing-the-gender-pay-gap.html Let’s
tell our senators that it is time for this bill to pass and that we want them
to support its passing.
8.
GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION: “David Hogg, an activist who survived the
Parkland, Fla., school shooting, requested on Friday that a photo of his death
be publicized if he is ever a victim of gun violence. “In the event that I die
from gun violence, please publicize the photo of my death,” the sticker reads.
The sticker is part of a gun violence prevention project called #MyLastShot,
which calls for the sticker to be added to a personal item like a driver’s
license or cell phone. The initiative is led by current students at Columbine
High School in Littleton, Colo., the site of a deadly school shooting in 1999.”
This is such a sad comment on our society and our neglect in providing a
safe place for our children to attend school. https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/436563-parklands-david-hogg-requests-photo-of-his-death-be-publicized Let’s
send this article to our MOCs and ask them why our children have to do this.
Ask for sensible gun laws now.
9.
CENTRAL AMERICAN IMMIGRATION POLICY: On Saturday, Trump announced that he was
cutting $700 million in US aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador,
defunding development and humanitarian assistance as well as joint law
enforcement efforts; the State Department said it would “engage Congress in the
process”--generous of it given that Congress will have to approve the end of
this funding. Likewise, Trump has threatened to close all or part of the
US-Mexico border this week, although this would disrupt not only tourism and
everyday life but would jeopardize $612 billion in US-Mexico trade and
potentially lead to factory closures on both sides of the border—especially in
the automobile and medical sectors: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-trump/trump-cuts-aid-to-central-american-countries-as-migrant-crisis-deepens-idUSKCN1RC013 and https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/world/americas/trump-turns-us-policy-in-central-america-on-its-head.html We must make sure our MoCs
understand that ending aid will only aggravate the violence, corruption, and
economic inequities that spur migration, none of which will be ended by closing
the border.
10. PUBLIC COMMENT NEEDED: Comments and actions week ending April 7,
2019 includes exposing miners to diesel exhaust, college free speech and
definition of college credit hour, Nuclear power, ACA, Election integrity,
Coal-fired plants, WOTUS, Energy efficiency standards, Volcker Rule, CFPB
payday loans. We can find the list and how to comment here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lxid9ZOaVjwf3X26LZapBSwl-F_Un2aU/view
Also, public comments needed on the Assault on Waters of the United
States: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qYjXja_edz1uHuHSnh2-mxKCYsvLxfv9
11. EDUCATION
BUDGET: Now that Trump has ‘saved’ the Special
Olympics it is important to realize that there are other less-than savory parts
of the proposed education budget. “As
part of the president’s 2020 budget proposal, the White House highlighted $700 million in programming to address school safety,
spread across the Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services
departments. While such funds would offer school communities a range of
security and mental health grants to choose from, the package would also eliminate the $1.2 billion
Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant, as well as $1.2 billion in funding for afterschool
programming.” https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-with-2-4-billion-in-cuts-presidents-education-budget-neglects-student-safety-health-learning/ These
programs are essential to our students. Let’s
make sure our MoCs hear from us about these proposed cuts.
12. IMMIGRANT
JUSTICE: We have probably all
seen by now the horrifying conditions in which asylum-seeking families are
being held under a bridge in El Paso--http://time.com/longform/texas-el-paso-bridge-migrants/ ; undoubtedly, Customs and Border Patrol is
overwhelmed, though some say the current number of migrants does not approach
that of the early 2000s, but rather than allocating more resources for
humanitarian aid or for adjudicating asylum claims more quickly, Trump and
friends are focused exclusively on deterring migrants:
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/27/707297404/immigration-system-at-the-breaking-point-homeland-security-official-warns Let’s join in with Immigrant Justice Now and ask,
“where is the humanity?” https://www.immigrantjusticenow.org/latest-news/2019/3/31/where-is-our-humanity Let’s tell our MoCs and Kirstjen Nielsen (202-282-8495
or Secretary of Homeland Security, Washington, DC 20128) we don’t want
concentration camps on our southern border, we want to “strive to be a nation
of compassion and humanity and a country that welcomes and values immigrants.” Let’s also sign Sen. Jeff Merkley’s (D-OR)
petition asking Congress to close Trump’s child prison camps: https://www.jeffmerkley.com/petition/shut-down-child-prisons/e/
13. PUERTO
RICO STATEHOOD: “A bipartisan group of
representatives joined with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló (D) Thursday to
present a bill that would admit the territory as a state within 90 days of
passage.” https://thehill.com/latino/436304-statehood-bill-could-make-puerto-rico-a-state-before-2020 Let’s
tell our representatives, especially if we have any on the House Natural
Resources Committee (https://naturalresources.house.gov/contact/contact-us) to
support this bill and allow these U.S. citizens to have full rights and
responsibilities.
14.FCC CENSORING
TEXTS: Last December, the Federal Communications
Commission, in an attempt to address text spamming, voted “to clarify that
wireless carriers have the authority to block unwanted or spam text messages,
but Democrats warned the decision would allow carriers to block or censor texts
that customers send.” https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/fcc-affirms-wireless-carriers-can-block-unwanted-text-messages-n947091 and https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2019-03-27-back-in-december-ajit-pais-fcc-quietly-gave-cell/ We need to be the ones to determine what texts we
want to receive. Let’s click and read
there to find out what we can do to register our comment prior to the deadline
tomorrow, April 2: https://www.stopsmscensorship.com/
Elections
1.
APRIL ELECTIONS: “So far in April, there are 29 elections scheduled.
If one of these is in 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 check
this out: https://politicalcharge.org/2019/03/28/elections-in-april-2019/
Other Actions
1.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS/TITLE X: The Trump administration announced that it would
award a $1.7 million family planning grant to a chain of faith-based
anti-abortion organizations, many of which don’t even provide contraceptives,
while at the same time cutting funds to Planned Parenthood. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/436526-trump-administration-awards-17-million-family-planning-grant-to-anti. Unless the new Title X rules are blocked in court,
federal funds will no longer be available to pay for contraceptive drugs and
devices. This has dissuaded many health organizations who are committed to
offering women a full range of reproductive options to apply for these funds. Planned
Parenthood has a list of actions we can take in response to this crisis here.
2.
VOTING/PRIMARY CHALLENGES: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
(DCCC) has issued a new guideline calling for boycotts of consulting
organizations that provide assistance to anyone challenging sitting Democrats
in a primary. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/436592-progressives-hammer-dccc-over-blacklist-targeting-primary-challenges. Had this rule been implemented before the 2018
elections, we likely would not have superstars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
and Ayanna Pressley in Congress. Let’s contact the DCCC (202-863-1500) or via this
form and tell them that we believe the Democratic party
should stand for open access to anyone wishing to run for office. Let’s also
ask our Democratic MoCs to put pressure on DCCC Chair Cheri Bustos to change
this policy. Then, let’s consider
donating directly to candidates we want to support rather than through the
DCCC.
3.
AMY SISKIND'S WEEKLY LIST: 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 week was dominated by news
of the Mueller report, which was delivered to Attorney General William Barr
last Friday, but has yet to be given to Congress or the American
people." Let's review Week 124.
4.
POSTCARDING ISSUES: Looking for
a convenient list of postcarding issues to use with our postcarding group? Let’s check this out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F9PTOHKXB2yxYAlYNC5dfoYneVffC5H5hV_CjB6jeQQ/edit
State Actions
1.
MA: CONVERSION THERAPY BAN: The Massachusetts House and Senate have now both
passed a bill banning conversion therapy on issues of sexuality or gender
identity for minors. https://www.masslive.com/news/2019/03/massachusetts-senate-passes-conversion-therapy-ban-over-republicans-constitutional-concerns.html. Republican Governor Charlie Baker says that he is
inclined to support it, but he may be facing pressure from conservative
constituents who oppose the bill. Let’s call Governor Baker (617) 725-4005
to let him know that we support a ban on this abusive practice and expect him
to sign the legislation.
Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to
attend/organize
1.
NOBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW PROTESTS ON APRIL 4: We are on stand-by around the country for protests (organized
through MoveOn.org) at 5pm on Thursday, April 4th. The finalization
of these protests will be determined on Wednesday and will depend on how
Attorney General William Barr responds to Rep. Jerry Nadler’s April 2nddeadline
of releasing the Mueller report. Let’s sign-up here for an event near
us so we can receive updates about how things will proceed: https://act.moveon.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response-events/search/
2.
FREE ONLINE REDISTRICTING TRAINING: This Thursday night, April 4, All on The Line begins a
free three-part Spring Training series called "Decoding the Process."
Each Thursday night at 8pm EST, we'll get a crash course on redistricting until
we’re empowered to make change happen in our communities. We can find
out more and sign up for the three free Thursday night training sessions here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uPiad4szQum24RUF6qY72g
3.
CAMPAIGN ORGANIZING TRAINING: A pilot
project between the Midwest Academy and DemLabs uses a new approach using the academy's 'Strategy Chart'. This core element of the Academy's
training that teaches organizers to plan their campaigns strategically.
The online training was designed with existing content and is delivered
through Prezi's free online platform. It allows
students to proceed at their own pace and jump to any part of the
training. We can take the online course here:
Reading/Watching
1.
Autopsy For 7-Year-Old Migrant Who Died In U.S.
Custody Shows She Died Of Sepsis - https://www.npr.org/2019/03/30/708388844/autopsy-for-7-year-old-migrant-who-died-in-u-s-custody-shows-she-died-of-sepsis
2.
Trump’s Opponents Have One
Assignment Now - https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/barrs-mueller-summary-gift-trumps-opponents/585934/
3.
Republicans Really Hate
Health Care - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/opinion/republicans-really-hate-healthcare.html
4.
QAnon conspiracy theorists turned out in force at
Trump's Michigan rally as he hailed victory over 'deep state' - https://www.businessinsider.com/qanon-conspiracy-theory-attend-trump-michigan-rally-deep-state-2019-3
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