Archive of Monthly Actions

May 2024

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.7782/S.4012, the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act introduced by Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The bill would repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which has effectively blocked the Department of Housing and Urban Development from funding new public housing since it was enacted in 1999. Learn more here.
2. Contact Sen. Cantwell  and urge her to co-sponsor and pass H.R.6053/S.3127, the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act. Contact Sen. Murray and Rep. Kilmer and thank them for being co-sponsors. The bill, introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA). The legislation would reduce plastic production, establish ambitious recycling targets, and protect frontline and fenceline communities from the health and environmental burdens of toxic emissions from the plastics industry through reducing production and by changing the incentives of the industry. The bill would shift the burden of cleanup to the corporations that produce the plastics so they have financial motivation to end the burning and dumping; establish a nationwide deposit return system to address beverage container waste; support reusable and refillable systems; and strengthen environmental justice protections by including H.R.5261, the Protecting Communities from Plastics Act. Learn more about the Break Free from Plastics Act here and here.
3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.805/S.272, the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act. In the United States, the production of meat, eggs and dairy is concentrated in factory farms controlled by a handful of multinational corporations. They use their power to cut costs and maximize profits however they can, disregarding the catastrophic impact on animals, workers, farmers, surrounding communities and the environment. Given these conditions, it’s no surprise that bird flu has been found in milk. The Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act would establish the Office of High-Risk AFO Disaster Mitigation and Enforcement within the Department of Agriculture and require industrial operators to register with the office, submit annual disaster mitigation plans and contribute to an annual disaster mitigation fund. Industrial operators would be held liable for costs associated with disaster events and be required to depopulate (the rapid destruction of animals in response to urgent circumstances) humanely.  This bill is supported by the ASPCA.

April 2024

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to pass H.R. 767/S.4467, Protecting Access to Medication Abortion Act, which would protect the use of mifepristone which has been used for over 20 years to provide safe, effective medication abortion . Need a script? How about ““I am your constituent and I want you to actively support and enact H.R. 767/S.4467, Protecting Access to Medication Abortion Act. Mifepristone (which anti-abortion activists are so anxious to ban) is used in 63% of abortions, and it is safer than Tylenol. How about a statement in public while SCOTUS thinks about taking more rights away? BTW the same arguments used in the Mifepristone case can deny access to many other lifesaving drugs and vaccines.”
   
2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to join Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) in her effort to repeal the Comstock Act. Reproductive rights advocates have been raising the alarm about how a GOP administration could use the Comstock Act to prevent the delivery of medication abortion drugs nationwide. Currently, 63% of abortions are medication abortion. And it’s not just USPS deliveries. It would be all deliveries. The    When SCOTUS heard oral arguments about banning mifepristone, Thomas and Alito asked questions about the Comstock Act, providing anti-abortion with a path forward.
3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass the bill that Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) has drafted to bar federal officeholders and candidates who are charged with certain criminal offenses from having access to classified information. As a presidential candidate, Trump may already be receiving classified information. Sherrill’s bill would also ban Robert Menendez (D-NJ) from receiving classified briefings.
4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to join Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) in asking the DOJ to declassify documents pertaining to the conviction of lobbyist and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Manafort was convicted on tax and bank fraud charges that emerged from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s connection with the Russian government and its efforts to get him elected in 2016. He was convicted for conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy against the United States for tampering with witnesses. He spent a few months in jail before being released on May 13, 2020 to home confinement to protect him from getting Covid. He was pardoned by Trump in December 2020. Now it appears that Trump is in talks with Manafort to make him a campaign adviser later this year, just in time for the GOP convention this summer.
5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R. 5291/S. 3517, the People Over Long Lines Act, which would require states to ensure that voters wait no more than 30 minutes at any polling place to cast their vote in a federal election, establishes a private right of action for voters who experience longer waiting times, and directs the Election Assistance Commission to make payments to eligible states to prevent unreasonable waiting times. The bill also requires each state to provide for the minimum required number of voting systems, poll workers, and other election resources for each polling location on the day of any federal election and each day of early voting. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division must issue uniform standards regarding the minimum number and distribution of such systems, workers, and other resources.

March 2024

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to sign both of the the discharge petitions being circulated in the House to bring up a vote for Ukraine despite Speaker Mike Johnson’s refusal to hold a such a vote. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) is leading the Democratic discharge petition for the $95 billion military aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan already passed by the Senate. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Don Bacon (R-NE), Ed Case (D-HI) and Jared Golden (D-ME) are circulating a more modest foreign-assistance bill— $48 billion in military, but not economic, assistance plus money for Israel and Indo-Pacific operations — as well as legal tools, good for one year, that would help the president stem migration across the southern border. The idea is that a consensus could form for a “skinny” bill that meets each side’s core needs. Republicans involved in the discharge effort say GOP House members, including some in leadership, have privately urged them on. Israel’s recent actions in Gaza make it difficult for some representatives to sign any discharge petition that would give unconditional military aid to Israel. 
2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for introducing H.J.Res. 118, “Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to temporarily fill vacancies in the House of Representatives to further the continuity of Congress.”  U.S. Representatives Derek Kilmer (WA-06), Brad Wenstrup (OH-02) William Timmons (SC-04), and Emanuel Cleaver II (MO-05) proposed a Constitutional Amendment (Continuity Amendment) to temporarily fill House vacancies, ensuring congressional continuity and reducing the incentive for political violence. The amendment would require:
   1. Pre-Designated Replacements: Each newly elected representative would be required to provide a list of at least five individuals who are qualified to serve in their place in the event of their death during their term.
   2. Quick Replacement Process: Should a representative pass away, the governor of their state must select a replacement from the provided list within 10 days.
   3. Temporary Service: The chosen individual from the list would then serve as a representative temporarily until a special election can be held to elect a new member.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to support Sen. Bernie Sanders bill, the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act. The bill would reduce the federal overtime threshold from 40 hours to 32 hours. As a result, many employers would have to start paying time-and-a-half wages once hourly workers hit 32 hours in a week rather than 40, the standard since 1938. In the House, Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) has proposed a similar bill, H.R.1332, the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to support it.
4. Contact our senators and urge them to support S.3819, the Shrinkflation Prevention Act. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has identified food and household commodities, including potato chips, paper towels, cereal, cleaning supplies, and candy, as some of the top product groups most affected by companies reducing the size of the product but keeping the price the same or raising the price. Learn more here.

February 2024

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor and pass H.R.3364, the WIC Act of 2023. WIC is the program that provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age 5 who are found to be at nutritional risk. If Congress continues to fund WIC at the current level, it will create a shortfall of $1 billion that will mean waiting lists to get WIC food aid. According to the USDA, 810,000 people apply for WIC every month. Those denied assistance will soon add up to 2 million over time. Learn more from this New York Times article.
2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor and pass H.R. 7244, the End Tax Breaks for Dark Money Act,” to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat transfers of appreciated property to certain tax-exempt organizations the same as transfers of appreciated property to political organizations. In normal speak, the bill would close a tax loophole that allows individuals to avoid capital gains taxes on assets donated to dark money organizations. Learn more here.
3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.3589/H.R. 6981,  the “Preventing Private Paramilitary Activity Act,” which would effectively limit most militia activity. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) states that although “all 50 states prohibit private paramilitary conduct, these laws are far too often outdated, underenforced, or ignored. There are currently no federal law addressing paramilitary activity or protect millions of Americans whose rights are threatened by this type of violent anti-democratic intimidation.” Learn more here.
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to oppose H.R.3205, the “Project Precursor Act,” which would direct the president to renegotiate the Chemical Weapons Convention and classify fentanyl as a chemical weapon. As much as fentanyl is a scourge,  classifying it as a chemical weapon would help push the “war on drugs” into overdrive and feed the right-wing frenzy for war with Mexico. This bill is opposed by OxFam, whose web site states they “are firmly aligned in rejecting the bill’s central aim of labeling fentanyl a ‘chemical weapon’ – a dangerous rhetorical stunt that feeds calls for military action in Mexico, weakens the international Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and further entrenches a failed, militarized approach to addressing the harms caused by illicit fentanyl trafficking.” Win Without War thinks this bill will soon be taken up for a vote by Speaker Mike Johnson.
5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for co-sponsoring H.R. 926, the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act of 2023. This bill would, among other things, require the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct and establish procedures for investigating complaints of judicial misconduct. It would also require the court to adopt rules governing the disclosure of gifts, travel and income received by its justices and law clerks. It would also change the rules by which Supreme Court justices must recuse themselves. Last November, SCOTUS adopted a new code of ethics, including rules requiring recusal from a case when “‘impartiality might be reasonably questioned’ or when a justice or a spouse has a financial interest in the dispute.” Note that Justice Clarence Thomas declined to recuse himself from the 14th Amendment disqualification hearing on Feb. 8. Rep. Kilmer became a co-sponsor of this bill on Dec. 12.

January 2024

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor H.R.1002/S.399, the Saving the Civil Service Act. This bill was introduced by Rep. Jerry Connelly (D-VA) and Sen. Tim Kaine to prevent a president from converting U.S. Civil Service positions to Schedule F positions. Schedule F stems from a Trump Executive Order (rescinded by President Biden) in which tens of thousands of civil servants who serve in roles deemed to have some influence over policy would be reassigned as “Schedule F” employees. These employees would lose their employment and union protections upon re-assignment, making them functionally at-will employees and therefore far easier to fire. Further, Schedule F defies merit principles and instead would require political loyalty to a President. Through the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, the GOP is explicitly advocating for a reimplementation of Schedule F upon the election of any Republican president. Learn more here.
2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to join Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) in co-sponsoring H.R.4434, the Accountability for Acting Officials Act, introduced by Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA). As proven by Trump, it is possible to run the United States government using personnel who are not confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Trump filled dozens of high-level jobs in the federal government without Senate confirmation by leaving key jobs vacant and delegating the authority of those positions to subordinates who do not need to be confirmed or even nominated for the jobs. Porter’s bill would update the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 to stop this practice. If we have learned nothing from the Trump years, we have learned that our democracy and government needs to be hardened to protect it from another Trump. The fever has not broken, and we can count on the next Republican president to be just as evil as Trump. Congress managed to reform the Electoral Count Act. Porter’s bill is just as important – especially if we don’t want Kash Patel, Stephen Miller and Ken Cuccinelli doing more than advising, but running the federal government. Learn more here.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor S.3402, the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act, introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). Starting with the Great Recession of 2008, institutional investors/private equity/hedge funds began buying foreclosed single-family housing on the cheap, especially in the Sun Belt that are then rented out. COVID exacerbated the problem. MetLife Investment Management predicts that institutional investors may control 40% of U.S. single-family rental homes by 2030. The result is housing that’s too expensive to buy or rent. Merkley’s bill would prevent them from buying single-family homes and would require large funds to sell off 10 percent of their homes each year over a decade. Learn more here.
4. Contact our senators and urge them to vote “no” on the nomination of Demetrios L. Kouzoukas to serve as a trustee on the boards of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security if his nomination ever makes it to a floor vote. At a hearing at the end of September,  Kouzoukas drew the ire of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for his refusal to say whether he would resign from the board of an insurance company that profits from Medicare Advantage. Warren said that if Kouzoukas didn’t step down from the insurance company board, “then you should withdraw your nomination. And if you do not withdraw, given the clear conflicts posed by your board service, I will strongly oppose your nomination and I will encourage every other senator in this body to do so as well.” Watch or read the transcript of Warren’s interaction with Kouzoukas here.
5. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.2876, the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act of 2023, introduced by Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.). According to Sen. Fetterman, there are more than 30 million kids in the U.S. who can’t afford school meals and that the national public school meal debt is $262 million a year. S.2876 would erase student lunch debt by directing the Department of Agriculture to pay for all debts owed to schools for lunch and breakfast programs. The bill would help families in Washington state because Washington state is not one of the eight states that has a universal meal program. Learn more here.

August through December 2023

1. Contact senators and urge them to support the GOSAFE Act, introduced by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) (no number assigned yet). His bill would limit the magazine capacity of high-powered rifles that use the gas created from firing the first cartridge to increase the velocity of subsequently fired cartridges. New gas-operated semi-automatic rifles could be sold only if they have a fixed magazine capable of holding no more than 10 cartridges. Owners of existing semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines would be able to keep them, transfer them to family members or allow the government to buy them back. Learn more about the GOSAFE Act here.

2. Contact our senators and urge them to support the Senate Judiciary Committee in their efforts to investigate corruption on the Supreme Court. On Nov. 30, all 11 Democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to subpoena billionaire Harlon Crowe and Federalist Society co-chair, Leonard Leo. All ten of the committee’s Republican members walked out in a fit, including the usual suspects of Grassley, Cruz, Blackburn and Cruz. Whether to actually issue the subpoenas will be voted by the full senate. Learn more here.

3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting to expel George Santos (formerly R-NY), and thank him for being our representative.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to pass aid for Ukraine immediately. Without new aid by year’s end, U.S. won’t be able to continue providing weapons and equipment to Kyiv. The White House has requested a $106 billion aid package. Speaker Mike Johnson is holding drastic changes in the asylum laws hostage for Ukrainian aid.

5. Contact our senators and urge them to investigate Jared Kushner for his role in pardon-palooza. Neither senator is on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, but they could at least light a fire under Chair Gary Peters (D-MI). In his testimony for the Jan. 6 committee, Kushner said he was so busy processing pardons, he didn’t have time to notice the coup plot that was developing in the Oval Office. That Kushner had any involvement at all with pardons is disgusting (the Office of the Pardon Attorney normally processes pardon requests). From Election Day, Nov. 3, Trump granted 116 pardons and commutations. By way of contrast, Trump issued 27 pardons and commutations before Nov. 3, 2020. It’s common knowledge that pardon-seekers paid Trump allies tens of thousands of dollars to lobby the president for a pardon. Was Kushner one of them? It would be nice to know.

7/7/2023

1. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for co-sponsoring H.R.15/S.5, the Equality Act, and urge them to get it passed. According to the Human Rights Campaign, “the Equality Act would provide consistent and explicit anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people across key areas of life, including employment, housing, credit, education, public spaces and services, federally funded programs, and jury service.” In the House, this bill has 214 co-sponsors, all of them Democrats. In the Senate, this bill has 50 co-sponsors, all of them Democrats. Joe Manchin is the missing “Democrat.”  Not a single House or Senate Republican is a co-sponsor of this bill.

2. Contact our senators and thank them for voting to confirm Julie Rikelman, a prominent abortion rights lawyer to the to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, based in Boston. The vote was 51 to 43. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) were among the 51. Sens. John Fetterman and Chris Murphy were not present for the vote. Learn more here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to vote “no” on H.R.3627/S.1943, the Beautifying Federal Civic Architecture Act recently introduced by Jim Banks (R-IN) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). When he was “president,” Trump issued an executive order requiring that any new federal buildings be built it the Greco-Roman/traditional/classic style, which happens to be the style favored by Hitler and Mussolini. When he assumed office, Pres. Biden canceled that order, but now, to curry favor from the former president, these two obsequious legislators have introduced this bill. It would create the “President’s Council on Improving Federal Civic Architecture,” that would establish traditional and classical architecture is the preferred architecture for applicable Federal public buildings.” Good grief!
4. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for co-sponsoring H.R.3409/S.1664, the Healthy Families Act, re-introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). It would require employers to “allow Americans to earn paid sick time so that they can address their own health needs and the health needs of their families.” Learn more here.
5. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor S.1531, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, re-introduced in May by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, (D-RI). SalsaLabs.org says “NREPA is a science-based bill that would designate 23 million acres of America’s most beautiful, wild, and ecologically important public lands in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington as Wilderness,”  The Alliance for the Wild Rockies supports this bill, describing it as the “only comprehensive solution for protecting our national heritage which lies in the mountains, meadows, and rivers of the Rocky Mountains of the great American West.” Learn more here.

6/16/2023

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting no on H.R. 1615, the “Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act” and H.R.1640, the “Save Our Gas Stoves Act.” H.R.1640 would “prohibit the Consumer Product Safety Commission from using federal funds to (1) regulate gas stoves as a banned hazardous product, or (2) issue or enforce a product safety standard that prohibits the use or sale of gas stoves or substantially increases their price.” H.R. 1640 would prevent the Department of the Energy from prescribing or amending “energy conservation standards for kitchen ranges or ovens if they would result in the unavailability of a product on account of the type of fuel the range or oven uses.” Contact our senators and tell them to vote “no” on these bills if they are ever brought to the Senate floor for a vote. The gas stove debate began last year after a study linked the use of gas stoves to increased risk of childhood asthma, and the commissioner of the independent Consumer Product Safety Commission floated a future ban on the stoves. But the chair of the commission announced there were never plans to implement a ban. Learn more here.

2. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for voting against H.J.Res. 45, which would repeal Pres. Biden’s student loan relief plan. Unfortunately, Tester and Manchin joined Republicans in passing this resolution. Pres. Biden vetoed it on June 7. Learn more here.

3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to sign the discharge petitions filed by Reps. James Clyburn (D-SC), Lucy McBath (D-GA), and Mike Thompson (D-CA). Each of those representatives have filed a discharge petition to force floor votes on legislation to extend the deadline on background checks, an assault weapons ban and a bipartisan measure to make background checks universal. The representatives are filing these discharge petitions in response to the passage of a joint resolution to overturn the Biden administration’s rule to tighten federal regulations on stabilizing braces that went into effect on June 1. Stabilizing braces are accessories that attach to the back of a firearm, lengthening it and allowing it to be strapped to the forearm so shooters can pull the trigger one-handed. The new rules would require brace owners to register them as rifles, surrender them or take them off their firearms. Thank Rep. Kilmer for voting against H.J.Res. 44, which is a Congressional Review Act measure that would overturn new rules. If the Senate passes H.J.Res.44, Pres. Biden will veto it. Learn more here. Contact our senators and urge them to vote no on H.J.Res.44 if it comes to a floor vote.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support H.R.4117 and S.1963, the “College for All Act” introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders, respectively. The bills would eliminate tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities for those making up to $125,000 and make community college tuition- and fee-free for all. The bills would also cut all student loan interest rates in half by restoring a similar policy that was in effect until 2006. In addition, the bills would enable existing borrowers to refinance their loans based on the interest rates available to new borrowers. Learn more here.

5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor H.R.2678/S.1171, the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act. In the House, H.R.2678 has a Republican co-sponsor. In the Senate, S.1171 has 21 co-sponsors. The bill would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from abusing their positions for personal financial gain by owning or trading securities, commodities, or futures. Congress has been grappling with this issue for years. It’s time to fix it. Learn more here.

5/26/2023

1. Contact our senators and thank them for reintroducing S. 1591, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. The bill would enhance the federal government’s efforts to prevent domestic terrorism by establishing offices dedicated to combating this threat; requiring federal law enforcement agencies to regularly assess domestic terrorism; and providing training and resources to assist state, local, and tribal law enforcement in addressing it. Learn more here.

2. Contact Sen. Murray and thank her for co-sponsoring S. 325, the Supreme Court Ethics Act. Contact Sen. Cantwell and urge her to become a co-sponsor. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to become a co-sponsor of H.R. 927, the identical bill in the House. The bill would require the Judicial Conference of the United States to issue a judicial code of conduct for judges and justices of U.S. courts, including Justices of the Supreme Court. (Currently, the Judicial Conference issues a code of conduct for judges of U.S. courts but not for Justices of the Supreme Court.) The bill requires the Supreme Court to appoint an ethics investigations counsel. The ethics investigations counsel must 1) adopt rules to enforce the conduct, including a process to receive public complaints of potential violations; 2)investigate complaints; and 3) issue an annual public report describing the complaints and the steps taken to address complaints. The bill also requires a Justice of the Supreme Court to publicly disclose the reasons for disqualifying himself or herself in a proceeding or the reasons for denying a motion to disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding. Learn more here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to vote against S. 1226, “A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make permanent the individual tax provisions of the tax reform law” and H.R.976, the TCJA Permanency Act. The Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations are in large part responsible for today’s debt ceiling mess (another part being the Bush tax cuts). These bills would make the Trump tax cuts permanent, sending us into a death spiral. By introducing these bills, the Republicans are preparing for their post-debt-ceiling battle to destroy this country. Learn more here.
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for co-sponsoring H.R. 626, the Breaking the Gridlock Act. This bill was quietly introduced on Jan. 30th and designed to meet all the requirements for a discharge petition. As of this date, all 213 Democrats have signed the discharge petition. If just five Republicans sign on, they can bring the bill to the House floor for a vote to raise the debt ceiling cleanly. The question is: are there five decent Republicans left in the House? Learn more here.
5. Contact Sen. Murray and thank her for co-sponsoring S. 1318, the Election Worker Protection Act; contact Sen. Cantwell and urge her to become a co-sponsor. The bill would bill would provide states with more resources to recruit, train and ensure the safety of election workers. Learn more here.

5/5/2023

1. Contact our senators and tell them to co-sponsor S.1291, the “Protecting Our Kids on Social Media Act.” This bipartisan bill would require that social media platforms verify the age of their users, prohibit the use of algorithmic recommendation systems on individuals under age 18, require parental or guardian consent for social media users under age 18, and prohibit users who are under age 13 from accessing social media platforms. Learn more here.

2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting “no” on H.R.2811, the “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023,” which would have required draconian budget cuts in order to raise the debt ceiling for little more than a year. Learn more here.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to vote “no” on H.J.Res. 42, which is the GOP’s next effort to rollback police reforms approved by the Washington D.C. city council. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting “no” on this joint resolution. The GOP has already successfully overruled the city’s well-thought-out reform of its criminal code (last updated in 1901) in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Both of our Democratic senators fell for GOP cries of “soft on crime” because the council revised the penalty for car-jacking from 40 years to 24 years (in line with the federal maximum penalty of 25 years). The council’s criminal code reform increased the penalty for firing a gun in the city and for sexual assault. Having undone those reforms, the House GOP now wants to overrule reforms enacted to increase transparency and weaken the police union’s hand in disciplinary disputes. The reforms include a ban on Metropolitan Police Department officers using neck restraints and would give the Office of Police Complaints unfettered access to D.C. police records. Learn more here.

4. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor S.637, the Child Labor Prevention Act. The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to apply child labor laws to independent contractors and increase penalties for child labor law violations. In the past two years, lawmakers in at least 11 states have sought to loosen child labor laws to help employers fill empty jobs, even though many minors working in manufacturing, meatpacking and construction jobs are being exploited or hurt. In Iowa, Republicans want kids as young as 14 to be able to work to work in meat coolers and industrial laundries. Kids need to be in school. Period. Learn more here.

5. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor S.1045, the Failed Bank Executives Claw Back Act. This bipartisan bill would amend the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to clarify that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and appropriate Federal regulators have the authority to claw back certain compensation paid to executives. The introduction of this bill was inspired by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Learn more here.

3/31/2023

1. Contact Sen. Murray and thank her for co-sponsoring S.25, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2023. As Senate Pro Tem, urge her to hold a vote on it soon. Voters need to know where each senator stands. Obviously this bill will not pass the 60-vote filibuster threshold during this session of Congress. Even with Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema counting themselves among the Democratic majority, it is not even clear that there are 51 votes for it even if the filibuster were eliminated or reformed. Contact Sen. Cantwell and urge her to become a co-sponsor of S.25, though this bill may go to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which she chairs, and she may be withholding her co-sponsorship for that reason.  Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for co-sponsoring H.R. 698, the identical bill in the House.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.951/H.R.1699, Sen. Chris Murphy’s and Rep. Maxwell Frost’s bill to create the Office of Gun Violence Prevention under the Department of Justice. The office would focus on implementing the gun safety bill passed last year. Learn more here.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.4787, the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would make evacuated Afghans eligible for permanent U.S. residency. As of Feb. 12, fewer than 5,000 of the 77,000 Afghans resettled in the U.S. under a special legal process have secured permanent legal status. If action is not taken by August, deportations will begin this fall. CBS News reports that “[t]ens of thousands of Afghan refugees who were evacuated to the U.S. after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 are at risk of losing their work permits and deportation protections this summer unless Congress acts.” Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for co-sponsoring the same bill, H.R.8685. Both bills were filled last year, so it’s not even clear whether those bills are active in this new legislative session. In addition of the Afghan refugees who made it to this country, thousands of detained Afghan evacuees are living in prison-like conditions in the United Arab Emirates, as described in this article at HuffingtonPost.com. As predicted, we have treated the Afghans who helped us horribly. Republicans are hell-bent on investigating and criticising the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Perhaps our members of Congress can shame them into acting on their terrible circumstances – especially since the barrier to passage in the Senate in 2022 was Republican dissatisfaction with vetting.

4. Contact our members of Congress and tell them you support the $80 billion in additional funding for the IRS that was in the Inflation Reduction Act that the Republicans want to rescind. Reuters reports that “[a]ccording to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), the $80 billion will be parceled out among four key priority areas: 1. taxpayer services ($3,181,500,000); 2. enforcement ($45,637,400,000); 3. operations support ($25,326,400,000); and 4. business systems modernization ($4,750,700,000). These appropriations are to remain available through the end of 2031.” That $45 billion will go to auditing the super-rich. From cnbc.com: “Just 2% of the richest Americans had their taxes audited in 2019, down from 16% in 2010. … The main reason for the decline, according the report, is a lack of funding.”

5. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.582/H.R.1279, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023, reintroduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL). The bill would make daylight saving time permanent. The Senate passed this bill during the previous session of Congress (2021-2022), but the House did not take it up. During the 2018-2019 session, the House passed a bill that would have made daylight savings time permanent, but the Senate did not take it up, so it seems like the two Houses have been playing ping pong on this issue for quite a while. Here are five reasons why making daylight savings time permanent would improve life in America. Learn more here.

3/17/2023

1. Contact our senators (especially Sen. Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation) and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.576, the Railway Safety Act of 2023 introduced this month by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). This bill would require railroad companies to install and maintain automated devices along tracks that monitor passing trains for problems such as the wheel bearing failure that is thought to have caused the derailment of the Norfolk Suffolk train in East Palestine, Ohio last month. The bill also requires trains carrying hazardous materials to be scanned by hotbox detectors every 10 miles to prevent future derailments related to wheel bearings. The bill also directs the Federal Railway Administration to update regulations for train inspections to ensure that all rail cars on trains carrying hazardous materials are inspected by a qualified rail car inspector at regular intervals.  It also changes the maximum fine that USDOT can issue for safety violations from $225,000 to 1% of a railroad company’s annual operating income. Learn more about the bill here. This bill has already run into GOP opposition.
2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor and pressure Kevin McCarthy to bring H.R.1238, the DERAIL Act (Decreasing Emergency Railroad Accident Instances Locally Act) up for a vote. The bill was introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Christopher DeLuzio (D-PA) and has, so far, not a single Republican co-sponsor. This bill would require the Secretary of Transportation to issue the regulations necessary to amend section 171.8 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, to modify the definition of “high-hazard flammable train” to mean a single train transporting 1 or more loaded tank cars of a Class 3 flammable liquid or a Class 2 flammable gas and other materials the Secretary determines necessary for safety. The train that detailed in East Palestine, Ohio, was not required to meet a higher level of safety because the polyvinyl chloride it was transporting was not considered to be “that” dangerous but it should be. Here in Washington state, a train derailed this month that spilled 2,500 gallons of diesel fuel on tribal lands near Anacortes. Trains are the most energy-efficient way to move freight; we need them to fight climate change. But companies operate them as if we were still living in the 1800s. It’s going to take federal action to make railroad companies operate safely.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to confirm the nomination of Julie Su as Secretary of Labor. Early in the Biden administration, Ms. Su was in the running to be nominated as Secretary of Labor, but lost to Boston mayor, Marty Walsh. Instead, Su was confirmed as Deputy Secretary of Labor in July 2021 and has been serving as acting Secretary of Labor since Walsh resigned last month. She is supported by the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) now chairs the HELP committee and has indicated his support, as has Sen. Elizabeth Warren. GOP-ers and business leaders opposed her nomination as Deputy Secretary of Labor in 2021 for the way she administered California’s unemployment agency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Or maybe they don’t appreciate that when she was 26, Su sued the operator of a clothing sweat shop that enslaved more than 70 Thai garment workers in El Monte, Calif. The workers were undocumented and forced to live and work in an apartment complex that functioned as a sweatshop in order to “earn” their freedom. Many had been trapped there for seven years. Even worse, Su sued the retailers that sold the clothes produced in the sweatshop. Learn more here.
4. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.J.Res.13, a joint resolution to repeal the authorizations for use of military force against Iraq, introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN). The legislation would end two congressional resolutions that authorized the use of military force, also known as an AUMF, in Iraq: one from the Gulf War in 1991 and another from 2002. A vote by the full Senate is expected this week. Learn more here.
5. Contact Sen. Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation), thank her for her support for Phillip Washington, whom Pres. Biden has nominated to run the Federal Aviation Administration and urge her to hold a vote and pass him favorably to a vote by the full senate. Sen. Cantwell’s committee held a hearing to consider Mr. Washington’s nomination on March 1. Mr. Washington has a long history of military service, educational achievement and experience in the business of getting people to their destinations. It’s summarized here. He’s been running Denver International Airport for the past two years, where he’s dealt with airlines, air traffic controllers, pilots, staffing, labor shortages, airport upgrade funding and safety – all the issues he will encounter as FAA administrator. Mr. Washington has drawn the ire of ted cruz (who doesn’t deserve to have his name capitalized or an honorific such as “senator”) whose main gripe seems to be that Mr. Washington isn’t a pilot. In the early days of the FAA, administrators were pilots, but not always so in the past several decades. The real reason for cruz’s ire may be seen in the photo of Mr. Washington here. cruz also complained that as a 24-year veteran of military service that ended in 23 years ago, Mr. Washington is not a civilian and would need a waiver because the FAA administrator is supposed to be a civilian. Look at the list of military pilots who have been FAA administrators and marvel at cruz’s pretzel thinking. Department of Transportation General Counsel John Putnam has confirmed that Phil Washington is statutorily qualified to serve as FAA administrator and that he requires no waiver for prior military service to be considered a civilian. 

2/24/2023

1. Contact our senators and urge them to confirm swiftly the nomination of Nancy Abudu to the Eleventh Circuit Court. When confirmed by the full Senate, Abudu (who has been a top attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center), will be the first Black woman to serve on the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit. Last May, the committee deadlocked, 11-11 on Abudu’s nomination. With the election of 51 Democratic senators last November, the Senate Judiciary Committee now has 11 Democratic members and 10 Republican members. The committee voted in favor of Ms. Abudu along party lines on Feb. 9. It’s time for a vote of the full Senate. Learn more here.
2. Contact our members of Congress (especially Sen. Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation) and urge them to raise the $225,455 limit on railroad safety fines at least tenfold as requested by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The maximum fine for violating hazardous materials transportation law that results in death, injury, or property damage is currently $225,455. Learn more here.
3. Contact Sen. Cantwell and urge her to use her position as chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to hold a vote on the nomination of Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC has been paralyzed without a full five-member commission for 15 months. Pres. Biden nominated Ms. Sohn in 2021 and Republicans stalled her nomination when the committee was evenly split. Pres. Biden renominated Sohn in January. When Sohn was first nominated, it appeared she had Kyrsten Sinema’s vote. Since then, telecom companies have flooded Sinema’s coffers with dark money, and Sohn’s nomination remains in doubt. Manchin (D-VA) and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) have also benefited from telecom donations, further jeopardizing Sohn’s nomination if a vote is ever held by the full Senate. Regardless, the FCC needs a fifth member so it can effectively regulate telecom companies. It’s time to fish or cut bait. Learn more here.
4. Contact our senators and urge them to confirm swiftly the nomination of Julie Rikelman to be a United States Circuit Judge for the First Circuit. Like Nancy Abudu, Pres. Biden nominated Rikelman during the previous Congress and renominated her in January. Rikelman’s nomination was held up by the Republicans on ideological grounds. She represented the Mississippi abortion clinic in the US Supreme Court case that overturned the constitutional right to abortion last year. With the election of 51 Democratic senators last November, the Senate Judiciary Committee now has 11 Democratic members and 10 Republican members. The committee voted in favor of Ms. Rikelman along party lines on Feb. 9. It’s time for a vote of the full Senate. Learn more here.

2/10/2023

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to take action on Pres. Biden’s ambition to pass a Junk Fees Prevention Act that would prohibit hidden fees on the travel, entertainment and credit card
2. industries. Pres. Biden called for this legislation in his State of the Union speech on Feb. 8. These fees are often discriminatory. A recent CFPB study showed that Black consumers pay more in credit card late fees compared with other groups. A 2017 study also showed that Hispanic car buyers paid more in added fees. Learn more here.
3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support and pass the S.25, the Assault Weapons Ban. The bill would make it unlawful for a person to import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, a semiautomatic assault weapon. The bill was introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Jan. 23. It will soon be introduced in the House by Rep. David Cicillini (D-RI). Details
4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support and pass the S.14, the Age 21 Act. The bill would raise the minimum age to purchase assault an weapon from 18 to 21. The bill was introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT)on Jan. 23. It will soon be introduced in the House by Rep. David Cicillini (D-RI). Details.

5. Contact Sen. Cantwell and urge her to use her position on the Senate Finance Committee to investigate the financial transactions of Jared Kuschner and Donald Trump since Trump was voted out of office. There is little hope the House Oversight Committee will tear itself away from Hunter Biden’s laptop, so it’s up to the Senate Finance Committee to dig into how Kuschner used his White House position to build a relationship with Mohammid Bin Salman and the Saudi Arabia that resulted in the flow of millions of dollars into his post-presidency business. Same for Trump himself. Congress must address the continued problem of presidents, Congresspersons and high-level government employees who use their time in the federal government to line their pockets when they depart their federal positions. Learn more here.

1/20/2023

1. Contact our senators and urge them to confirm the nomination of Gigi Sohn to fill the empty seat on the Federal Communications Commission. Pres. Biden nominated Ms. Sohn in October of 2021, and now he has re-nominated her.  Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the media advocacy group Free Press, says “No other nominee in the FCC’s history has had to wait so long for a confirmation vote, and none have been better qualified to serve the needs of the public.” The commission is currently comprised of two Republican and two Democratic members, which means it cannot move forward on any regulatory rulemaking. Ms. Sohn has been smeared by GOP-ers for criticizing Fox News (!) and and her association with a non-profit streaming service called Locast that is no longer operating.  Locast streamed TV stations over the internet without permission or payment, was sued out of existence and a settlement was reached in October 2021.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to work together and with their colleagues to raise the debt ceiling through a discharge petition. The rules package agreed to in the House allows any House member to bring a bill to the House floor for a vote that will pass if it is supported by a simple majority – all Democrats and a handful of Republicans. Given all the waiting periods that are part of the House rules on discharge petitions, it takes at least four months to get a discharge petition through the House. Once passed by the House, the bill cannot be changed in any way by the Senate. So get started now.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to confirm the re-nomination of Dilawar Syed to be Deputy Administrator of Small Business Administration. Pres. Biden nominated Syed in 2021. If confirmed, he will be the highest-ranking Muslim in the federal government. GOP-ers have prevented a vote on his nomination (by failing to attend committee meetings) for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with Syed. “We will not allow a vote on SBA’s nominee for Deputy Administrator until the SBA takes action to recover the wrongfully acquired PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] funds by Planned Parenthood entities,” said one GOP tweet. (Planned Parenthood affiliates with fewer than 500 employees were perfectly eligible for PPP.) Other GOP-ers have accused Syed of being anti-Semitic. Syed has the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Small Business Association. With George Santos on the House Small Business Committee, the SBA is going to need all the help it can get. Get Syed confirmed! Learn more here.

1/13/2023

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting for H.R.9043, the Respect for Child Survivors Act. It requires the FBI to use a multidisciplinary approach with any investigation of child sexual exploitation or abuse, the production of child sexual abuse material, or child trafficking. The FBI must also use a trained child adolescent forensic interviewer in these investigations if practicable and consistent with applicable federal law. Twenty-eight GOP-ers voted “no” because they care so much about children. The bill passed in the Senate by unanimous consent so thank our senators, too. It was signed by Pres. Biden on Jan. 5.

2. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for voting to reauthorize the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program, H.R. 5561. Because they care so much about babies, in 2021, 17 House GOP-ers voted “no” to reauthorize this program, which supports screening and early intervention services for newborns, infants, and young children who are deaf or hard of hearing. At the end of December, the Senate passed the bill and it was signed by Pres. Biden on Dec. 20.

3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting for H.R.2521, the DOULA for VA Act, which passed the House on Dec. 1. This bill would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish a five-year pilot program to furnish doula services to pregnant veterans who are enrolled in the VA health care system. The program must furnish doula services through eligible entities by expanding the VA‘s Whole Health model to measure the impact that doula support services have on birth and mental health outcomes of pregnant veterans. Because they care so much about babies, forty-four House Republicans voted no. The bill was not brought up for a vote in the Senate, so it did not become law.
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting for H.R.6878, the Pregnant Women in Custody Act on Dec. 1. The bill would set baseline care standards for federal facilities across the country, including prisons, which have inconsistent policies concerning the rights of pregnant women in federal custody. The bill would protect pregnant women in federal custody from being put in solitary confinement in the third trimester. The House passed the bill on Dec. 1, but because they care so much about fetuses, 90 GOP-ers voted against it. Learn more about this bill here. The bill was introduced in the Senate but was not brought up for a vote in the lame duck session, so it did not become law.
5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting for H.R.6873, the Bombing Prevention Act. The bill would establish within the Department of Homeland Security an Office for Bombing Prevention, which would advise DHS on matters related to terrorist explosive threats and attacks in the United States, coordinate DHS efforts to counter such threats and attacks, and take other specified steps, including promoting security awareness. The bill would also require DHS to provide to the public and private sector technical assistance to counter terrorist explosive threats and attacks that pose a risk in certain jurisdictions to critical infrastructure facilities or to special events. Because they care so much about the well-being of Americans, 22 House GOP-ers voted against the bill. The bill passed the House on May 17, 2022, but was not brought up by the Senate. 

 

12/23/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for getting the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 included in the Omnibus Appropriations bill that Pres. Biden will sign this week. The bill clarifies that the vice president’s role in certifying presidential elections is strictly ceremonial and specifies that the choice of electors must occur in accordance with the laws of the state enacted prior to election day. The Act also raises the objection threshold in Congress from one member to at least one-fifth of the duly chosen and sworn members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Omnibus bill also requires employers to accommodate pregnant and nursing workers by providing additional bathroom breaks, time to pump, relief from heavy lifting duties – needed for healthy pregnancies. It would prevent workers from being forced to take leave or losing their jobs, as well as bar employers from denying employment opportunities to women based on their need for reasonable accommodations due to childbirth or related medical conditions. It appears that Susan Collins’ efforts to protect lobstermen and delay increasing protection of right whales was not included in the Omnibus bill.
2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to pass H.R.8685/S.4787 the Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA) during the lame session. (Both House and the Senate members return to Congress this week on Dec. 27.) Many Afghans are near the end of a two-year humanitarian parole they were granted to stay in the United States and will be deported without action on this bill. The bill would alleviate bottlenecks that began before the fall of Kabul and grew worse after. It also calls for a streamlining of paperwork for Afghans who already are in the United States without permanent standing and a waiver process for those whose cases may not be easy to resolve. The criteria could assist in cases in which required paperwork went missing before or during the chaotic fall of the Afghan government. Sen. Chuck Grassley is an opponent of the AAA, claiming the Afghans that came to the U.S. with the fall of Kabul were not properly vetted, even though the AAA would do the vetting Grassley wants. Grassley prevented the AAA from being included in the Omnibus bill. More information is here.
3. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for voting (by voice vote) to remove the bust of Roger B. Taney, the author of the Dred Scott decision. In that decision Taney decided that  African Americans were not citizens of the United States, and therefore ineligible to sue for their freedom. The bill also requires that a bust of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall be installed somewhere in the Capitol. Learn more here.
4. Contact our senators and urge them to confirm the nomination of Laura Daniel-Davis to assistant secretary of the Interior for land and minerals management. In mid-December, more than 100 women in the environment, climate and conservation community sent a letter calling on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to schedule a floor vote on Daniel-Davis before the year’s end. It appears that her nomination was held up by Joe Manchin for sexist reasons. Learn more here.
5. Contact our senators and thank them for preventing Joe Manchin’s bill to streamline the pipeline permitting process from being included in the National Defense Authorization Act passed earlier this month. Learn more here.

12/16/2022

1. Contact our senators and urge them to pass S.393, the Equality Act, during the lame duck session. The bill, already passed by the House, prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system. Specifically, the bill defines and includes sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity among the prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation. Learn more about the Equality Act here.
2. Contact our senators and urge them to reconcile the differences between the House-passed H.R.6878, the Pregnant Women in Custody Act, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Susan Collins bill  S.5027, the Protecting the Health and Wellness of Babies and Pregnant Women in Custody Act. Like H.R.6878, S.5027 would set care standards for how the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshall Service treat pregnant and postpartum inmates and require federal facilities to provide pregnant inmates access to medical and mental health services as well as education about nutrition, parental rights, and lactation. This bill would also ban the use of solitary confinement in the last trimester. Learn more about H.R.6878 here and about S.5027 here.
3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting for H.R.8393, the Puerto Rico Status Act. Contact our senators and urge them to pass H.R.8393 in the lame duck. The bill seeks to resolve Puerto Rico’s status and its relationship to the U.S. through a binding plebiscite and might clear the way for Puerto Rico’s statehood. The 217 Democrats voting in favor of this bill were joined by 16 Republicans (but many of those Republicans will not be returning in the next session). Unless passed in the U.S. Senate in the lame duck, this bill will have to be reintroduced in the next session – an unlikely prospect under Republican control of the House. Learn more about the bill here.
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to join 41 House Democrats in supporting H.R.9578, providing that “Donald J. Trump is ineligible to again hold the office of President of the United States or to hold any office, civil or military, under the United States” during the lame duck session. Contact our senators and urge them to introduce the bill in the Senate, and get this passed in the lame duck. Urge them to return after Christmas if necessary to get this done. Learn more about the bill here.
5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to accept work requirements in order to reinstate and make permanent the expanded child tax credit in the lame duck. The expanded child tax credit was temporary for 2021 as a Covid relief . The expanded Child Tax Credit helped lift millions of children out of poverty before expiring last year. Earlier this session, Manchin effectively prevented it from being made permanent in the original Build Back Better bill. Pres. Biden is willing to sign a bill containing the expansion with work requirements. So should we. Learn more here.

 

12/2/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for voting to avert a railroad strike that would have had a disastrous effect on the economy. The House passed two versions of the resolution, one of which included 7 days of paid sick leave. In the Senate, a total of 52 senators, including 44 Democrats, two independents and six Republicans voted to mandate sick leave for rail workers, while 42 Republicans and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin voted against mandated sick leave. The version of the resolution (H.J.Res.100) that did not include paid sick leave passed the Senate by a vote of 80 to 15. Five senators who caucus with the Democrats voted against the resolution (Gillibrand, Merkley, Sanders Hickenlooper and Warren). Sen. Warnock was in Georgia and did not vote. When Pres. Biden signs H.J.Res.100, any strike would be considered illegal and the strikers could be fired. Learn more about how this vote happened here. That the final resolution did not include sick leave for railroad workers is a travesty. This is another example of why it is so important to end the filibuster. Encourage our members of Congress to pass legislation requiring at minimum seven days of paid sick leave for all workers who receive a W-2.
2. Contact our senators and urge them to confirm Nancy Abudu to the Eleventh Circuit Court. Under the power sharing rules of the evenly divided Senate, each Senate committee has the same number of Democratic and GOP members, which allows GOP members of the Judiciary Committee to effectively block Pres. Biden’s nominees to the federal judiciary. That is what happened with the nomination of Nancy Abudu, a  renowned voting rights expert in May, when the vote was 11-11. Abudu is the current Director of Strategic Litigation at the Southern Poverty Law Center and is a former Legal Director for the ACLU of Florida and a former senior staff counsel and staff attorney for the ACLU Voting Rights Project. As a member of the Democratic leadership team, Sen. Murray should encourage Majority Leader Schumer to discharge the nomination from the committee and bring it to the floor of a full vote, where Abudu will likely be confirmed.
3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY) as the House Democratic caucus leader. Jeffries is replacing Nancy Pelosi, who announced that she was stepping down from leadership last month. Her leadership team is also stepping down, with Katherine Clark (MA) and Pete Aguilar (CA) moving into the number 2 and 3 leadership roles, respectively. With the election of Jeffries (52), Clark (59) and Aguilar (43), the average age of the top three Democratic leaders is lowered from 83 to 51. Jeffries has described himself as a “Black progressive Democrat concerned with addressing racial and social and economic injustice with the fierce urgency of now.” He also has said that “there will never be a moment where I bend the knee to hard-left democratic socialism.” Learn more here.
4. Contact our senators and urge them to pass H.R.8873, the Presidential Election Reform Act, which the House passed on Sept. 21. The bill’s original co-sponsors are Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Rep. Liz Cheney, both members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, and reflects their conclusions after a year of investigation. The bill specifies that the choice of electors must occur in accordance with the laws of the state enacted prior to election day. The bill also specifies that the voting time for a state’s presidential election may only be extended due to a catastrophic event, defined as a major natural disaster, act of terrorism, or widespread power outage if it (1) prevents a substantial portion of a state’s electorate from casting a ballot on election day, or (2) causes a substantial number of ballots already cast in a state to be destroyed or rendered unreadable. Additionally, the bill requires each state’s governor to certify the appointment of electors for the state. Further, the bill provides for expedited judicial review for an action brought by an aggrieved presidential or vice-presidential candidate with respect to the issuance or transmission of a certificate of appointment. Lastly, the bill specifies that the role of the presiding officer (the Vice President or, in the absence of the Vice President, the President pro tempore) during the joint session shall be ministerial in nature, and raises the objection threshold in Congress to at least one-third of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them include raising the debt ceiling in the must-pass funding bill this month. It is estimated that the debt ceiling will need to be raised in the summer of 2023. As reported by Axios, GOP leaders (particularly Jason Smith (R-MO)) are already preparing to hold raising the 2023 debt limit hostage in order to extract cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Such a scenario is expected to be worse than the 2011 debt-ceiling shutdown because then Speaker John Boehner was strong enough to get his Tea Party caucus cranks to back down. The now-hypothetical Speaker Kevin McCarthy seems unlikely to fill Boehner’s shoes. Learn more here. This editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recommends eliminating the debt ceiling entirely in that it serves no useful purpose other than being taken as hostage. Urge our members of Congress to fund Ukraine, too. McCarthy has also indicated the his GOP opposition to more aid to Ukraine, as discussed in this Washington Post article.

11/18/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for working to pass H.R. 8404, the Respect for Marriage Act during the lame duck session. The House passed the bill in July. In the Senate last week, twelve Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting for cloture, clearing the way for passage before the end of the session. The bill repeals and replaces provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in United States v. Windsor in 2013. It also replaces provisions that do not require states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states with provisions that prohibit the denial of full faith and credit or any right or claim relating to out-of-state marriages on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin. In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court held that state laws barring same-sex marriages were unconstitutional. When passed, the Respect for Marriage Act will be in place if the Supreme Court reverses the United States v. Windsor, Obergefell v. Hodges or Loving v. Virginia (in which the Supreme Court held that state laws barring interracial marriage were unconstitutional.

2. Contact our senators and urge them to pass H.R.8873, the Presidential Election Reform Act, which the House passed on Sept. 21. The bill’s original co-sponsors are Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Rep. Liz Cheney, both members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, and reflects their conclusions after a year of investigation. The bill specifies that the choice of electors must occur in accordance with the laws of the state enacted prior to election day. The bill also specifies that the voting time for a state’s presidential election may only be extended due to a catastrophic event, defined as a major natural disaster, act of terrorism, or widespread power outage if it (1) prevents a substantial portion of a state’s electorate from casting a ballot on election day, or (2) causes a substantial number of ballots already cast in a state to be destroyed or rendered unreadable. Additionally, the bill requires each state’s governor to certify the appointment of electors for the state. Further, the bill provides for expedited judicial review for an action brought by an aggrieved presidential or vice-presidential candidate with respect to the issuance or transmission of a certificate of appointment. Lastly, the bill specifies that the role of the presiding officer (the Vice President or, in the absence of the Vice President, the President pro tempore) during the joint session shall be ministerial in nature, and raises the objection threshold in Congress to at least one-third of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to raise the debt ceiling now, or better yet, eliminate the debt ceiling entirely. It is estimated that the debt ceiling will need to be raised in the summer of 2023. As reported by Axios, GOP leaders (particularly Jason Smith (R-MO)) are already preparing to hold raising the 2023 debt limit hostage in order to extract cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Such a scenario is expected to be worse than the 2011 debt-ceiling shutdown because then Speaker John Boehner was strong enough to get his Tea Party caucus cranks to back down. The now-hypothetical Speaker Kevin McCarthy seems unlikely to fill Boehner’s shoes. Learn more here. This editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recommends eliminating the debt ceiling entirely in that it serves no useful purpose other than being taken as hostage.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.3181, Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Enforcement Act. The bill would establish statutory prohibitions, investigatory mechanisms and enforcement provisions regarding the receipt from a foreign or domestic government of profits, gains, advantages, or payments (i.e., emoluments) by U.S. officeholders. We just learned that officials from China, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates spent more than $750,000 at former president Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington as they were trying to influence his administration, according to documents turned over to congressional investigators. Learn why passing this bill into law is so important here.

5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to end ACO Reach. This program, begun under Trump and continued with modifications under Pres. Biden, is one more step on the path toward the complete privatization of Medicare. The first step toward privatizing Medicare was Medi-gap insurance plans. The next step was Medicare Advantage plans, which have been found to have cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars since 2018 while delaying treatment or never providing treatment at all. Under ACO REACH, the federal government simply gives insurance companies Medicare money and lets them keep any money not spent on patient care. Learn more about ACO Reach here. Rep. Kilmer says ACO REACH is not the privatization of Medicare, even though it clearly is. Read this letter written by Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action to Rep. Kilmer, signed by 83 organizations and 565 individuals (including Sen. Christine Rolfes) urging Rep. Kilmer to stop supporting ACO REACH. Read this ad placed by Clallam and Jefferson County constituents in the Peninsula Daily News calling for Rep. Kilmer to call for an end to the ACO REACH program.

10/21/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to raise the debt ceiling now, or better yet, eliminate the debt ceiling entirely. It is estimated that the debt ceiling will need to be raised in the summer of 2023. As reported by Axios, GOP leaders (particularly Jason Smith (R-MO)) are already preparing to hold raising the 2023 debt limit hostage in order to extract cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Such a scenario is expected to be worse than the 2011 debt-ceiling shutdown because then Speaker John Boehner was strong enough to get his Tea Party caucus cranks to back down. The now-hypothetical Speaker Kevin McCarthy seems unlikely to fill Boehner’s shoes. Learn more here. This editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recommends eliminating the debt ceiling entirely in that it serves no useful purpose other than being taken as hostage.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to join the bipartisan group of senators who want to end the authorization for military force that gave George W. Bush authorization to invade Iraq. “By failing to repeal outdated and unnecessary AUMFs, Congress is abdicating its responsibility to provide oversight over military action and leaving these war authorizations subject to abuse,” Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN) said in a joint statement on Oct. 14. Learn more here.
3. Contact our senators and tell them to join Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) in co-sponsoring and passing S-977, the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act, or NOPEC Act, which would crack down on anticompetitive behavior by foreign oil producing nation. The bill would let the federal government take action against price fixing by OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and its partner nations. The bill was introduced in March of last year well before Saudi Arabia joined OPEC+ in slashing oil production at the beginning of this month. Learn more here.

4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and tell him to co-sponsor and pass H.R.69, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. The bill would make daylight savings time the new, permanent standard time. The Senate has already passed the same bill, S.623. We’ve been switching between standard time and daylight savings time since 1918. We’ll be switching again on Nov. 6. Maybe we’re seeing the cumulative effect of sleep deprivation in our anger levels and murder rates. It’s more than time to end this national fiasco. This bill was passed by the Democratic-controlled House in the  previous session of Congress. If this bill is not passed this year, they’ll have to go through the whole process again. Learn more here.

10/7/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.7706/S.4177, the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act of 2022. The bill would require federal judges and Supreme Court Justices to report on each association or interest that would require recusal, including any financial interest of a spouse or minor child who resides in the household and establish a committee to review complaints against the Supreme Court. Learn more here.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) in his plan to reintroduce legislation instructing U.S. officials to “initiate dispute proceedings” against OPEC members at the World Trade Organization for violating the body’s price-manipulation rules. Last week, Saudi Arabia announced that it will join with other OPEC members to cut oil production in order to keep prices high. Accordingly, the price of gasoline shot up by a dollar a gallon. Learn more here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to preserve the Jacobs-Davidson Amendment to the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act so that the U.S. military cannot bypass the Fourth Amendment by buying our internet browsing history, emails, and other sensitive information without a warrant. Learn more here.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to finish the job that Pres. Biden started with his AI Bill of Rights that outlines how the public should be protected from algorithmic systems and the harms they can produce. AI offers a whole new way to insert institutional racism into our society. Learn more here.

5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.365, the Marijuana 1-to-3 Act of 2021. The bill would revise the Controlled Substances Act by moving marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3. A schedule I controlled substance is a drug, substance, or chemical that has a high potential for abuse; that has no currently accepted medical use; and that is subject to regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal penalties under the Controlled Substances Act. A schedule III controlled substance is a drug, substance, or chemical that has less potential for abuse than a schedule I or II substance; that has a currently accepted medical use; and that has low or moderate risk of dependence if abused.

9/30/2022

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting in favor of H.R.8873, the Presidential Election Reform Act, a bill to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which the House passed on Sept. 21. Just nine Republicans voted in favor of this bill; none of them are returning to Congress in 2023. The bill was written by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), both members of the House Select Committee on Jan. 6. It aims to ambiguities in the Electoral Count Act that Trump allies tried to use to overturn the 2020 election.  According to the Washington Post, the bill “clearly reaffirm[s] that the vice president has no role in validating a presidential election beyond acting as a figurehead who oversees the counting process, barring that person from changing the results. It also would expand the threshold necessary for members of both chambers to object to a state’s results, as well as clarify the role governors play in the process. Finally, it would make clear that state legislatures can’t change election rules retroactively to alter the results.” Learn more here. The Senate is working on its own bill to reform the Electoral Count Act that is said to be less detailed than H.R.8873. Urge our senators to pass H.R.8873, if they can muster enough votes to break through the filibuster.

2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for co-sponsoring H.R.4198, the Mental Health in Schools Excellence Program Act of 2021. This bipartisan bill would address the “critical shortage of mental health professionals, like school psychologists, social workers, and counselors. The bill will establish partnerships between the U.S. Department of Education and eligible graduate programs to cover up to 50 percent of attendance costs for students attaining graduate degrees in the field of school psychology. This investment will allow more people to become school-based mental health service providers.,” according to the bill’s author, Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ).

3. In the news this week, we learned that Montana plans to reallocate $6 million in federal funds for workforce training to help businesses automate. We also learned that Mississippi used $6 million in welfare funds to build a volleyball stadium on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) because retired football player Brett Favre’s daughter, who attends USM, likes to play volleyball. (Favre earned a total of nearly $140 million in salary over the span of two decades.) Urge our members of Congress to write and pass laws that require states to return federal tax dollars if states don’t use the money for the intended purpose, or be subject to litigation.
4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to restore the expanded child tax credit that expired at the end of last year. According to the Sept. 18 Seattle Times editorial, “[n]ationally, the enhanced tax credit is largely responsible for an unprecedented 46% drop in child poverty in a single year — from 9.7% to 5.2% between 2020 and 2021. In Washington, nearly 1.4 million children in nearly 800,000 families received the expanded credit. Its permanent expansion would lift an estimated 67,000 Washington kids out of poverty and reduce the state’s childhood poverty rate by 43%, according to an Urban Institute study. But for Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, Democrats would have made permanent the expanded child tax credit by including it in a reconciliation bill. When Democrats expand their majority in the Senate and keep the House in this year’ midterms, making the expanded child tax credit permanent will be a reality. Let our members of Congress know they have your support.

9/16/2022

1. Contact our senators and urge them to confirm as many Biden appointees to the federal judicial system as possible before the end of the 2021-2022 session. Even though Pres. Biden has appointed and gotten confirmed a record number of judges in his first two years in office, in July Christopher Kang at Slate.com noted that “President Biden and Senate Democrats are on track to leave more than 60 judicial vacancies open at the end of this year.” If the GOP gets the Senate majority in November, no more judges are likely to be confirmed in the next two years. “Our federal courts are so far out of balance that we need the president and the Senate to do everything in their power to ensure justice and equality. That means filling every vacancy, even if it means breaking with the few remaining judicial confirmation process norms left in McConnell’s wake or standing up to Republican senators. Beginning to bring balance to our judiciary is more important than respecting Senate traditions,” Kang wrote. If our senators need additional prodding, remind them of the most recent example of Trump judicial confirmations: Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon whose “latest order shows a disregard for established law,” according to Ian Millhiser writing at vox.com.

2. In order to get Joe Manchin’s vote in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act, Majority Leader Schumer agreed guarantee a vote on Manchin’s bill to streamline the federal oil and gas pipe line permitting process. True to his word, Schumer plans to attach Manchin’s  must-pass legislation to the continuing resolution to fund the government through mid-December. In a letter to Nancy Pelosi last week, 70 House lawmakers argued that Manchin’s reforms would make it easier to greenlight harmful oil and gas projects and reduce constituents’ abilities to oppose such projects. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to NOT include the side-deal in the CR currently under consideration. Read about it here.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to vote again for the nomination of Arianna Freeman for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Freeman is an exemplary nominee who personifies Biden’s commitment to install judges who will ensure everyone can see themselves represented on our courts. She is a public defender and has worked with hundreds of clients who could not afford counsel. She would be the second public defender, the first Black woman, and the first woman of color ever to sit on the Third Circuit (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware & the Virgin Islands)—a part of the country that is home to over three million Black people. A full Senate vote was held on Sept. 13 and failed by a vote of 47 to 50, with Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Don Young (R-IN) absent. By voting “No” on the nomination, Schumer seems to be preparing for another vote with all senators present and VP Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.
4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to answer Pres. Biden’s call to eliminate the liability protections accorded to social media companies by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Rep. A. Donald McEachin (D-VA) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) have introduced H.R.3421/S. 299, the SAFE TECH Act, which “would limit federal liability protection that applies to a user or provider of an interactive computer service (e.g., a social media company) for claims related to content provided by third parties.” Some critics of the bill say it wouldn’t make the Internet safer for users. Others say the bill would inhibit free speech. The bill focuses on paid content such as political advertisements, and doesn’t solve the problem of social media companies that allow hate speech and harmful conspiracy theories to thrive on their platforms. For that reason, Congress needs to come up with a better bill to address this issue and give social media companies an incentive for solving this problem in user-provided information as well as in advertisements. In June, Facebook’s software failed again to detect obviously violent hate speech in advertisements. Read about that here.
5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting in favor of and passing H.R.302, the Preventing a Patronage System Act, If also passed by the Senate, the bill would prevent a president from moving federal civil service workers to a new schedule where they could more easily be fired. This bill is a response to the former president’s executive order issued shortly before he lost the 2020 election to create Schedule F, that have allowed Trump to purge as many as 50,000 nonpartisan civil servants he deemed to have influence over policy decisions and fill their jobs with “loyalists to him and his ‘America First’ ideology, as reported by Axios. Urge our senators to pass S.4702, a related bill in the Senate.

9/9/2022

1. Contact our senators and urge them to vote “No” on the nomination of Casey Arrowood to be the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The previous president created the “China Initiative,” a policy to root out Chinese economic espionage. Casey Arrowood was the first prosecutor to use the “China Initiative” to target academics of Chinese origin. For example, with only a Chinese press release translated poorly via Google as evidence, Arrowood accused Dr. Anming Hu of being a spy. He then placed Dr. Hu and his teenage son under FBI surveillance for over a year. When that didn’t pan out, Arrowood tried to mount a wire fraud case against Dr. Hu that was so weak a federal judge had it tossed out. Learn more here.

2. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for co-sponsoring H.R.5444/S.2907, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act and urge them to get this bill passed this year. NativeNewsOnline.net says “the Truth and Healing Commission Bill on Indian Boarding School Policies Act aims to address Indian boarding schools and the harmful legacy it has left among American Indian communities and families. If passed, it would establish powers, duties, and membership of a commission and would investigate the impacts and ongoing effects of the Indian Boarding School Policies. The commission would be empowered to investigate, document, and acknowledge the injustices that led to the immeasurable cultural loss at Indian boarding schools that were operated, maintained, and supported by the U.S. federal government.” Learn more here.
3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.3332, the Manufactured Housing Community Preservation Act of 2021. In a tele-town hall led by Rep. Kilmer on Sept. 7, a caller from Forks, WA said the mobile home she owns is located in a mobile home park that has a new owner. The new owner has raised the rent for the space on which her mobile home sits from $350/month to $1,000/month. She will likely have to sell her mobile home and move in with her mother who also owns a mobile home in the same park. H.R.3332 will not help the caller from Forks, but if enacted, it will help prevent people from facing such situations in the future. It would require the Department of Housing and Urban Development to award grants to nonprofit organizations, public housing agencies, and other entities for the preservation of manufactured housing communities. Such funds may be used to (1) acquire and preserve manufactured housing communities; (2) make improvements to common areas and community property in such communities; and (3) demolish, remove, and replace dilapidated homes in such communities. A grantee that uses funds to acquire a manufactured housing community must agree to maintain the community for at least 20 years. Learn more here.
4. Contact Sen. Murray and thank her for introducing H.R.2817/S.1360, the Child Care for Working Families Act, thank Sen. Cantwell and Rep. Kilmer for being a co-sponsor. The bill “would address the current early learning and care crisis by ensuring that no family under 150 percent of state median income pays more than seven percent of their income on child care. Families would pay their fair share for care on a sliding scale, regardless of the number of children they have. The bill would also support universal access to high-quality preschool programs for all 3- and 4-year olds. Finally, the bill would significantly improve compensation and training for the child care workforce to ensure that our nation’s teachers and caregivers have the support they need, as well as the children they are caring for, to thrive.” Learn more here.

8/26/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for passing H.R.7334, the COVID-19 EIDL Fraud Statute of Limitations Act of 2022, and H.R.7352, the PPP and Bank Fraud Enforcement Harmonization Act of 2022. The bills extend to ten years the statute of limitations for fraud by borrowers under the Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs and for fraud by borrowers under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program. Learn more about these bills here.

2. Contact our senators and urge them to support and pass H.R.5273/S.3071, the Social Security 2100 Act: A Sacred Trust. Thank Rep. Kilmer for already being a cosponsor of this bill. The bill would increase by an average of 2% of the current monthly benefit for all Social Security beneficiaries to make up for inadequate Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLA) since 1983. The bill also improves the annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) formula to better reflect the costs incurred by seniors by adopting the “CPI-E formula.” The bill also would increase the minimum benefit to 25% above the poverty line. Currently, the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare only applies to wages under $142,800. This bill would apply the payroll tax to wages above $400,000. The bill would also extend Social Security trust fund solvency for four years, through 2039. Learn more here.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor H.R.6843/S.4530, the Building Civic Bridges Act. The bill was introduced by Rep. Kilmer in the House and Sen. Chris Coons in the Senate. The bill would amend the National and Community Service Act of 1990 to establish an Office of Civic Bridgebuilding within the Corporation for National and Community Service that would administer a grant program to fund community activities aimed at improving the civic discourse in our country. Learn more about this bill here.

4. Contact our senators and urge them to cosponsor and pass S.2921, the Protecting Our Democracy Act. Thank Rep. Kilmer for voting in favor of the Protecting Our Democracy Act in the House, which passed the bill last December. The bill would prohibit presidential self-pardons, suspend the statute of limitations for federal offenses committed by a sitting president or vice president and requires cause for the removal of inspectors general, imposes limits on presidential declarations of emergencies. The bill would also require candidates for president and vice president to provide copies of tax returns, require federal campaigns to report contacts made by foreigners and establishes a program to support states and localities in transitioning to ranked choice voting systems, as well as other things.

8/19/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for passing H.R.5376, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Here are just some things to like about this bill and mention:

   1. Medicare – Source: kff.org
      1. Starting in 2023, insulin is capped at $35/month.
      2. Starting in 2026, Medicare can negotiate pricing for ten Part D drugs; in 2027, Medicare can negotiate another 15 Part D drugs; in 2028, another 15 Part B and Part D drugs; and in 2029 and later years, another 20 Part B and Part D drugs.
      3. Starting in 2025, Medicare out-of-pocket prescription drug are capped at $2,000/year.
   2. Climate – Source: earthjustice.org
      1. $3 billion for the USPS to electrify its fleet of more than 217,000 vehicles.
      2. $1 billion for clean school and transit buses, garbage trucks, and other heavy-duty vehicles, prioritizing communities overburdened by air pollution
      3. $3 billion to clean up air pollution at ports by installing zero emissions equipment and technology.
      4. $315.5 million for air monitoring, especially for communities near polluting industry.
      5. Reinstatement of the Superfund Tax so that industry foots the bill for cleaning up their pollution.
      6. More than $20 billion to help farmers and ranchers shift to sustainable practices like crop rotation and cover crops.
      7. A 30% tax credit for installing residential solar panels.
      8. Up to $7,500 for purchasing an electric vehicle
   3. Taxes – Source: Kiplinger.com
      1. No increase in taxes on small businesses or on families that make $400,000 or less.
      2. With Sen. Sinema (AZ) determined to protect the carried interest loophole, that provision was replaced with a 1% excise tax on corporate stock buybacks.
      3. A minimum 15% tax on corporations that make over $1 billion per year in reported income.
      4. $80 billion for IRS tax enforcement focused on the wealthy, who have been cheating on their taxes to the tune of $600 billion to $1 trillion a year.
          
2. Contact our senators and Gov. Inslee and urge them to become more involved in the clean-up of leaking nuclear waste tanks in Hanford, WA. Of the 56 million gallons of nuclear waste stored in Hanford’s high-level nuclear waste tanks, 30 million gallons are still stored in single shell tanks (SSTs). In February 2013, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that SST T-111 was leaking and that tanks B-203, B-204, T-203, T-204, and TY-105 were assumed to be leaking. In April 2021, the DOE announced that tank B-109 alone is leaking an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 gallons of radioactive waste a year. The DOE has taken 18 years to build a vitrification plant to convert liquid radioactive and chemical waste into a solid, stable glass. If construction stays on schedule, the plant won’t be ready to operate until the end of 2023. Meanwhile the tanks continue to leak radioactive material into the soil (and eventually the groundwater and the Columbia River) with no plan at all to clean that up. A recently conducted test proved that the radioactive waste can be safely transferred from leaking tanks and safely stored in new tanks while the vitrification plat is built. Our senators and governor should pressure the DOE to transfer all nuclear waste from the SSTs to double-shell tanks. Learn more here.
3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to write legislation requiring the Dept. of Health and Human Services to distribute vaccines that are about to expire to the world. John Oliver, the host of Last Week Tonight, recently reported that the U.S. allowed 20 million doses of the monkeypox vaccine to expire, “which seems especially unconscionable,” said Oliver, given that “multiple African countries have had outbreaks of monkeypox for decades now and might’ve appreciated a shot or two. Sharing vaccines would’ve served two purposes – basic human decency but also abject selfishness in that stopping outbreaks over there might well have prevented the current outbreak over here.” Learn more here.
4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to vote “no” on Sen. Manchin’s bill to get permitted the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline that would run through West Virginia. A vote on this bill was the part of the price for Manchin’s support for the Inflation Reduction Act. That doesn’t mean Democrats need to vote in favor of this bill. From Pro Publica: “The White House and congressional leaders have agreed to step in and ensure final approval of all permits that the Mountain Valley Pipeline needs, according to a summary released by Manchin’s office Monday evening. The agreement, which would require separate legislation, would also strip jurisdiction over any further legal challenges to those permits from a federal appeals court that has repeatedly ruled that the project violated the law.” Democrats owe Joe Manchin nothing, and with the election of John Fetterman (D-PA), Mandela Barnes (D-WI), Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Val Demings (D-FL), Manchin will become irrelevant. 

8/12/2022

Nothing new.

8/5/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for passing H.R.3967/,S.3373, the “Honoring Our Pact Act.” When Schumer and Manchin came together to finalize a narrower Build Back Better bill to be passed under reconciliation, retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) led a last-minute revolt against the “Honoring Our PACT Act” in a fit of pique. Thirty-six GOP senators found their way to voting for this bill on Aug. 2. Learn more here.

2. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to pass the Inflation Reduction Act without any GOP “poison pill” amendments. In the Senate, the bill must go through an extensive “vote-a-rama”—where senators can propose a myriad of amendments. Republicans are prepared to introduce outrageous measures designed to divide Democrats. For example, they may propose an extension of Donald Trump’s racist Title 42 that uses the COVID pandemic as a pretext for denying refugees asylum at the border. Learn more here.

3. Contact our senators and tell them to fix a critical flaw in S.4573, the “Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022.” The critical flaw is that the bill does not address the independent state legislature theory – a theory that Trump lawyers like John Eastman brought into being in an attempt to overthrow the free and fair election of Joe Biden and that will be considered by the Supreme Court in its next session. Under the theory, the U.S. Constitution empowers state legislatures to overturn the will of the state’s voters in choosing electors for president and vice-president. According to constitutional scholar, Laurence Tribe and others, there is a way around this: the Constitution’s Article II. Article II gives Congress the authority to enact laws to “determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes.” Congress, through the Constitution’s “Necessary and Proper” clause, has broad authority to adopt any means, not prohibited by the Constitution, to carry out this power. Learn more here.

4. Contact Sen. Maria Cantwell and urge her to co-sponsor and pass H.R.2773/S.2372, the “Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.” This bipartisan bill would provide funding for the conservation or restoration of wildlife and plant species of greatest conservation need, including endangered or threatened species. This bill has already passed the House with Rep. Kilmer’s support. Sen. Patty Murray is already a co-sponsor.

5. Contact our senators and urge them to vote “no” on the “Reproductive Freedom for All Act,” (no number yet) should it come up for a vote. The bill is sponsored by Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). NARAL Pro-Choice America president Mini Timmaraju declared that “this bill is just another political stunt that would not actually address the abortion rights and access crisis that has pushed care out of reach for millions of people already.” Sen. Tim Kaine admitted the bill is the bare minimum. “What the four of us were trying to do was put a statutory minimum in place that replicated what the law was a day before Dobbs,” he said. That “minimum” would allow states to continue to impose severe restrictions on abortion and is no solution at all.  Learn more here.

7/29/2022

1. Call our senators and tell them to pass H.R.8404, the “Respect for Marriage Act,” which codifies the nation-wide legality of same-sex and interracial marriages in the United States. It is obvious that the current Supreme Court will take down same-sex marriage if such a case makes its way to the Court. That Clarence Thomas himself is in an interracial marriage may protect such marriages, but don’t count on it. Tell our senators that they include a provision in the Respect for Marriage Act that prevents federal appellate courts from reviewing it. Learn about jurisdiction-stripping here and here.

2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting in favor of H.R.6552, the “Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022.” The bill reauthorizes programs to combat human trafficking and addresses related issues through fiscal year 2026. The programs include Department of State and Department of Justice activities to combat human trafficking internationally and the Angel Watch Center, a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement program that notifies foreign countries of the pending arrival of certain convicted sex offenders. Learn more here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to vote in favor of the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” (no number yet). The bill puts the U.S. on target to reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030 through tax credits, including credits that aim to make homes more energy-efficient, incentivize clean energy vehicles purchases, and spur the use of clean sources of electricity and energy storage. The bill establishes a 15% minimum corporate income tax on companies with more than $1 billion in profits in a year. The bill finally closes the carried interest loophole that allows private equity and hedge fund managers to claim large parts of their compensation for services as investment gains, which are taxed at a lower rate than regular income. The bill increases IRS funding to track down wealthy tax cheats. The tax provisions in this bill aim to reduce the federal deficit by $300 billion or more. Learn more here.

4. Contact our senators and urge them to vote “No” on the nomination of Andrew Biggs to the Social Security Advisory Board. Biggs has advocated for Social Security cuts throughout his career. He was instrumental in the Bush administration’s 2005 attempt to privatize Social Security. In 2013, Biggs advocated for raising the retirement age. He supports means-testing Social Security. Learn more here.

5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting in favor of H.R.1808, the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2022.” The bill makes it a crime to knowingly import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon (SAW) or large capacity ammunition feeding device (LCAFD). Urge our senators to pass this bill in the Senate.

7/22/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to pass H.R.2584/S.1141, the Judiciary Act of 2021, which would expand the Supreme Court from nine to thirteen justices. Learn why this is such an important step to take.
2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting in favor of H.R.8373, known as the Right to Contraception Act. Just eight GOP-ers voted for this bill, which would protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception. Contact our senators and urge them to pass this bill in the Senate with language that would prevent the Supreme Court from reviewing this law. Learn more here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.8005/S.4365, the Social Security Expansion Act introduced by Rep. Pete DeFazio and Sen. Bernie Sanders, respectively. The bill would expand Social Security benefits by $2,400 a year, fully fund Social Security for the next 75 years by applying the payroll tax on all income – including capital gains – above $250,000 a year.” Learn more here.

4. Contact our senators and tell them to co-sponsor and pass S.1788, the Restoring the IRS Act, introduced last year by Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The bill would increase appropriations after FY2021 for the expenses of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for taxpayer services, enforcement activities, and business systems modernization. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor and pass H.R. 1116, the IRS Enhancement and Tax Gap Reduction Act of 2021, introduced last year by Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-OR). Each year, the richest 1% evades $163 billion in taxes because after decades of gutting by the Republicans, the IRS is ill-equip to enforce existing tax law. This bill would increase appropriations to the IRS significantly. If we were to invest just $80 billion over 10 years in the IRS to crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats, that investment would result in $200 billion to $400 billion in new revenue that can be used to invest in working families and our future. Learn more here.

5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to pass H.R.1334/S.443, the Disclose Act of 2021, which was part of H.R.1, the For the People Act of 2021 passed by the House but blocked in the Senate by GOP-ers. The Disclose Act addresses campaign finance, including by expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring additional disclosures of campaign expenditures, and requiring additional disclosures regarding certain political advertisements. The bill would also require organizations to provide additional disclosures regarding political advertisements, including the donors who contributed the most money to that organization in the last year. In addition to political campaigns, this bill would affect advertising that promotes or denigrates a Supreme Court nominee.

7/15/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.1814/S.4384, the Civics Secures Democracy Act. The bill would provide essential funding, resources, and guidance for teachers, leaders, and community members to ensure that young people emerge from school with the knowledge and skills they need to secure American democracy now and in the future. Learn more about this bill here.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to take the advice of Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), a Harvard law school graduate, who says Congress has the authority under Article III of the Constitution to limit the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction in the areas of abortion, marriage equality, non-procreative intimacy and contraception. Without invoking that authority , if Congress passes the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify Roe with a filibuster carveout, the current Supreme Court will just strike it down. Read about it here.

3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting in favor of H.R.8297, Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022. The bill would protect the right of people to travel across state lines to receive abortion care. The House passed this bill last week. Learn more about the need for federal legislation to protect girls and women from laws limiting their ability to travel.

7/8/2022

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to vote in favor of H.R.8297, Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022. The bill would protect the right of people to travel across state lines to receive abortion care. Learn more about the need for federal legislation to protect girls and women from laws limiting their ability to travel.

2. Contact our members of Congress and tell them it’s more than time to ban the sale of assault weapons and eliminate the protections from liability given by Congress to gun manufacturers. The GOP-controlled Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, signed by then-president George W. Bush in 2005. Learn more about an assault weapons ban here. Learn more about PLCAA here.

3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting in favor of H.R.6538, the Active Shooter Alert Act of 2022. The bill would require the DOJ to designate an active shooter coordinator to act as the national coordinator of an Active Shooter Alert Communications Network regarding an emergency involving an active shooter. This bill failed a House vote on June 22. The procedure by which the bill was brought up for a vote required a 2/3 majority for passage. 161 GOPers voted against the bill, and 44 GOPers voted in favor of the bill. The House is considering another vote on this bill. Learn more here.

4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and ask how he can justify appropriating just $375 million (when Pres. Biden requested $420 million) to the Bureau of Indian Education to repair and rebuild the 183 K-12 tribal schools that have been crumbling for decades. That’s a fraction of the $4.5 billion needed to upgrade the 86 schools rated as being in poor condition and 41 schools that are in fair condition. Read “ Native American Kids’ Schools Are Crumbling And Unsafe. Congress Won’t Fix Them.”

5. Contact Sen. Murray and thank her for helping Yakima secure $500,000 in funding to reduce domestic violence committed with firearms. Maybe Kitsap County could use some help, too: Bremerton “man accused of shooting woman in the face has seven felony convictions.” Learn more about the Yakima grant here.

7/1/22

1. Contact our senators and tell them to work with Sen. Tina Smith on her bill to codify abortion pill access. Learn more here.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.1086/H.R.2182, the Access to Birth Control Act. This bill would require pharmacies to comply with certain requirements related to providing contraceptives. For example, a pharmacy must provide a customer with a requested contraceptive without delay if it is in stock and must ensure that customers are not intimidated, threatened, or harassed with respect to their requests for contraceptives.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to update the Clean Air Act to include greenhouse emissions. Sen. Murray released a statement saying “[t]his deeply harmful ruling underscores the urgent need for Congress to pass a bold climate plan—I’m fighting as hard as I can to deliver a landmark investment in climate action and clean energy to President Biden’s desk as soon as possible.” Learn more here.

4. Since the Supreme Court does not believe the U.S. Constitution guarantees a right to privacy, contact our members of Congress and urge them to write and pass legislation guaranteeing a right of privacy. They could base such a bill on the Fourth Amendment, which states that “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Thank Sen. Cantwell for co-sponsoring S.4434, the “My Body, My Data Act of 2022.”

5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.2584/S.1141 the Judiciary Act of 2021. This bill would increase to 13 the number of justices on the Supreme Court. Learn more here.

6/24/22

1. Contact our senators and tell them to get Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to reconsider their stands on a carve-out of the filibuster in order to protect reproductive rights in this “land of the free and home of the brave.” “I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans,” Manchin said in a statement. Kyrsten Sinema said “Throughout my time in Congress, I’ve always supported women’s access to health care, and I’ll continue working with anyone to protect women’s ability to make decisions about their futures.” Well, Sinema, get working on that filibuster carve out.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.8005/S.4365, the Social Security Expansion Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Pete DeFazio and in the Senate by Sen. Bernie Sanders. The bill would “scrap the cap” that currently exempts income above $142,800 from taxation for Social Security purposes. The bill would expand Social Security benefits by $2,400 a year and fully fund it for the next 75 years without raising taxes by one penny on over 93 percent of American households. Learn more here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for co-sponsoring H.R.5444/S.2907, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. The bill would establish the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States and sets forth its powers, duties, and membership. The commission must investigate the impacts and ongoing effects of the Indian Boarding School Policies (federal policies under which American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children were forcibly removed from their family homes and placed in boarding schools). The commission is required to develop recommendations on ways to (1) protect unmarked graves and accompanying land protections; (2) support repatriation and identify the tribal nations from which children were taken; and (3) discontinue the removal of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children from their families and tribal communities by state social service departments, foster care agencies, and adoption agencies. Learn more here and here.

4. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for voting for the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” but remind them that this bill is painfully modest. It doesn’t raise the age to purchase an assault rifle from 18 to 21. States like Texas will not apply for money to set up a red flag system, or if they do, they’ll use the money to build more border wall or give a gun to every five-year old.

5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to pass the “Keep Kids Fed Act” (no number assigned yet). The bill will provide important funding and flexibility for communities to provide children healthy meals this summer and provide support to schools and daycares to respond to supply chain challenges and high food costs for the coming school year. Learn more here.

6/17/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to make illegal selling and owning hellfire trigger devices. A hellfire trigger device is a gun accessory that allows a semi-automatic rifle to fire at rates similar to machine gun (900 rounds per minute). The Uvalde shooter owned a hellfire trigger device, but allegedly did not use it, but we won’t know until Texas authorities complete their six-month investigation – after Gov. Greg Abbott faces voters in November. Learn more about hellfire trigger devices here.
2. Contact our senators and thank them for voting in favor of H.R.3967, the Honoring Our PACT Act. According to the VA, some 3.5 million American veterans were exposed to air from poisonous burn pits in deployments overseas since the nation went to war in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Growing numbers have gotten sick or died from that exposure, having breathed in smoke all-too-similar to the toxic clouds surrounding the devastated World Trade Center. The smoke came from massive pits that the military used to burn plastics, medical waste, ammunition and anything else, even setting it aflame with jet fuel, much like the accelerant that burned the twin towers. The bill would guarantee health benefits without red tape to any veteran suffering from various illnesses, including certain cancers and breathing disorders. The bill is expected to pass easily in the House. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to vote in favor of the bill. More info here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.7706/S.4177, the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act of 2022, introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The bill would reform the judicial ethics system by overhauling the judicial recusal process, imposing a code of conduct on the Supreme Court and banning federal judges from owning individual stock and commercial real estate. Learn more here.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.7030/S.2710, the Open Market Apps Act. The bill would limit the kinds of restrictions major app platforms can impose on competitors, developers, and customers. The bill is vigorously opposed by Apple and Google. During a committee hearing Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), likened Apple and Google to past US railroad monopolies. “There’s been a groundswell of enthusiasm and support for this bill because the American public recognizes that the mobile market is broken,” he said. “Today the simple stark fact is that Google and Apple own the rails. They own the rails of the app economy much as the railroad companies did at the start of the last century.” Learn more here.
5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.3816/S.2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act. By defining “covered platforms” as those with at least 50 million monthly active users (or 100,000 business users); having an annual market capitalization or U.S. net sales exceeding $550 billion, and  that serve as a “critical trading partner” for its business users, the bill would give federal antitrust agencies the authority to issue civil penalties and injunctions against covered platforms for violations such as “unfairly” limiting another’s products to compete against the platform’s operator. A discussion of possible violations is here. The bill would apply to Apple, Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, and Meta (formerly Facebook) and maybe Microsoft.  Watch John Oliver explain how the monopolistic practices of these platforms inhibit American innovation.

6/10/2022

1. Contact our senators and urge them to pass H.R.7910, the Protecting Our Kids Act, which the House passed a few days ago. Thank Rep. Kilmer for voting for H.R.7910.

2. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.2028/H.R.3805, the Millionaires Surtax Act, introduced by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Don Beyers (D-VA). H.R.3805 was passed by the House as part of the Build Back Better bill that died in the Senate. The bill would impose a 5% tax on incomes above $10 million and an 8% tax on incomes above $25 million, raising $230 billion over 10 years from the wealthiest 0.02% of Americans. If the Senate does not pass this bill, Congress will have no tax increase to show for its efforts in two years. Most Americans want to raise taxes on the wealthy. Learn more here.

3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for co-sponsoring H.R. 2377, the Federal Extreme Risk Order Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) and passed by the House on June 9 with just five Republican votes (none were from Washington state). The bill would authorize and establish procedures for federal courts to issue federal extreme risk protection orders that would prohibit a person from purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm or ammunition. A family or household member, or a law enforcement officer, may petition for a federal extreme risk protection order with respect to an individual who poses a risk to themselves or others. Learn more here.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to write and pass legislation requiring that the federal government purchase military equipment such as rifles and handguns ONLY from companies that do NOT sell their products to the public. Daniel Defense, which made the AR-15 the Uvalde gunman used and markets its products to young men, was founded with a $20 million contract with U.S. Special Forces. Learn more here.

6/3/2022

1. Contact our Rep. Kilmer and urge him to make H.R.7910, the Protecting Our Kids Act, as strong as possible. The bill would amend title 18, United States Code, to provide for an increased age limit on the purchase of certain firearms, prevent gun trafficking, modernize the prohibition on untraceable firearms, encourage the safe storage of firearms. The cigarette industry is prevented from advertising on broadcast and cable networks. How about a ban on gun advertisements on social media? Learn more about the proposals here.
2. Contact our senators and urge them to reauthorize a series of waivers that have allowed public schools to creatively deliver meals to students during the pandemic. Several bills have been introduced, such as H.R.6613, the Keeping School Meals Flexible Act and S.3979, the Support Kids Not Red Tape Act, of which both of our senators are co-sponsors. Congress has until June 30 to act. Learn more here.
3. Contact Sen. Murray and thank her for working on and passing the No Surprises Act. The bill went into effect in Jan. 2022, and in the first two months, it prevented 2 million surprise medical bills. Then urge her to prevent Medicare from being privatized; more info on that here and here.
4. Contact Sen. Cantwell and thank her for introducing S.4217, the Transportation Fuel Market Transparency Act. Urge Sen. Murray to co-sponsor and Rep. Kilmer to co-sponsor the same bill, H.R.7800 in the House. The bill would expand prohibitions against manipulating fuel markets and establish a body within the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to monitor fuel markets to ensure competitiveness. Learn more here.
5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and remind him the House needs to pass S.623, the Sunshine Protection Act. The bill would make daylight saving time the new, permanent standard time, effective November 5, 2023. The Senate has already passed this bill.

5/27/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to pass S.736/ H.R.1808, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2021, which would make it a crime to knowingly import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon or large capacity ammunition feeding device. In the House, H.R. 1808 has 204 co-sponsors – not a single one is a GOP-er. Just one Democratic U.S. House member gets an A rating from the NRA: Collin Peterson (D-MN). Peterson and only two other Democrats took money from the NRA in 2018: Henry Cuellar (D-TX, also facing a primary challenge from progressive Jessica Cisneros on the day of the Uvalde tragedy) and Sanford Bishop (D-GA). Passing H.R.1808 will be tight in the House and almost certainly doomed in the Senate, but we should still try. Under current federal law, you have to be 21 to purchase a handgun from a licensed dealer, but you only have to be 18 to purchase an AR-15-style assault weapon like the one used in Uvalde and Buffalo. This is crazy, especially when so many mass murderers are less than 21 years old. At minimum, Congress should raise the legal age for purchasing an assault weapon to 21 and outlaw high-capacity magazines. Thank Rep. Kilmer for being a co-sponsor of H.R.1808 since 3/11/2021.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to pass H.R.2584/S.1141, the Judiciary Act of 2021, which would expand the Supreme Court from 9 justices to 13 justices. As the United States shifted from a largely agrarian economy to an industrial economy with major urban areas, giving each state two senators has resulted in an imbalance of representation in the U.S. Senate. California’s population of 39,613,493 are represented by two senators and the country’s smallest state in terms of population, Wyoming with 581,813 people, has two senators. This imbalance of representation gives our country’s rural population far greater political power than they should have. We see the result in our political divide with 50 GOP senators using the filibuster to stop the passage of legislation, such as universal background checks for gun purchases, the codification of abortion rights, criminal justice reform, immigration reform and climate change. The GOP has used their unmerited power in the U.S. Senate to pack the court with justices who do their bidding. It will take a crisis of monumental proportion to correct the flaw of two senators per state, but we can do something about the Supreme Court, especially now that the filibuster no longer applies to SCOTUS nominees thanks to Mitch McConnell: We can expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court. Expanding the number of justices is going to be a long term project and we need to start it now. Here’s another reason: justice delayed is justice denied. The number of justices on the Supreme Court settled at 9 in 1869. As our population grows and more laws are enacted, it stands to reason that more cases will be brought before the Supreme Court and the sheer workload will deny justice by delaying it. This is also an argument for increasing the number of judges in the entire federal court system. The last time Congress (in a bill led by Joe Biden) increased the number of federal district court judges (now set at 677) was 1990. There are currently 179 federal appellate court judges; that number was not increased by Joe Biden’s 1990 bill. The current gap of 32 years is the longest period of time in which the federal judiciary has not been expanded. Two GOP congressmen have introduced the JUDGES Act which would increase the number of federal district court justices by 39, but only after Jan. 21, 2025. They are obviously thinking ahead. Learn more here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to write legislation to make it illegal and punishable by prison time for anyone who worked as a federal employee to use their time and position as a federal employee to make future business deals. Since Jared Kushner and Steve Mnuchin left their federal jobs on Jan 20, 2021, it is reported that they “traveled through the Middle East in the weeks before Trump left office, ostensibly to raise money for the Abraham Fund, which was supposed to fund various development initiatives in the region.” (Why were they working on this at all?)  However, the Abraham Fund was essentially a shell that dissolved after the former president left office. Kushner and Mnuchin’s own firms went on to land hundreds of millions of dollars from the nations they visited while working in the White House.” And it was all legal. Learn more here. Or watch Rachel Maddow’s discussion here.

4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for introducing H.R.6680, the Blue Energy Innovation Act of 2022, along with Dan Newhouse (R-WA). The bill would “capitalize on water’s low-cost energy (also known as ‘blue energy’) and decarbonization potential, and developing new renewable energy technologies in marine environments.” Learn more here. Encourage our senators to introduce and pass the bill in the Senate.

5. Contact our senators and urge them to implement Pres. Biden’s plan to increase affordable housing in the United States. In addition to taking executive action on affordable housing, Pres. Biden urges Congress to pass the housing-related proposals that were in the Build Back Better bill the Senate failed to pass due to the filibuster, such as expanding the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and passing H.R.2143/S.98, the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, both of which have bipartisan support. Thank Rep. Kilmer for already being a co-sponsor of H.R.2143.

5/20/2022

1. Contact our senators and tell them to vote no on Pres. Biden’s nomination of Andrew Biggs (PN2131) to serve on the Social Security Advisory Board. In 2013, Andrew Biggs testified before the Senate in favor of raising the retirement age for Social Security, advocating for taking years worth of earned benefits away from every American. In 2005, Biggs was instrumental in Pres. George W. Bush’s attempt to privatize Social Security. Biggs hasn’t changed, which is why the New York Times Editorial Board called him “a zealous advocate of privatizing Social Security.

2. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for voting for H.R.7791, the Access to Baby Formula Act. One of the reasons baby formula became so hard for low-income parents to get is that the Women, Infants and Children program is structured so that one company gets a monopoly in each state. Abbott Labs has a monopoly in about two-thirds of all states. The bill authorizes USDA to waive or modify any WIC qualified administrative requirement during emergencies, disasters, and supply chain disruptions. Specifically, USDA may waive or modify such a requirement for one or more state agencies if the requirement cannot be met by state agencies during the emergency, disaster, or disruption and if the modification or waiver is necessary to provide assistance to WIC participants and does not substantially weaken the nutritional quality of supplemental foods. Thank them, too, for voting in favor of H.R. 7790 , the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022, which passed the House but was defeated in the Senate by the GOP’s use of the filibuster. That bill would have the bill appropriated $28 million the Food and Drug Administration to (1) address the current shortage of FDA-regulated infant formula and certain medical foods in the United States; and (2) prevent future shortages, including by taking the steps that are necessary to prevent fraudulent products from entering the U.S. market.

3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting for the H.R.350, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which the House passed on  on May 18, 2022. The bill authorize the domestic terrorism components within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to monitor, analyze, investigate, and prosecute domestic terrorism. It creates an interagency task force to analyze and combat white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of the uniformed services and federal law enforcement agencies. This bill faces an uphill future in the Senate. Urge our senators to support the bill. Learn more about the bill here.
4. Contact our senators and urge them co-sponsor and pass S.79, EQUAL Act, which would correct the disparity in federal sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Currently, different threshold quantities of crack cocaine and powder cocaine (e.g., 28 grams of crack cocaine and 500 grams of powder cocaine) trigger the same statutory criminal penalties. This bill would eliminate the lower quantity thresholds for crack cocaine offenses. Under the bill, the same threshold quantities of crack cocaine and powder cocaine trigger the same statutory criminal penalties. Learn more here. Sign the petition here. Thank Rep. Kilmer for voting and passing this overwhelmingly bipartisan bill in the House last year.
5. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.4139, the HEATR Act (Heating Efficiency and Affordability through Tax Relief Act), introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar earlier this month. This bill would create a new tax credit through 2031 for manufacturers that make energy efficient consumer and commercial heat pumps and heat pump water heaters. The bill aims to reduce the cost of heat pumps, thereby increasing the number of heat pumps that are installed in new construction and when a oil or nat. gas furnace must be replaced. Over time, heat pumps (which are powered by electricity) reduce energy costs for consumers. The tax credit ranges from $600 to $1,000 per machine. Learn more about this bill here.

5/6/2022

1. The Insurrection Act of 1792 is vague and dangerous. Contact our members of Congress and demand they reform it. From the Brennan Center for Justice: “The law grants the president the authority to deploy the U.S. military domestically and use it against Americans under certain conditions. While there are rare circumstances in which such authority might be necessary, the law, which has not been meaningfully updated in over 150 years, is dangerously … ripe for abuse.” More from the Brennan Center here. After the Jan. 6 riot, Marjorie Taylor Green texted Mark Meadows to urge the previous “president” to use the Insurrection Act to declare martial law and remain in power. Learn more about the ticking time bomb that is the Insurrection Act here.

2. Contact our senators and demand that they pass H.R.3755, the Women’s Health Protection Act, which has already passed the House. The Act would prohibit “governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, abortion services.”

3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and tell him to co-sponsor and pass H.R.1153, the REAP Act, which would eliminate the “monetary allowance and funding for travel expenses for any former President convicted of a felony while holding office or for acts committed during or after holding office.” Under the Former Presidents Act, former presidents receive a pension equal to the salary of a Cabinet secretary (Executive Level I); as of 2021, that is $221,400 per year. The pension begins immediately after a president’s departure from office. Former presidents also receive a reimbursement of up to $1 million in travel costs annually.

4. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor S.3071/H.R.5723, “Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust.” Thank Rep. Kilmer for already being a co-sponsor of this bill. For all retirement, disability or dependent beneficiaries, the bill would increase the monthly benefit by an average of 2% of benefits to make up for inadequate Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLA) since 1983. The bill would also set a benefit minimum at 25% above the poverty line that would be tied to wage levels to ensure that the minimum benefit does not fall behind. Learn more about what this bill would do here.

5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to appropriate more funding for the National Labor Relations Board. Recently, 145 House Democrats (but not including Rep. Kilmer) and four House Republicans wrote a letter to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, demanding more funding for the National Labor Relations Board. Workplace organizing is spreading, but the NLRB’s budget has remained the same year after year since 2014. In their letter, the lawmakers warned that a “dramatic increase in labor activity” could swamp the  underfunded board, which has lost roughly 30% of its staff since 2010 due to attrition and a lack of money. The NLRB frequently has to sue employers to get them to follow the law, and filing lawsuits requires money. Learn more here.

4/29/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to stop the on-going privatization of Medicare that began with Trump’s Direct Contracting Entities and is being continued today as ACO REACH under the radar. Watch the April 25 BINKI for background information on what’s going on, watch this video or read about it here and here.

2. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to remove the corporate welfare that infests the COMPETES Act, in particular the part that would give NASA $10 billion to pick a company to build a second moon lander. NASA has already awarded SpaceX (owned by non-tax-paying billionaire Elon Musk) a $2.9 billion contract to make a lunar rocket last year and is likely to give another multi-billion dollar award to the non-taxpaying Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin. Learn more here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support Pres. Biden’s efforts to rejoin the Iran Nuclear deal by passing S.434 the Iran Diplomacy Act of 2021. About 60% of Americans favor U.S. participation in a nuclear deal with Iran and half of Iranians (51%) approve of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action known as the Iran Nuclear deal. Extra action: call the White House (202-456-1111, and let Pres. Biden know you support rejoining the Iran JCPOA. Learn more here.

4. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to co-sponsor and pass S.1530/H.R.3115 the “Universal School Meals Program Act of 2021,” which is set to expire in June. The bill would permanently provide free meals to all school children regardless of income (no more shaming kids for getting a free lunch, no more collecting debts from parents who are in arrears). The bill also would revise eligibility determinations for measuring poverty to include runaway or homeless youth, foster children, migratory children, and children participating in programs such as Head Start. Learn more here.

5. Contact our senators and urge them to support the nomination of Nancy Abudu for a position on the federal judiciary, as well as ALL Biden nominees to any federal position. A gang of right-wingers are feeding GOP senators with mud to spew at every Biden nominee. Read about Ted Cruz’s diatribe against Ms. Abudu here. After blowing up the blue slip tradition during the Trump years, Ron Johnson feels his opposition to the nomination of William Pocan should be enough to sink Pocan, even though Johnson recommended him earlier. Remind our senators that “in February 2019, attorney Eric Miller was confirmed to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, despite the fact that neither of his two home-state senators (Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both of Washington) had returned blue slips for him. Other nominees were similarly confirmed to the Courts of Appeals without blue slips later in 2019, including Paul Matey (Third Circuit, New Jersey), Joseph F. Bianco and Michael H. Park (both Second Circuit, New York), and Kenneth K. Lee, Daniel P. Collins, and Daniel Bress (all Ninth Circuit, California).” (Source: Wikipedia)

4/22/2022

1. Join Indivisible Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap Indivisible for an online discussion of ACO Reach, the federal government’s latest effort to privatize Medicare, on Monday, April 25 from 5 pm to 6:30 pm. Learn more about this event here. Register here.

2. Contact Sen. Murray and urge her to repackage and strengthen the prescription drug section of the Build Back Better bill as a separate bill and pass it. Under the terms of the deal that was reached last November, Medicare would be able to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers for 20 drugs. There would also be “inflation caps” ― financial penalties on manufacturers that raise prices substantially from year to year. People with insurance would pay no more than $35 a month for insulin, and Medicare beneficiaries would finally have a hard limit ($2,000) on their out-of-pocket drug costs. Sinema’s spokesperson tweeted Sinema’s support for the deal last November, and Manchin was supportive of prescription drug reform as recently as March. Read more here.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to swiftly confirm Pres. Biden’ nomination of Steve Dettelbach to serve as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ATF has not had a permanent director since Byron Todd Jones resigned in 2015. Given the rise in crime that the GOP decries so loudly, they should be anxious to confirm a director who will doggedly pursue the 8% of the nation’s 124,000 retail gun dealers who sell the majority of handguns used in crimes. “Moderate” Democrats and the GOP torpedoed Pres. Biden’s first nominee, David Chipman because of his work as an advisor to Giffords. Learn more here.

4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor and pass H.R. 7535, the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act, introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). The bill would encourage the migration of Federal Government information technology systems to quantum-resistant cryptography. It would build on the Commerce Department’s preemptive efforts to fend off possible attempts by foreign intelligence services to use quantum computers, once they’re available, to gain access to secure government information. While quantum computing isn’t widely available yet, encryption experts have warned for years that devices powerful enough to handle it could more easily unlock encrypted messages — and that hackers have already started collecting encrypted files so they can access them once quantum computers are available. Read more about it here.

5. Contact our senators and urge them to support Pres. Biden’s nominee, Gigi Sohn, to a position on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Sen. Cantwell is chair of a committee that is key to getting Sohn through the nomination process. Urge Sen. Cantwell to rally “moderate” Democrats to get on board with Pres. Biden’s agenda. Sohn would give Democrats a majority on the FCC and fulfill Biden’s push to restore net neutrality and other tech regulations rolled back that were rolled back under the previous administration. Learn more here.

4/15/2022

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor H.R.6283, the Get Foreign Money Out of U.S. Elections Act, introduced by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). Urge our senators to introduce Raskin’s bill in the Senate. The bill would amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to apply the ban on contributions and expenditures by foreign nationals under such Act to foreign-controlled, foreign-influenced, and foreign-owned domestic business entities. Current law leaves our elections wide open to foreign influence. Jared Kushner’s deal with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman would be a great way for MBS to fund the campaigns of politicians who favor remaining addicted to fossil fuel. Read about how foreign money is currently funneled into U.S. campaigns here and here.

2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor H.R.7489, the Time Off to Vote Act, which would require employers to provide employees with a minimum of two consecutive hours of paid leave in order to vote in Federal elections. The bill was introduced by Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) last week. Encourage our senators to introduce and pass this bill in the Senate. Read about it here.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor S.2992/H.R.3816 the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI). This very bipartisan bill would prohibit certain large online platforms from engaging in certain acts, including giving preference to their own products on the platform, unfairly limiting the availability on the platform of competing products from another business, or discriminating in the application or enforcement of the platform’s terms of service among similarly situated users. Amazon seems to think this bill is aimed squarely at them, as they are advertising heavily against it in Arizona. “If enacted, the bill would give federal antitrust agencies the authority to issue civil penalties and injunctions against so-called “covered platforms,” such as Amazon, Alphabet (parent company of Google) and Meta (formerly Facebook).” Read more here.

4. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.2512, the Supreme Court Ethics Act. While all other federal judges are required to adhere to a code of ethics, there is no such requirement for Supreme Court justices. This bill would require the Judicial Conference of the United States to create a code of ethical conduct for the Supreme Court of the United States. The fact that Clarence Thomas voted to withhold documents from the Jan. 6 committee that included his wife’s text messages urging Mark Meadows to do everything possible to prevent the certification of Joe Biden as the next president, is a clear conflict of interest. Many legal scholars believe that in voting to withhold those documents, Clarence Thomas violated 28 U.S. Code § 455, which states that “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Read Jane Mayer’s article, “Legal Scholars Are Shocked by Ginni Thomas’s ‘Stop the Steal’ texts to learn more about the radical actions of Ginni Thomas.

5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.3968, the CDC Tribal Public Health Security and Preparedness Act. During the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health crises, state and local public health departments relied heavily on federal dollars provided by the CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness program. Insanely, tribal public health departments were prohibited from applying for this support — even as tribes were being hit especially hard by the coronavirus. Concurrently, tribes’ tax base was wiped out as casinos and other tribal businesses closed. This bill would finally give tribes access to the CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness program. Encourage Rep. Kilmer to introduce and pass this bill in the House.

4/8/2022

1. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Act when he re-introduces it this month. As new analysis shows, U.S. life expectancy continued to drop in 2021, despite vaccines and mask mandates. Across all groups, life expectancy dropped to 76.60 years in 2021. That figure compares with 76.99 in 2020 and 78.86 in 2019. The continued decline in life expectancy in 2021 came largely among white Americans. A comprehensive single-payer, universal health care system would significantly reduce anxiety and debt, increase health and happiness, and help the lower and middle classes the most. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) has already introduced H.R. 1976, a Medicare for All Act of 2021; it has 121 co-sponsors. Urge Rep. Kilmer to become a co-sponsor.

2. Contact Sen. Maria Cantwell and urge her to follow the advice of economist Robert McCullough when he testified this week before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that Sen. Cantwell chairs on ways to reduce gas prices. 1) Require disclosure of oil and gasoline commodity trades, just as such disclosure is required for other commodities. 2) The federal government’s existing oil inventory could be loaned, rather than sold, into the market. The loan would be repaid with federal contracts to buy oil in the future, thus smoothing prices for small drilling companies and ensuring that a sudden unexpected end to the war would not ruin their finances. 3) Pass a windfall profits tax, such as H.R.7071/S.3802 to discourage price gouging and blunt incentives to limit oil production. A discussion of McCullough’s advice is here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to join Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) in his efforts to investigate the failures of nursing homes during the pandemic, particularly “profiteering, cold-hearted” corporations that act as landlords in the industry. This week,  report released this week, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine called for federal officials to expand the government’s tracking and regulation of nursing home companies. “Ineffective responses to the complex challenges of nursing home care have resulted in a system that often fails to ensure the well-being and safety of nursing home residents. The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing home residents and staff has renewed attention to the long-standing weaknesses that impede the provision of high-quality nursing home care,” the report states. Learn more here.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to investigate and monitor how states distribute federal dollars to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). For decades, some states, such as Tennessee and Maryland, have failed to distribute billions of dollars intended for HBCUs to the HBCUs. Tennessee could owe a historically Black university more than a half-billion dollars after it withheld funding for decades, and Maryland finalized a $577 million settlement in 2021 to resolve a lawsuit alleging the state had underfunded its four HBCUs. “Dozens of HBCUs have operated for years without receiving the full amount of dollars they were entitled to under the law,” according to this CBSNews report. One study from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities found that, between 2010 and 2012, more than half the nation’s HBCUs failed to get their full funding.”

5. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to write legislation to reinstate one of the best features of the American Rescue Plan: the expanded child tax credit, which was paid monthly instead of as an annual lump sum. A few months ago, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was said to be in talks with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) about Romney’s plan to add a work requirement (which would make Joe Manchin happy) and likely lower the income threshold so that higher earners do not quality. Even so, these payments are vital for low- and middle-income families, especially now with higher inflation due to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

4/1/2022

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to cosponsor and pass H.R.1976, the Medicare for All Act of 2021, introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Rep. Debbie Dingall (D-MI). The bill would establish a national health insurance program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The program must (1) cover all U.S. residents; (2) provide for automatic enrollment of individuals upon birth or residency in the United States; and (3) cover items and services that are medically necessary or appropriate to maintain health or to diagnose, treat, or rehabilitate a health condition, including hospital services, prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse treatment, dental and vision services, and long-term care. The bill already has 121 co-sponsors in the House. Learn more here.

2. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to urge Pres. Biden to extend the pause on student loan payments or cancel all student loan debt. You can also use Indivisible’s web site to contact our members of Congress as well as the President on this issue (scroll to the bottom). The current pause on student loan debt payments ends on May 1. As of March 27, Pres. Biden has canceled $17 billion of the country’s $1.8 trillion in student loan debt, more than any other president. Earlier this month, the President’s chief of staff, Ron Klain said Biden may extend the pause on student loan payments again. Yesterday, 21 senators and 75 representatives signed a letter to Pres. Biden urging him to act now to extend the pause on federally-held student loan payments until at least the end of the year and to provide meaningful student debt cancellation. A copy of the letter is here. (Whether Pres. Biden can outright cancel student loan debt is debatable, with Schumer saying he can and Pelosi saying he can’t.) None of our members of Congress signed the letter. Unless Pres. Biden extends the pause or cancels student loan debt, students will once again start incurring debt at the outrageous average rate of 7% that cannot be directly refinanced with the federal government. Here are three reasons for Pres. Biden to take action on this issue: 

   1. Canceling student loan debt would help those with the least and begin to address massive wealth inequality caused by systemic racism. Many studies have shown that universal student debt cancellation would “provide more benefits to those with fewer economic resources and could play a critical role in addressing the racial wealth gap and building the Black middle class.”

   2. Canceling student debt would be good for the economy. The pause on federal student loan payments has been an incredible life line to many struggling economically. The U.S. Dept of Education found “borrowers are saving approximately $5 billion per month from the temporary 0% interest rate.” Research shows canceling student debt would lead to “higher credit scores, greater home-buying rates and housing stability, greater business formation, increased gross domestic product and create over 1.2 million jobs per year.”

   3. Broad-based cancellation is WAY more successful than “targeted” (means-tested) benefits. We know that unnecessary barriers like means-testing or complicated eligibility requirements only lock out folks who are most vulnerable. Instead, Biden should broadly cancel student debt to make sure more people feel the benefits.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.2512, the Supreme Court Ethics Act and thank Rep, Kilmer for co-sponsoring H.R.4766, the same bill in the House two days ago. While all other federal judges are required to adhere to a code of ethics, there is no such requirement of Supreme Court justices. This bill would require the Judicial Conference of the United States to create a code of ethical conduct for the Supreme Court of the United States. The fact that Clarence Thomas voted to withhold documents from the Jan. 6 committee that included his wife’s text messages urging Mark Meadows to do everything possible to prevent the certification of Joe Biden as the next president, is a clear conflict of interest. Many legal scholars believe that in voting to withhold those documents, Clarence Thomas violated 28 U.S. Code § 455, which states that “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Read Jane Mayer’s article, “Legal Scholars Are Shocked by Ginni Thomas’s ‘Stop the Steal’ texts to learn more about the radical actions of Ginni Thomas.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass the CDC Tribal Public Health Security and Preparedness Act. (Numbers not yet assigned, but in the previous session of Congress, the numbers were H.R.6274/S.3486.) A copy of the bill is here. During the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health crises, state and local public health departments have relied heavily on federal dollars provided by the CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness program, but tribal public health departments were prohibited from applying for this support — even as tribes were being hit especially hard by the coronavirus. For a time, the Navajo Nation, for example, confirmed more COVID-19 cases per capita than any state. At the same time, their tax base was wiped out as casinos and other tribal businesses closed. This bill would finally give tribes access to the CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness program.

3/25/2022

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor and pass H.R.7018, the Green Postal Service Fleet Act of 2022, introduced on March 9 by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). The bill would prohibit the United States Postal Service from carrying out a contract for the procurement of next generation vehicle fleet unless such fleet is at least 75 percent electric or zero emission vehicles, and for other purposes. This bill is an outright prohibition, where another bill, H.R.1636, is much less straight-forward and relies on assumptions that if not met, make the bill toothless.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.5533/S.2960, the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act. The bill would require each regional director of the National Parks Service to establish programs to eliminate the sale of water in disposable plastic products and the sale and distribution of other disposable plastic products to the greatest extent feasible in the relevant unit of the National Park System.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to support the passage of H.R.2116, the “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act of 2022,” aka the Crown Act. This bill passed the House on March 18. Thank Rep. Kilmer for voting for the bill. Learn more about why passage of this bill here.

4. Contact our senators and urge them to quickly hold a vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court. Despite the clown show from Tom Cotton (R-AR), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Judge Jackson carried herself with dignity and grace. Read an analysis of the hearings here.

5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and tell him to appropriate more money for the National Labor Relations Board. Congress hasn’t increased the agency’s budget in the better part of a decade, so its funding has gone down in real dollars even as more workers are trying to unionize. Total staffing at the NLRB has fallen 30% since 2010, down to 1,207, making impossible prompt investigations of labor law violations, such as employer retaliation for organizing. When workers see violations go unpunished, they are likely to give up organizing, which is exactly what employers want. Learn more here.

3/18/2022

1. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor and pass H.R. 69, the Sunshine Protection Act, co-sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). The bill passed the Senate this week. The bill would not go into effect until 2023 to allow airlines to adjust their schedules. Doctors say switching between standard and daylight time is dangerous to our health. Read more about the bill here.

2. Contact Sen. Murray and thank her for introducing S.3799, the PREVENT Pandemics Act, which would overhaul the nation’s public health system, applying the lessons of COVID-19 to future outbreaks through a new chain of command, a stronger medical supply chain, and clearer crisis communications. The bill cleared the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee on March 16. Learn more here.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to work with Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) to add Russia to existing laws that deny foreign tax credits for taxes paid to North Korea and Syria. “American companies that continue to do business in Russia should not receive U.S. tax benefits that offset taxes paid to Putin’s regime,” the two senators said in a joint statement. In the upside-down, Koch Industries intends to stay in Russia and argues that staying will hurt Putin. Learn more about this proposed legislation here. In addition, a new proposal by Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) seeks to eliminate tax benefits for sanctioned Russians doing business in the U.S.

4. Contact our senators and urge them to introduce H.R.2085, the HEART Act in the Senate. The bill would speed up the court process that allows dogs seized from dog-fighting rings to be rehabilitated and find forever homes. Read more about this ASPCA-sponsored bill here. Thank Rep. Kilmer for already being a co-sponsor of this bill.

5. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to enact H.R.7061, the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act, introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). This bill imposes an excise tax on oil and gas companies’ windfall profits put the tax in the Protect Consumers from Gas Hikes Fund, to pay rebates to individual taxpayers. New survey data out this week shows that U.S. voters—regardless of party affiliation—overwhelmingly support a windfall profits tax on U.S. oil corporations that are using Russia’s war on Ukraine to hike prices at the pump. More broadly, 87% of U.S. voters want Congress and President Joe Biden to “crack down on price gouging and excessive price increases by oil companies that result in higher gas prices at the pump.” Learn more about this bill here.

3/11/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to introduce and pass legislation to make permanent the expanded child tax credit that was part of the American Rescue Plan but was only in effect for one year. Under the plan, parents received a monthly payment of $300 per for each child under age 6, and $250 for each child ages 6 to 17. The last payments went out on Dec. 15. The now-stalled Build Back Better plan would have made the expanded child tax credit permanent. Sen. Sherrod Brown(D-OH) is in talks with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) about Romney’s plan to add a work requirement and likely lower the income threshold. Even so, these payments are vital for low- and middle-income families, especially now with even higher inflation due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor and pass H.R.1636, the Postal Vehicle Modernization Act, introduced by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA). Contact our senators and urge them to introduce and pass this bill in the Senate. The bill would require the USPS to ensure that at least 75% of the total number of next generation delivery vehicles are electric or zero-emission vehicles. The bill also provides for a phase-out of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that are not electric or zero-emission vehicles. Passing this bill is urgent because Biden’s Nov. 19, 2021 nominations of Daniel Tangherlini (a Democrat) and Derek Kan (a Republican), to the board have yet to be confirmed and it appears that Louis DeJoy is secure in his position as postmaster general with the Jan. 13 election of Republican Roman Martinez IV as chairman of the USPS board. According to the Federal News Network, “Biden’s nominees, if confirmed, would not change the balance of Republicans and Democrats on the board, and would likely have no impact on DeJoy’s tenure as postmaster general.” When DeJoy testified at a congressional hearing in 2021, he said the agency could later convert gas-fueled trucks to battery electric power by swapping out parts under the hood as if such a retrofit would be easy. As reported by the Washington Post, “the process is difficult, labor intensive and expensive.” The new vehicles DeJoy wants to purchase will get 8.6 mpg, an improvement of just .4 mpg over the existing fleet. The stench that surrounds this process is overwhelming. Read the Washington Post article to learn more about how DeJoy put his thumbs on the scale for this rotten deal.
3. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for passing H.R.55, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). The bill makes lynching a federal hate crime offense and imposes criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to 30 years, or both—on an individual who conspires to commit a hate crime offense that results in death or serious bodily injury or that includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill. Learn more about the history of this bill here.
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for co-sponsoring H.Res.891, “Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the article of amendment (commonly known as the “Equal Rights Amendment”) to the Constitution is valid.” In Jan 2020, Virginia became the 38th and last state required to ratify the ERA, but the next step in the process of amending the U.S. Constitution to include the ERA as an amendment has not been taken. That next step is for the National Archives to publish the ERA. Rep. Jackie Speier introduced this resolution to nudge the National Archives to do just that. Urge Rep. Kilmer to get this resolution passed in the House and urge our senators to introduce and pass this resolution in the Senate.
5. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for co-sponsoring S.1385/H.R.2840, the Puppy Protection Act of 2021, introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). The bill would require the Department of Agriculture to expand standards that govern the humane handling, care, treatment, and transportation of animals to include new requirements for commercial dog dealers. The requirements include adequate housing, exercise, and veterinary care, nutritious food, access to water and socialization with humans.

3/4/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support efforts to cut off oil and gas imports from Russia, but do not give in to GOP demands to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Estimates of Russian oil imports range from 672,000 to 709,000 barrels a day for a total of about 8% of U.S. oil and refined product imports. We are already experiencing higher gas prices due to Putin’s war. We might as well get the benefit of banning Russians oil. Read more here. We need to pass the climate change part of Pres. Biden’s Build Back Better plan and get off Russian oil, period.
2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to follow the advice of Alexander Vindman in his op-ed in the Washington Post on Feb. 28: establish depots on the NATO side of the border to better supply Ukraine with “more antitank weapons, powerful air defense systems and unmanned aerial vehicles. UAVs in particular would be capable of striking military targets on Russian and Belarusian territory that are involved in the current offensive, such as cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and Russian aircraft.” Read the full op-ed here.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor S.3700, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, introduced by Sen. Raphael Warnock in February. With the Build Back Better bill stalled in the Senate, Sen. Warnock has introduced this bill. It would cap the monthly cost of insulin at $35. The American Diabetes Association has asserted that diabetics account for $1 of every $4 spent on health care in the U.S. If people could afford insulin, maybe we could reduce the cost of amputations and kidney dialysis that contribute to that $1 dollar of $4 number. Learn more here. Urge Rep. Kilmer to co-sponsor H.R.6833, also named the “Affordable Insulin Now Act,” introduced by Rep. Angie Craig. H.R. 6833 also caps the monthly out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $35.
4. Contact Sen. Cantwell and urge her to co-sponsor S.2798, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2021, introduced by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID). This bill that would expand two programs that compensate individuals who were exposed to radiation during certain nuclear testing or uranium mining and subsequently developed medical conditions, including cancers. Thank Sen. Murray for already being a co-sponsor. Thank Rep. Kilmer for co-sponsoring H.R.5338, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2021, a related bill introduced by Rep. Teresa Leger-Fernandez (D-NM). In addition to expanding the geographic areas covered by this bill, this bill increases compensation to affected individuals and is important to people in the Spokane area.
5. Contact Sen. Cantwell and thank her for her passion in leading the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee’s hearing on  S.3580, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Thune (R-SD). “The [pre] pandemic rates for a forty-foot container was about $1,300 dollars. By 2021, the cost jumped to $11,000 dollars. That’s a 746 percent increase in freight cost. This increase means U.S. consumers are paying higher prices for goods every day,” said Cantwell said during the hearing. “It is unfair that these consumers are being gouged with these high prices and our very important growers can’t get their products to market in a timely fashion.” S.3580 has broad GOP support and would provide the Federal Maritime Commission with greater authority to regulate harmful and discriminatory practices by international shipping companies; require carriers to certify that the fees they charge for delays are in compliance with federal regulations or face penalties; increase transparency on how many empty containers carriers are transporting; and prohibit ocean carriers from unreasonably declining U.S. exports that have been stranded at the docks. Read more here. The House already passed the equivalent bill, H.R. 4996, in December, with Rep. Kilmer voting in favor. As chair of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Sen. Cantwell is not a co-sponsor, but Sen. Murray should be.

2/25/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support the $6.4 billion in aid to Ukraine that Pres. Biden has requested.
2. Call the White House (202-456-1111) and thank Pres. Biden for his leadership in uniting NATO to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine and help the Ukrainian people.
3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support legislation expediting visas for Ukrainian refugees and granting them Temporary Protected Status. We cannot expect the EU and UK to bear the brunt of as many as 5 million refugees.
4. Contact our state legislators (Christine.Rolfes@leg.wa.gov, Tarra.Simmons@leg.wa.gov, and Drew.Hansen@leg.wa.gov) urge them to expand funding for Afghan refugee settlement to include Ukrainian refugee settlement in Washington state before the legislative session ends.
5. Donate to help the Ukrainian people.

2/18/2022

1. Contact Sen. Murray and thank her for introducing S.2242, the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2021. Thank Sen. Cantwell for being a co-sponsor and thank Rep. Kilmer for being an original co-sponsor of H.R.4146 in the House. Both bills would prohibit commercial conversion therapy, which is a practice or treatment designed to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or otherwise change behaviors, thoughts, or expressions related to gender or sexual attraction. Read about the harms of conversion therapy here.

2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor H.R.6601, the “Saudi Arabia Legitimate Self Defense Act.” The bill would prohibit the issuance of licenses authorizing exports of certain defense services to Saudi Arabia, which would bar U.S. firms from providing maintenance support to Saudi Arabia’s air force, an attempt to impose new limits on American involvement in the Gulf kingdom’s long war in Yemen. Read more here.

3. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass the S.1486, the “Pregnant Workers Fairness Act,” already passed in the House. Urge Sen. Murray to use her leadership position to give this bill priority. This bill prohibits employment practices that discriminate against making reasonable accommodations for qualified employees affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. A qualified employee is an employee or applicant who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the position, with specified exceptions. This bill has six Republican co-sponsors, so it has some chance of beating the filibuster. Learn more here.

4. Contact Sen. Murray and urge her to use her leadership position to schedule a full floor vote on Pres. Biden’s nominees for the Postal Service board of governors. Once approved, the board will be able to fire Louis DeJoy before he signs a deal to replace the USPS truck fleet with 90% gasoline-powered vehicles and just 10% electric vehicles. Derek Kan and Daniel Tangherlini were nominated for the Post Office board on Nov. 19, 2021. Both are stuck in the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee. Learn more about DeJoy’s plan here.

5. Contact our senators – especially Patty Murray – and tell them to use time-consuming procedural votes to break all of the GOP log jams on Pres. Biden’s nominees. Democrats should threaten to cancel the state work period scheduled for April 11 to April 22 to unstick the GOP log jam against Pres. Biden’s nominees until they get votes in the committees and a full vote by the Senate. This week, GOP senators who are whining about inflation walked out on a vote on Pres. Biden’s three nominees to the Federal Reserve – the very nominees who should be at work on inflation. The nomination of Deborah Lipstadt to be U.S. special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism is stalled in the Foreign Relations committee. Last week, the Senate used a procedural vote to confirm Russia expert Celeste Wallander and David Honey to their Pentagon posts. The week before, the Senate managed to confirm Melissa Dalton to her Pentagon post. Their nominations had been blocked by Josh Hawley who is in a snit about the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Learn more here.

2/11/2022

1. Contact our senators and urge them co-sponsor and pass H.R.2467, the PFAS Action Act of 2021, in the Senate. The House has already passed this bill with some GOP support. A recent CDC review of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to as PFAS, outlines a host of health effects associated with PFAS exposure, including cancer, liver damage, decreased fertility, and increased risk of asthma and thyroid disease. PFAS substances never break down in the environment. PFAS substances have been found in water wells near the Bangor naval base; their presence in those wells is attributed to firefighting foam used on the base. This bill would work through the Environmental Protection Agency to establish requirements and incentives to limit the use of PFAS substances and remediate PFAS in the environment.
2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to act quickly to pass S.3623, the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Republicans allowed the Violence Against Women Act to expire in 2019 when they controlled the U.S. Senate.  One of the greatest successes of VAWA is its emphasis on a coordinated community response to domestic violence, sex dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The reauthorization was introduced this week (no text is available at this time) and has the support of 10 GOP senators – enough to beat the filibuster if all Democrats vote for the bill. Hopefully this bill includes new provisions for Native Americans; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gay, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals, and victims of human trafficking. Manchin claims to be a co-sponsor of the reauthorization. In Sept 2021, Sinema tweeted her support for the reauthorization. Learn more here.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to support and pass H.R.3076, the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, which the House passed last week with substantial GOP support. It requires retired postal employees to enroll in Medicare when eligible, and drops a previous mandate that forced the USPS to pre-fund its health care costs for 70 years in advance. Those two measures would save the USPS nearly $50 billion over the next decade, according to the House Oversight Committee. Bipartisan support is expected in the Senate, where Schumer says he’ll take it up by the end of this week. It is not known if Susan Collins will support the bill; she is credited for introducing the 2005 bill that required the pre-funding that has hobbled the agency ever since. Learn more here.
4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support the Bipartisan Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership Act (no bill number or text yet). The bill was introduced this week by bipartisan lawmakers from both houses of Congress. The bill would ban members of Congress and their spouses from owning and trading individual stocks, bonds, commodities, futures, and other securities including an interest in a hedge fund, a derivative, an option or other complex investment vehicle. It does not ban common, widely held funds, such as mutual funds and ETFs, as long as those funds do not present a conflict of interest and are diversified. Read about the bill here.
5. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor S.3549, the Agricultural Right to Repair Act, introduced by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) this month. The bill would guarantee farmers the right to repair their own equipment and end current restrictions on the repair market. “Manufacturers have prevented producers from fixing their own machines in order to bolster corporate profits, and they’ve done it at the expense of family farmers and ranchers, who work hard every day to harvest the food that feeds families across the country,” Tester wrote in his press release for the bill. If Democrats are to win back rural America, they need to pass legislation that helps rural America. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to work to introduce the bill in the House.

2/4/2022

1. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Democrats issued a draft reform bill this week. If Mitch McConnell is to be believed, reforming the ECA will be a bipartisan effort. As the Electoral Count Act of 1887 is written, all it takes is one representative and one senator to object to the counting of Electoral College votes from any state. The draft reform bill raises the threshold to sustain an objection to one-third of senators and one-third of representatives.  In 2021, 14 Senate Republicans and roughly 140 House Republicans planned to vote in favor of objecting to the electors from states that Biden narrowly won before the Capitol was attacked. After the attack, that number was reduced to eight senators and 139 House Republicans. Learn about other reforms that should be made to the Electoral Count Act.
2. Contact our members of Congress and tell them it’s time to eliminate the Electoral College. Last weekend, the former “president” issued a convoluted written statement about how a new effort to change the Electoral Count Act proves that vice presidents really do have the power to change the results of an election. He concluded by writing this: “Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!” No matter how much Congress fiddles with the Electoral Count Act (and it does need to be reformed), the rot at the heart of this matter is the Electoral College. It’s time to become a true democracy and eliminate the Electoral College. Urge Rep. Kilmer to co-sponsor H.J. Res. 14, “Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to abolish the electoral college and to provide for the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States.” Urge our senators to co-sponsor S.J.Res. 16. Learn about why the Electoral College exists at all here.
3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor H.R.1405, “To provide a cause of action to remove and bar from holding office certain individuals who engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.” This bill would use Section 3 of the 14th amendment to establish penalties for officeholders who engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States. The bill’s summary states that “the Department of Justice may bring a civil action against officeholders who engage in insurrection or rebellion, including such activity occurring before the date of the bill’s enactment. Penalties include disqualification from federal or state office, removal from federal or state office, forfeiture of certain retirement benefits, and rescission of certain honors and commemorations.” Urge our senators to introduce H.R.1405 in the Senate. Learn more about what can be done to hold insurrectionists accountable here.
4. Contact our senators and urge them to support the nomination of Laura Daniel-Davis. She is Pres. Biden’s nominee to be assistant Interior secretary for land and minerals management. Daniel-Davis appeared at her confirmation hearing before the Energy and Natural Resources committee and was badgered by ranking member John Barrasso (R-WY) who said the administration’s policies have threatened energy and natural resource development, and that Daniel-Davis — who currently serves as principal deputy assistant secretary of land and minerals management — has been in a leadership position guiding some of those policies. The committee deadlocked on her nomination. Now, Joe Manchin, the committee’s chair, has said he will hold a second hearing on Daniel-Davis, giving Republicans another chance to excoriate her. It is likely that Sen. Schumer will have to hold a discharge vote so that the full Senate can vote on her nomination. That is when our senators will be able to vote in favor of Daniel-Davis.
5. Contact our senators and urge them to continue to work to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals. Build Back Better bill has been wounded by Joe Manchin, but this work must carry on. In January, pharmaceutical companies hiked prices on hundreds of medications. A recent report from the patient advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs found that drug companies have increased prices on more than 550 drugs, including 183 drugs whose prices were raised by $100 or more, and 118 drugs that now cost more than $5,000. Pfizer alone raised prices on 125 drugs, more than any company, even as it shattered profit records thanks to $36 billion in sales from its widely-used COVID vaccine. This week, 40 House Democrats signed a letter to Senate Democratic leadership saying “We cannot overstate the paramount urgency of fulfilling the promise of lowering drug prices now for the American people.” Learn more here.

1/28/2022

1. Contact our senators and tell them to remove the deadline on the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by passing S.J. Res. 1. Passage of S.J. Res. 1 will remove the final hurdle to incorporating the ERA into our Constitution. Read about it here. Thank Rep. Kilmer for voting for H.J. Res. 17, which the House passed nearly a year ago by a vote of 222 to 204. Sign a petition to get this done.
2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support and pass H.R.4766/S.2512, the Supreme Court Ethics Act. Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is a right-wing activist who is paid by right-wing activists to submit amicus briefs to the Supreme Court on which her husband sits. Read about that here.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to support Pres. Biden’s three nominees for the Federal Reserve Board: Sarah Bloom Raskin, for the top regulatory slot, Lisa Cook, who would be the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, and Phillip Jefferson, an economist, dean of faculty at Davidson College in North Carolina and a former Fed researcher. Raskin is likely to be tougher on bank regulation than her Trump-appointed predecessor. Republicans are likely to oppose Raskin because she is viewed as someone committed to incorporating climate change considerations into the Fed’s oversight of banks. Cook is best-known for her research on the impact of racial violence on African-American invention and innovation. Jefferson grew up in a working-class family and has focused his research on poverty and monetary policy. Learn more here.
4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to write legislation to keep minority-owned banks from disappearing. Whenever there is a recession like the Great Recession of 2008, regulators force the closure of struggling lenders that serve poorer and marginalized communities resulting in further consolidation in an industry that is already incredibly consolidated. Before the Great Recession, there were 215 minority-owned banks. Now there are 146. Here are two ideas that Congress could implement to stop this trend. 1) Establish a Federal Community Banking Reserve (like the Strategic Oil Reserve) that can be deployed to buttress small struggling lenders when economic conditions deteriorate. 2) Redesign the regulatory mandates that put minority-owned banks at a disadvantage in times of economic stress. Lenders who underwrite mortgages in marginalized communities should not be forced to sell off assets at the moment the broader market craters. Learn more about this issue here.
5. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor H.R.959/S.346, the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021, introduced by Rep Lauren Underwood (D-IL) in the House and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) in the Senate. The American Journal of Managed Care reports that “among 11 developed countries, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate [and an] undersupply of maternity care providers. … Maternal deaths have been increasing in the United States since 2000, and although 700 pregnancy-related deaths occur each year, two-thirds of these deaths are considered to be preventable. This bill would direct multi-agency efforts to improve maternal health, particularly among racial and ethnic minority groups, veterans, and other vulnerable populations. It also addresses maternal health issues related to COVID-19. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for co-sponsoring H.R.959 in the House.

1/21/2021

1. Contact our senators and thank them for standing up for democracy. Both of our senators gave floor speeches. (Watch Cantwell’s speech and Murray’s speech). Thank them for moving to a carve-out of the filibuster to pass voting rights. That’s a more radical position than the talking filibuster for just one voting rights bill the senators actually voted on. Urge them to keep working for voting rights.
2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to consider smaller changes to the voting laws that Republicans might be ashamed to oppose. Democrats should like these
   1. Require one ballot drop box per 300,000 people.
   2. End felony disenfranchisement.
   3. Forego mail-in voting requirements but require two weeks of early voting for at least nine hours a day.

   Republicans should like these

   1. Allow states to require an ID to vote as long as the state provides a usable voter ID for free to anyone who wants one. Include federal funding for states to provide the ID.
   2. Provide funding to all states to join the Electronic Registration Information Center. Member states share information and find voters who are registered in more than one state. Currently, 19 states are not members.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to support Pres. Biden’s three nominees for the Federal Reserve Board: Sarah Bloom Raskin, for the top regulatory slot, Lisa Cook, who would be the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, and Phillip Jefferson, an economist, dean of faculty at Davidson College in North Carolina and a former Fed researcher. Raskin is likely to be tougher on bank regulation than her Trump-appointed predecessor. Republicans are likely to oppose Raskin because she is viewed as someone committed to incorporating climate change considerations into the Fed’s oversight of banks. Cook is best-known for her research on the impact of racial violence on African-American invention and innovation. Jefferson grew up in a working-class family and has focused his research on poverty and monetary policy. Learn more here.
4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to work cautiously with Republicans who now seem willing to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887. The Act is thought to have emboldened the Jan. 6 insurrectionists with its absurdly low threshold for objecting to a state’s presidential election results (one member of the House and one member of the Senate). Two senators are reported to be leading this effort: Joe Manchin and Susan Collins. According to The Economist, “[t]he Electoral Count Act of 1887, which tries to set guidelines for how Congress settles disputed results in presidential elections, is vague, confusing, possibly unconstitutional—and ripe for reform.” After months of review by a team of legal experts and staff, the House Administration Committee recently released a 31-page report on the Act. The report proposes six changes, including dramatically raising the threshold for objections to a state’s presidential election results and removing the vice president as the presiding officer.
5. Contact our state legislators and urge them to ban cryptocurrency mining, which uses incredible amounts of electricity for a stupid purpose. Read about it here. The document includes information for contacting our state legislators.

1/14/2022

1. Contact our senators and thank them for supporting a carve out in the filibuster rule for voting rights. Yesterday, the hugely disrespectful Kyrsten Sinema, spoke on the Senate floor against making any changes to the filibuster just minutes before Pres. Biden arrived on Capitol Hill to urge Democratic senators to make a carve-out. Urge our senators to talk with their Republican colleagues about the carve out. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is already supportive of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Other possible senators with a conscience might be Susan Collins and Mitt Romney.
2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to do everything they can to pressure the Biden administration to release the $9 billion of Afghan funds the United States froze upon withdrawing military troops from Afghanistan. In addition to freezing the money, the United States has imposed sanctions that prevent the Afghan government from participating in the international banking system. People are now starving in Afghanistan. This money belongs to Afghanistan. The U.N.’s World Food Progamme says the “disintegrating Afghan economy is making it difficult for people to get enough to eat.” It is seeking $5 billion in aide to prevent 1 million children from starving to death this winter. The U.S. has announced it will be sending 1 million additional Covid vaccines to Afghanistan and $308 million in aid, but it is hard to understand why the administration insists on retaining the money and keeping sanctions in place that prevent aid workers from being on the ground in Afghanistan. A 20-year war didn’t change the Taliban and starving their people won’t change the Taliban, either, so what is the point?
3. Contact our senators and urge them to support S.949, a bill that would amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, to foster efficient markets and increase competition and transparency among packers that purchase livestock from producers. Read about how the meat-packing industry has consolidated into four companies (one of which is owned by a Chinese company) who use their monopoly status to lower payments to meat producers and raise prices in the grocery stores. In July, Pres. Biden issued an executive order to allocate $1 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to expand independent meat processing capacity that will have the effect pf boosting farm profits while lowering prices at the grocery stores. As much as we want to eat less meat, allowing a four-company predatory monopoly whose practices endanger family farms while gouging U.S. consumers is just not right.
4. Contact our senators and tell them to support S.2036, the Meat Packing Special Investigator Act, introduced by Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Rounds (R-SD). The bill would amend the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, to establish the Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters. The office will have a team of investigators, with subpoena power, dedicated to preventing and addressing anti-competitive practices in the meat and poultry industries and enforcing anti-trust laws. Learn more here.
5. Contact Rep. Tarra Simmons and lend her your support after the death threats she’s received since right-wing news outlets covered a bill she submitted to remove fatal drive-by shootings from a list of “aggravators” that require a life sentence for people convicted of first-degree murder. She submitted the bill at the request of retired King County Superior Court Judge Mike Heavey, who voted for the law when he was a state senator in 1995 but now regrets his vote. Heavey now believes the law was meant to target young Black men with life sentences. Learn more here.

1/7/2022

1. As ever, contact our senators and tell them eliminate the filibuster and pass S.2747 the “Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to hold votes on voting rights bills this month before Martin Luther King Day on January 17. If the votes fail, he says he’s going to hold a vote on revising the filibuster. The question is still whether all 50 senators support changing the filibuster, much less eliminating it. The Senate must pass these bills now. Need another reason? On Dec. 30, Wisconsin state representative Timothy Ramthun (R) (who in November introduced a resolution to rescind Wisconsin’s Electoral Colleges votes that were certified on Jan. 6) introduced a bill that would permit the nullification of an election and the mandating of a do-over 30 days later when the total number of absentee ballots exceeds the margin of victory. (In the November 2020 elections, almost 2 million Wisconsinites voted by absentee ballot, and Biden won by about 21,000 votes.) Read about Ramthun’s bill here.

2. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to support legislation preventing the former president from running for office again. This week, Rep. Liz Cheney (R) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D), both members of the House Selection Committee on Jan. 6, obliquely indicated that perhaps the best way to keep the former president from running again would be to pass a bill under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Section 3 states that “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.” Section 5 states that “The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” Such a law might follow the example set by the Civil Rights Act of 1870, which makes it a criminal misdemeanor to run for office when ineligible to do so under Section 3, and allows federal prosecutors to forcibly remove offenders from office. Learn more here. Would Republicans vote for such a bill? Yet another reason to eliminate the filibuster now!
3. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to write legislation to end Medicare’s Direct Contracting (DC) Program. The Direct Contracting Program is a pilot program that aims to enroll every Traditional Medicare beneficiary into a third-party “Direct Contracting Entity” (DCE). Any business can be a DCE, including commercial insurers, venture capital investors,  and even dialysis centers. Instead of paying doctors and hospitals directly for care, Medicare gives DCEs a monthly payment to cover a defined portion of each seniors’ medical expenses, allowing DCEs to keep as profit what they don’t pay for in care but also giving the DCE a huge incentive to exaggerate — or falsify —  diagnoses.  The Direct Contracting Program was created in the last year of the Trump administration by the CMS “Innovation Center,” whose mission is to test and implement health payment models without Congressional approval. There are already 53 DCEs in 38 states, every one of them calling seniors during the open enrollment period and urging them to sign up without knowing they are giving up their Traditional Medicare coverage. If left unchecked, DCEs could essentially privatize Traditional Medicare within the next few years. Rep. Pramila Jayapal and more than 50 other House members signed a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra calling for the end of DCEs. Rep Kilmer was not one of the signers.  Learn more here.
4. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor and pass S.2297, the International Pandemic Preparedness and COVID-19 Response Act. The bill requires the Department of State to develop a strategy to expand and expedite access to COVID-19 vaccines in other countries. The bill also allows for the use of any foreign assistance for activities to combat COVID-19, regardless of the original purpose of the funding. Additionally, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development must protect and support humanitarian actors responding to secondary effects of the pandemic (e.g., food insecurity). Over all, the bill will set up the United States to lead a global effort to vaccinate at least 60% of the world by mid-2022. The bill passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July and now seems to be in limbo. Learn more here.
5. Contact our State Senator, Christine Rolfes, and copy our State Representatives, Drew Hansen and Tarra Simmons, and tell them to take action to recover the $4,361 in taxpayer money the Legislature gave to three state representatives to attend Mike Lindell’s Cyber Symposium in Sioux Falls, SD. The legislators are State Reps. Robert Sutherland, R-Granite Falls; Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver; and Brad Klippert, R-Kennewick. Lindell had promised to reveal irrefutable evidence that the 2020 election had been stolen from the former president, but the three-day event devolved into three days of no evidence but a lot of conspiracy swapping and a lot of undermining of faith in our elections. Learn more here. It is incomprehensible that the Legislature endorsed this travesty in the first place.

12/31/2021

1. As ever, contact our senators and tell them eliminate the filibuster and pass S.2747 the “Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.” Schumer says his highest priority in January is rules reform (aka filibuster)) in order to pass voting rights bills. A carve out for voting rights bills seems likely if Manchin can be convinced. He wrote the Freedom to Vote Act, after all. Sinema is still trying to have it both ways: she says she supports elections reform but not at the expense of the filibuster. This is a self-fulfilling point of view. She thinks Democrats will need the filibuster to stop Republicans who will eventually control the Senate precisely because of the voter suppression laws passed in GOP-controlled states that would be made illegal if the voting rights bills could ever be passed. She needs to be made aware that Republicans don’t really want to govern, so other than lowering taxes for the rich (which they did through budget reconciliation in 2017) and putting ultra-conservatives on the Supreme Court (which they did by eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees), Democrats will have no “filibuster-al” legislation to stop. She seems to be amenable to some of the provisions in the BBB. Maybe it’s time for some horse-trading. If a carve-out is possible, try to include Rep. Adam Schiff’s H.R.5314, “Protecting Our Democracy Act” in the carve-out. Among many other things, H.R.5314 prohibits presidential self-pardons, suspends the statute of limitations for federal offenses committed by a sitting President or Vice President, prohibits the acceptance of foreign or domestic emoluments and authorizes specified actions to enforce congressional subpoenas.

2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to modify the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (aka the “welfare reform bill”) so that it requires states to return Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) money to the federal government if they do not spend it to improve the lives of poor people within a fiscal year. At the very least, the federal government should NOT send more money to the offending states. Instead of distributing the money or providing training to improve job prospects, states such as Maine ($93 million), Tennessee ($790 million) and Hawaii ($364 million) are hoarding the money (probably to improve their bond ratings). Right now, states are hoarding a total of $5.2 billion in TANF funds, and that doesn’t count Texas, which refused to comment on the story. In 1995, Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL) tried but was unable to get just such an amendment into Clinton’s welfare reform bill. A recent UN report says 40 million Americans live in poverty and of those 40 million, about 5.3 million live in “third World conditions of absolute poverty.” No wonder.

3. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to revise the Electoral Count Act of 1887. That law was passed after the disputed election of 1886 in which multiple people claimed to be the electors for Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. Legal analysts of the Electoral Count Act say the Act “invites misinterpretation,” is “turgid and repetitious” and its “central provisions are contradictory.” Just what we need for 2024. The American Enterprise Institute’s Matthew Seligman writes “An improved and modernized ECA should articulate clear procedures for how Congress should count electoral votes and resolve disputes. Those procedures should reflect the principle that states and courts have the constitutional responsibility for resolving ordinary election controversies about, for example, counting ballots. Congress has neither the institutional capacity, nor the independence, nor the constitutional authority to second-guess states and courts on those questions. And for those extraordinarily rare circumstances where deferring to states and courts isn’t enough to decide the issue, like in 1876, Congress should designate a neutral decision maker in advance to eliminate the risk of an unbreakable impasse.” McConnell sits on the Senate’s Rules Committee and may be interested in modifying the Electoral Count Act to make any Republican candidate for president appear more legitimate should the Act need to be invoked.

4. Contact our senators and urge them to keep working on the Build Back Better bill. There is no denying that Manchin is in the cat bird seat and some things are going to have to be dropped from the version of the BBB the House passed. Manchin seems to be opposed to funding programs for only a few years instead of the full 10 years, and he’s right. Forget hoping the programs will be so popular that Republicans will have to reauthorize them. They won’t. The Violence Against Women Act is just one example. Remember that Maya Angelou said: “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” Jordan Weissman writing at Slate.com points out that under the budget reconciliation rules, programs can be made permanent as long as they don’t raise the deficit after their initial 10 years, so there’s another reason to try for full 10-year funding. Weismann suggests paring the expanded child tax credit back to $170 billion over 10 years; keeping the child care and pre-K programs ($752 billion over ten years); keeping the improved ACA subsidies and other medical programs ($400 billion) and keeping all of the climate change/environmental and infrastructure section of the House-passed BBB ($555 trillion). That adds up to $1.88 trillion, just a bit over Manchin’s limit of $1.75 trillion. And of course, keep all the new tax revenue to pay for the BBB by raising taxes on the wealthy and sending the IRS to track down tax cheats. Want to mix and match your own recommendation to our senators? Here’s a list of the programs and their costs.

   • Expanded child tax care credit: In addition to increasing the amount of the Trump-era child tax credit, the benefits of the expanded tax credit are: 1) it’s a direct payment to parents (so states can’t interfere with it. See action 2 above) and 2) it’s paid monthly instead of a lump sum once a year, and 3) it’s refundable (meaning that even if the tax due is smaller than the credit, the parents still get the full credit). Maybe there’s a way whittle the cost down by phasing the credit out for higher income people sooner. The CBO estimated 10-year cost of the expanded child tax credit is $1.6 trillion.
   • Child-care and universal pre-K: The CBO scored child-care and universal pre-K together at a cost of $381.5 billion for ten years. It’s not clear how universal pre-K would be implemented, but if it involves block grants or states/school districts having to apply for it, we can be certain that some red states won’t apply.
   • Increased premium subsidies for participants in the ACA marketplace: $73.9 billion over 10 years.
   • Medicare hearing benefit: $36.7 billion over ten years.
   • Lowering prescription drug prices/capping cost of insulin at $35/month to patients: $78.8 billion over ten years.
   • Filling the Medicaid Coverage Gap caused by 12 states that never adopted the ACA Medicaid expansion: $57 billion over ten years.
   • Extending post-partum coverage in Medicaid from 60 days to 12 months: $1.2 billion over ten years. (Medicaid currently covers about half of all childbirths in the U.S.) Or pare it back to six months?
   • Medicaid Home and Community Based Services and the Direct Care Workforce (Elder/Disabled care at home): $150 billion over ten years.
   • Paid Family and Medical Leave for Four Weeks: $205.5 billion over ten years.
   • Paid Family and Medical Leave for 12 weeks: $500 billion over ten years.
   • Climate change, environmental and infrastructure section of the House-passed BBB. Now that Manchin has weakened it, he seems okay with it, and it’s still a strong climate-change fighting bill. That’s $555 trillion over 10 years.
5. Contact our members of Congress, wish them and their staffs “Happy New Year” and  thank them for representing us in Congress through this very difficult year. They are at the receiving end of a lot of crap from the other side. They put their lives on the line on Jan. 6, and they need to know we appreciate them.

12/24/2021

1. 1. As ever, contact our senators and tell them eliminate the filibuster and pass S.2747 the “Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.”Now that the Build Back Better bill is being renegotiated and is unlikely to be ready for a vote until March or April, Schumer says his highest priority in January is filibuster reform in order to pass voting rights bills. We advocate for eliminating the filibuster because it benefits Republicans far more than Democrats. Former deputy chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Adam Jentleson, notes in his book, Kill Switch, that since 2008, Democrats and Republicans have held unified control of Washington for two years each, which allows for a true comparison of the bills that would have become law had they not been blocked by filibusters. Excluding appropriations bills, Republican filibusters blocked fifteen Democratic-sponsored bills from becoming law. Among those 15 bills were a paycheck fairness bill, the DREAM Act, the DISCLOSE Act (which would expose the anonymous, superrich donors pumping millions of dollars into our political system), a bill that would have ended tax provisions that reward corporations for sending American jobs overseas and a bill that would have expanded Social Security benefits. That list doesn’t include Democratic policy goals that were abandoned because of a filibuster threat: the public option in the ACA and the cap-and-trade climate change bill. By way of contrast, Democrats used the filibuster to block just six Republican bills. The six bills were three versions of the same immigration deal put together by Mitch McConnell, a 20-week anti-abortion bill that looks pretty good right now, a reauthorization of the Coast Guard, and a bill that would have excluded tribal enterprises, such as casinos, from the protections of the National Labor Relations Board, thereby making it harder for employees of tribal enterprises to unionize. 

   2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to write and pass legislation that prevents members of the military from also being members of extremist groups or from having been a member of an extremist group. This week, the Pentagon announced that it has updated its rules to address extremism in the military, but the updated rules are pretty tepid and stop short of banning military membership in extremist groups. The updated rules “rely in large part on individual service membersor outside law enforcement agencies to report concerning behavior.” We know now that nearly one in five defendants in Capitol riot cases served in the military. If the Pentagon doesn’t have a list of extremist groups, they can use the Southern Poverty Law Center list. Click here for their Washington state list.

   3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to investigate why violent MAGA rioters are getting pandemic relief loans forgiven despite their crimes. For example, Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys, had a $12,502 loan for his home-contracting business forgiven in June despite that fact that he remains incarcerated, having been denied bail. Russell Taylor, a member of the Three Percenters, received two loans totaling more than $1 million for his graphic design company. One of the loans was issued after the insurrection, and both have been forgiven. Read more here.

   4. Contact our senators and urge them to pass a strong Build Back Better bill. The bill should include as much of the House-passed BBB as possible: the extended child tax credit without the income minimums or work requirement that Manchin wants, universal pre-K, paid family leave, child care, elder care, funding for the 9/11 health care program, a limit on the cost of the most-often prescribed pharmaceuticals, expansion of the ACA, reduced ACA premiums, vision and dental care in Medicare, straight-forward rebates for buying an electric car, and increased IRS funding to catch wealthy tax cheats. Manchin evidently thinks the bill is still too costly (though it has also been reported that he’s okay with spending $1.75 trillion over ten years). Now he says inflation is too high to spend this much money. Yes, prices increased due to high demand after nearly two years of pandemic and a disrupted supply chain. But higher prices are also decreasing as demand levels out and supply chain is smoothed. Here’s an example: In the summer, Home Depot was charging over $60 for one 4’x8′ sheet of OSB (similar to plywood). Today, that same OSB sheet is $22.45. You might remind the senators that some of the price inflation we’ve been seeing is the result of mergers that have resulted in monopolies that can raise prices any time they want due to little or no competition. It appears that Schumer plans to work on the BBB over the next couple of months and bring it up for a vote in March or April. By then, the inflation argument should be receding. Our senators should fight for the things that will help low-income families the most. After all, the UN poverty report finds “shocking” inequality in the U.S., purportedly the world’s richest nation. The UN report says that of the 40 million poor Americans about 5.3 million live in “Third World conditions of absolute poverty.” The BBB can go a long way toward helping with that.
   5. Contact our members of Congress, wish them “Happy Holidays” and  thank them for representing us in Congress through this very difficult year. They put their lives on the line on Jan. 6 and they need to know we appreciate them. 

12/17/2021

1. As ever, contact our senators and tell them eliminate the filibuster and pass S.2747 the “Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.” Other bills that cannot pass without eliminating the filibuster include S. 1975, “The Women’s Health Protection Act,” which codifies into law a woman’s right to an abortion prior to fetal viability, H.R.1280, the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” background checks for gun purchases, immigration reform and an end to fossil fuel production.  If you have an abortion story to tell and are willing to tell it, include it in your message. If you have a voting rights story to share, such as the story of Crystal Mason, who was jailed in Texas for accidentally voting a few weeks before she was eligible, share it. Or the story of Hervis Rogers, who was jailed in Texas for the same reason. Or the story of two Georgia election workers who have been terrorized by Trump supporters. If you have an immigration story to tell, tell it. Sen. Murray has moved to a carve-out for voting rights, so thank her for that. On May 6, Sen. Cantwell tweeted her support of Sen. Merkley’s talking filibuster reform and has since said the filibuster should not stand in the way of voting rights legislation, so thank her for that and ask her to be more definitive and public about a carve-out in the way that Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) was this week.
2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and tell him to be ready to vote to send criminal referrals to the DOJ for members of Congress who conspired to overturn the presidency of Joe Biden. A New York Times article (log in required) published on Thursday shows that at least six House GOP members conspired with election-deniers to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to the winner of the 2020 presidential election: Jim Jordan (OH), Andy Biggs (AZ), Paul Gosar (AZ), Louie Gohmert (TX), Mo Brooks (AL), and Scott Perry (PA). Brooks is also a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2022. (The full article is re-published here.)
3. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to demand that the Dept. of Justice form a grand jury to investigate the former president for violating 18 U.S. Code subsection 1512. “Whoever corruptly … obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not ore than 20 years, or both.” That law defines an “official proceeding” as including “a proceeding before the Congress.” Our members of Congress were the victims of the crime that occurred on Jan. 6. They deserve to be notified of what the DOJ is doing. This week, former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne and former assistant U.S. attorney Daniel Goldman expressed doubts that the DOJ is doing anything at all with regard to prosecuting Trump for Jan. 6. The Jan. 6 committee has unearthed a tremendous amount of evidence that Trump broke the law. The DOJ is facing this choice: look like a banana republic or become a banana republic. Read more here.
4. Contact our senators and tell them to ignore the ruling of the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who, for the third time, rejected Democrat’s effort to include any kind of immigration reform in the Build Back Better bill. The Senate parliamentarian’s rulings are NOT binding. Read more here.
5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting to refer Mark Meadows to the Dept. of Justice for criminal contempt of Congress. The final vote was 222 to 203, with all Democrats present and voting “Yea,” and just two Republicans (Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger) voting with the majority. And thank Rep, Kilmer for voting to H.R.5314, the “Protecting Our Democracy Act,” introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff, in the House last week. The bill passed by a vote of 220 to 208, with one Republican vote from Rep. Adam Kinzinger. Urge our senators to pass this bill ASAP!

12/10/2021

1. As ever, contact our senators and tell them eliminate the filibuster and pass S.2747 Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.” Other bills that cannot pass without eliminating the filibuster include S. 1975, “The Women’s Health Protection Act,” which codifies into law a woman’s right to an abortion prior to fetal viability, background checks for gun purchases, immigration reform and an end to fossil fuels.  If you have an abortion story to tell and are willing to tell it, include it in your message. If you have a voting rights story to share, such as the story of Crystal Mason, who was jailed in Texas for accidentally voting a few weeks before she was eligible, share it. Or the story of Hervis Rogers, who was jailed in Texas for the same reason. Or the story of two Georgia election workers who have been terrorized by Trump supporters. If you have an immigration story to tell, tell it. Sen. Murray has moved to a carve-out for voting rights, so thank her for that. On May 6, Sen. Cantwell tweeted her support of Sen. Merkley’s talking filibuster reform and she now may be in favor of a carve-out for voting rights.

2. Contact our senators and thank them for voting in favor of a joint resolution to disapprove of the “proposed foreign military sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of certain defense articles.” The Senate Joint Resolution failed by a vote of 30 to 67, but at least our senators were on the right side of this vote. Read more here.

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor H.R.4766/S.2512, the “Supreme Court Ethics Act,” introduced by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) respectively. Federal judges are currently required to adhere to a code of conduct established by the Judicial Conference of the United States, but the code does not apply to Supreme Court justices. H.R.4766/S.2512 would amend Chapter 57 of title 28 by adding a new section that requires the Judicial Conference to issue a code of conduct that applies to each justice and judge of the courts of the United States. The bill allows the code to include provisions that are applicable only to certain categories of judges or justices. More info here and here.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor H.R.2102/S.1167, the “End Polluter Welfare Act of 2021,” introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Omar Ilhan (D-MN), respectively. The bill would eliminate certain fossil fuel oil and gas subsidies for oil companies that are built into U.S. law and the tax code in a number of ways. When you contact our members of Congress, mention of few of these changes the bill would make: (1) eliminating the limit on liability for offshore facilities and pipeline operators; (2) eliminating the Department of Energy’s Fossil Energy Research and Development Program and prohibiting funds made available to the Advanced Research Project Agency from being used to carry out any project that supports fossil fuels; (3) terminating certain provisions relating to enhanced oil recovery, producing oil and natural gas from marginal wells, and limitations on percentage depletion for oil and natural gas wells; (4) terminating other deductions and accounting methods supporting oil, natural gas, and coal companies; (5) increasing the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund financing rate; (6) denying a tax deduction for removal costs and damages relating to oil spills; (7) imposing an excise tax on the removal price of any taxable crude oil or natural gas; (8) increasing amortization periods for tertiary injectant expenses, development expenditures of a mine or other natural deposit, mining exploration expenditures, and intangible drilling and development costs for oil and gas wells and geothermal wells; (9) repealing the tax credits for the production of electricity from refined coal and for carbon oxide sequestration; and (10) requiring a study and elimination of other fossil fuel subsidies. Learn more here and here.

5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor H.R.6107, the “Stop Corporate Capture Act,” introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, wrote that this bill will “clear the path for [federal] agencies to issue strong public interest safeguards that deliver results for workers, consumers, public health, and our environment. For too long, our country’s system of regulatory protections has been rigged in favor of corporate special interests, with consumers and workers paying the price. This transformational bill is exactly the antidote to stop corporate influence and capture in the regulatory process. Learn more here. Sem. Elizabeth Warren is a proponent of this bill, too. Read her analysis.

12/3/2021

1. As ever, contact our senators and tell them eliminate the filibuster and pass S.2747 Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021,”  Several GOP-controlled states have passed laws allowing state legislatures to overturn the legitimate election results they don’t like. Michigan is well on its way toward doing exactly that. Codification of Roe v. Wade will never pass the Senate without elimination of the filibuster. Gun safety legislation will never pass the Senate without elimination of the filibuster. The choice is clear: save democracy and its ability to work for the people or save the filibuster.

2. Contact our senators and tell them to urge Majority Leader Schumer to bring S. 1975, “The Women’s Health Protection Act,” which codifies into law a woman’s right to an abortion prior to fetal viability, to the Senate floor for a vote. The House passed this bill on Sept. 24 with not a single Republican vote. Now the bill is stuck in the Senate Judiciary committee. Both of our senators are original co-sponsors of the bill, which also prohibits a number of practices some states have used to make getting an abortion more difficult, such as unnecessary procedures and medical tests, and requiring the provider to give the patient false information. The bill has 48 sponsors and co-sponsors – all Democrats and independents, and not a single Republican co-sponsor. The missing Democratic senators are Bob Casey (D-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV). Both are against a woman’s right to choose. After the SCOTUS hearing on the Mississippi abortion ban at 15 weeks, Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Roe should be codified. If Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) signs on to this bill, it can be passed IF and only IF THE FILIBUSTER IS ELIMINATED!

3. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.2584/S.1141, the “Judiciary Act of 2021.” The bill would increase the number of justices on the Supreme Court from 9 to 13. For some insight on this issue, read this.

4. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.4445/S.2342, the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021.” The bill would put an end to private employers’ use of forced arbitration — mediation between alleged victims and perpetrators that operates outside the traditional legal system — by allowing victims to decide whether they want to take their sexual harassment or assault claims to court instead. More info on H.R.4445/S.2342 here. H.R.4445/S.2342 has broad bipartisan support and seems more likely to pass than other bills that would end forced arbitration, such as H.R.963/S.505(of which our members of Congress are co-sponsors). This bill would end forced arbitration in employment, consumer, antitrust, or civil rights disputes but it has no Republican support in the Senate and just one Republican, Matt Gaetz (!), is a co-sponsor in the House.

5. Contact our members of Congress and thank them for averting a federal government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government at current levels through Feb. 18, 2022. In the House, all votes in favor of the CR were Democratic votes; not a single House Republican voted in favor of the CR. In the Senate, the bill passed 69 to 28, with enough Republicans to pass the 60 vote filibuster threshold.

11/26/2021

1. As ever, contact our senators and tell them to pass S.2747 Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021,” by Nov. 19. After Nov. 19, the Senate has just 10 work days left this year. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021”  up for a vote in the Senate last week. The vote failed as expected, hopefully finally proving to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema that, at the very least, there must be a carve-out of the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation or complete elimination of the filibuster. This coming wee Indivisible is leading a week of action on voting rights. Call our senators at each of their local offices (Murray: 425-259-6515 (Everette), 360-696-7797 (Vancouver), 509-453-7462 (Yakima), 206-553-5545 (Seattle), 509-624-9515 (Spokane) and 253-572-3636 Tacoma) Cantwell: 206-220-6400 (Seattle), 509-353-2507 (Spokane), 253-572-2281 (Tacoma), 425-303-0114 (Everette),  360-696-7838 (Vancouver) and 509- 946-8106 (Richland). In GOP-controlled states, passage of voter suppression laws and laws that allow a state legislature to override the vote of the people have made the choice is clear: save democracy or save the filibuster.
2. Contact our senators and tell them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.2773/S.2372, the “Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.” Over a third of America’s fish and wildlife species are at risk of extinction. The bill will direct $1.3 billion of existing revenue annually to state-led conservation efforts, as well as $97.5 million to Tribal-led wildlife conservation plans. The Nature Conservancy describes this bill as the “most significant investment in wildlife conservation in decades.” It has broad Republican support. Thank Rep. Kilmer for already being a co-sponsor.
3. Contact our senators and tell them to vote “no” on the re-nomination of Jerome Powell as head of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve has a mandate to regulate the banks and steer the economy away from crisis. But banks are fueling the climate crisis by lending money to oil and gas drillers, and Jerome Powell has shown he is not willing to do anything about it. Senators Warren, Whitehouse and Merkley are already “no” votes. Seattle’s own 350.org is a leader on the “no” vote on Powell. Here is their press release.
4. Contact our senators and urge them to support the updated proposal by Senators Warren, King and Wyden to prevent the biggest and most profitable corporations from paying nothing In federal taxes. The proposal would create a minimum tax on corporations. Now that the Build Back Better bill has been passed by the House, the Senate will be revising it. This updated proposal must be included as a “pay-for” in the Build Back Better bill. Read about it here.
5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for co-sponsoring H.R.5314/S.2921, the “Protecting Our Democracy Act.” Urge our senators to become co-sponsors. The bill, introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), is a response to the former president’s abuse of presidential power. For example, it prohibits self-pardons by a president, imposes limits on presidential declarations of emergencies, requires cause for the removal of an inspector general and requires candidates for president and vice president to submit to the FEC a copy of income tax returns. Check here for the full list. House Democrats are supposed to vote on this bill “by the fall.” There are only 10 days left for that to happen.

11/19/2021

1. As ever, contact our senators and tell them to pass S.2747 Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021,” by Nov. 19. After Nov. 19, the Senate has just 10 work days left this year. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021”  up for a vote in the Senate last week. The vote failed as expected, hopefully finally proving to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema that, at the very least, there must be a carve-out of the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation or complete elimination of the filibuster. This coming wee Indivisible is leading a week of action on voting rights. Call our senators at each of their local offices (Murray: 425-259-6515 (Everette), 360-696-7797 (Vancouver), 509-453-7462 (Yakima), 206-553-5545 (Seattle), 509-624-9515 (Spokane) and 253-572-3636 Tacoma) Cantwell: 206-220-6400 (Seattle), 509-353-2507 (Spokane), 253-572-2281 (Tacoma), 425-303-0114 (Everette),  360-696-7838 (Vancouver) and 509- 946-8106 (Richland). In GOP-controlled states, passage of voter suppression laws and laws that allow a state legislature to override the vote of the people have made the choice is clear: save democracy or save the filibuster.
2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor and pass H.R.5905/S.3210, the Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. and Sgt. Joseph H. Maddox GI Bill Restoration Act of 2021,” introduced by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) in the House and Sen. Ralph Warnock (D-GA) in the Senate. The bill would amend title 38, United States Code, to extend to Black veterans of World War II, and surviving spouses and certain direct descendants of such veterans, eligibility for certain housing loans and educational assistance administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The original GI bill was signed in 1944 and its use by returning GIs helped build the white middle class that flourished in the 1950s and 60s. While the original GI Bill’s language did not specifically exclude African-American veterans from its benefits, the bill was structured in a way that ultimately shut doors for the 1.2 million Black veterans who returned from WWII. Read more about that here. The bill is named for Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. who was in uniform when he was blinded by a small-town police chief while returning to his home in South Carolina, and Sgt. Joseph Maddox, who was accepted by Harvard University for a master’s degree program, but denied GI benefits to “avoid setting a precedent.” Read about that here.
3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for getting his RECOMPETE bill (H.R.4651/S.2464 in the Build Back Better bill passed by the House today. Kilmer co-authored the bill with Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) and Rep. Suzane DelBene (D-WA) in the House and with Sen. Chris Coons (D- DE), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Jacklyn Rosen (D-NV) in the Senate. The bill would “establish a new federal block grant program at the Economic Development Agency (EDA) to empower persistently distressed communities with flexible 10-year RECOMPETE grants to meet local economic development needs, create good jobs, invest in their workers and businesses, connect local residents to opportunities and resources for long-term success, and rebuild stronger with lasting opportunity and economic growth.” Read more here.
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting to censure Paul Gosar. Read about Gosar here.
5. Contact our senators and urge them to support the nomination of Dilawar Syed to be Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration. (Sen. Cantwell is a member of this committee.) Endorsed by wide-ranging groups, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to a diverse coalition of civil rights, Jewish, Muslim and Christian organizations, Syed has a long-established record of working successfully with entrepreneurs from all walks of life. If confirmed, he would become the highest-ranking Muslim American administration official in U.S. history. But Republican members of the Small Business Committee boycotted the vote on Syed’s nomination for the fifth time last Wednesday. Their “complaint” seems to be that under Trump and Biden, the Small Business Administration funded Planned Parenthood, and they want the money to be repaid before they will deign to attend a committee meeting and vote on Mr. Syed’s nomination – even though it was perfectly legal for the SBA to have given the funds to Planned Parenthood. They are playing this game while the SBA needs leadership to help small businesses recover from the pandemic. Learn more about it here.

11/12/2021

1. Contact our senators and tell them to pass S.2747 Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021,” by Nov. 19. After Nov. 19, the Senate has just 10 work days left this year. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021”  up for a vote in the Senate last week. The vote failed as expected, hopefully finally proving to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema that, at the very least, there must be a carve-out of the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation or complete elimination of the filibuster. This coming wee Indivisible is leading a week of action on voting rights. Call our senators at each of their local offices (Murray: 425-259-6515 (Everette), 360-696-7797 (Vancouver), 509-453-7462 (Yakima), 206-553-5545 (Seattle), 509-624-9515 (Spokane) and 253-572-3636 Tacoma) Cantwell: 206-220-6400 (Seattle), 509-353-2507 (Spokane), 253-572-2281 (Tacoma), 425-303-0114 (Everette),  360-696-7838 (Vancouver) and 509- 946-8106 (Richland). In GOP-controlled states, passage of voter suppression laws and laws that allow a state legislature to override the vote of the people have made the choice is clear: save democracy or save the filibuster.

2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to join other Democrats in censuring Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) for encouraging violence against elected officials by posting an altered anime video of himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and attacking Pres. Biden. Read more here.

3. Contact Sen. Cantwell and Rep. Kilmer and thank them for getting salmon recovery funding into H.R.3684, the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” (aka, the bipartisan infrastructure bill) that will be signed by Pres. Biden on Monday. Rep. Kilmer’s amendment to the INVEST in America Act to create within the Dept. of Transportation the National Culvert Removal, Replacement, and Restoration Grant Program was included in the IIJA and has $1 billion in funding. Culverts are a major impediment to salmon recovery, and the IIJA will fund the removal or replacement of them. Other provisions of the IIJA will help with salmon recovery as well. See Sen. Cantwell’s list here.

4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and congratulate him for the passage of H.R. 654, the “Drug-Free Communities Pandemic Relief Act.” Rep. Kilmer is an original cosponsor of the bill, along with Rep. David Joyce (R-OH). The bill temporarily gives the Office of National Drug Control Policy the authority to waive the program’s local matching requirements if the grantee is unable to meet them due to the ongoing pandemic. Read about it here. Contact our senators and urge them to support and pass S.26.

5. Contact Sen. Murray and thank her for getting her Digital Equity Act included in H.R.3684 the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” (aka, the bipartisan infrastructure bill) that will be signed by Pres. Biden on Monday. During negotiations, she also managed to increase funding for the Act from $1.3 billion to $2.75 billion. The Digital Equity Act creates a grant program to close the digital divide by funding activities that provide individuals and communities with the skills, supports, and technologies necessary to take full advantage of a broadband internet connection once they have access to one. Digital Equity Act grants can be used for anything from laptops and devices for students to digital literacy classes for seniors at a local library. Read more here.

11/5/2021

1. Contact our senators and tell them to pass S.2747 Freedom to Vote Act,” and S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021,” by Nov. 19. After Nov. 19, the Senate has just 10 work days left this year. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put S.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021”  up for a vote in the Senate last week. The vote failed as expected, hopefully finally proving to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema that, at the very least, there must be a carve-out of the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation or complete elimination of the filibuster. This coming wee Indivisible is leading a week of action on voting rights. Call our senators at each of their local offices (Murray: 425-259-6515 (Everette), 360-696-7797 (Vancouver), 509-453-7462 (Yakima), 206-553-5545 (Seattle), 509-624-9515 (Spokane) and 253-572-3636 Tacoma) Cantwell: 206-220-6400 (Seattle), 509-353-2507 (Spokane), 253-572-2281 (Tacoma), 425-303-0114 (Everette),  360-696-7838 (Vancouver) and 509- 946-8106 (Richland). Also, attend the Zoom meeting with our senators’ staffers on Nov. 10 and attend our rally on Nov. 13. The choice is clear: save democracy or save the filibuster.
2. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for voting to pass H.R.3684, the $1.2 trillion “Infrastructure and Invest in Jobs Act,” (aka, the “bipartisan infrastructure bill”) on Friday. While progressives would have preferred to also vote on the Build Back Better plan on the same day, a few “moderate” House members delayed that vote until it can be scored by the CBO, which could take two weeks or more. Progressives were satisfied by the passage of a procedural vote advancing the Build Back Better plan when Congress resumes on Nov. 15. The Infrastructure and Invest in Jobs Act passed with the help of 13 Republicans, while six Democrats did not vote for it. The Infrastructure and Invest in Jobs Act provides over five years: $110 billion for roads, bridges, and major transportation projects, $66 billion for passenger and freight rail, $11 billion for transportation and pipeline safety, $39.2 billion for transportation system maintenance backlog. Read Sen. Cantwell’s summary of the bill here.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to continue the fight for paid family and medical leave in the Build Back Better plan. Sen. Murray has been a strong proponent of paid leave ever since she was first elected to the Senate in 1993. It looks like paid leave has dropped dropped from the bill in an effort to slim the bill down from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion. Sens. Manchin and Sinema seem to be opposed to it. Here is what Sen. Murray said last week: “We are not going to allow one or two men to tell millions of women in this country that they can’t have paid leave.”
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to co-sponsor H.R.1517, “Ending Taxpayer Welfare for Oil and Gas Companies Act of 2021,” introduced by Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) The bill would raise royalty rates for leasing federal land for onshore oil, gas and coal development from 12.5% to 18.75% and raise the minimum bid price to lease federal land for oil and gas development from $2 per acre to $5. Watch Rep. Porter grill oil company executives here. Also urge Rep. Kilmer to support H.R.1492, the “Methane Waste Prevention Act,” introduced by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO). The bill would require oil and gas companies operating on federal land to reduce methane emissions 65% below 2012 levels by 2025, and 90% by 2030. Also urge Rep. Kilmer to support H.R.1505, the “Bonding Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2021,” introduced by Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), which would increase the amount of money drillers set aside for cleanups, to ensure taxpayers aren’t left with the bill. Read about all of these bills here.
5. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to pass S.623/H.R.69, the “Sunshine Protection Act of 2021,” introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL). The bill would make daylight savings time the new, permanent standard time and remove a major irritant in the lives of Americans. Sen. Patty Murray is already a co-sponsor, and Rep. Kilmer was a supporter of a similar bill in a previous session of Congress.

10/29/2021

1. Contact our senators and tell them to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass S.2747 Freedom to Vote Act,” as well as H.R.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put S.2747 up for a vote in the Senate last week. The vote failed as expected. It’s obvious now that the filibuster must be eliminated to pass S.2747, H.R.4 (the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which will give the DOJ authority to investigate and bring lawsuits against states that violate voting rights), H.R.5314 to curb presidential power, H.R. 1280 for policing reform, H.R.3755 to protect reproductive rights, immigration reform, campaign finance reform, gun safety and so much more. We believe that Sen. Cantwell now supports a carve out but that she wants to keep the filibuster to protect Democrats when Republicans are in the majority. Remind her times have changed: Republicans have already carved out the filibuster to get the judicial nominees they want. Republicans get the tax cut bills they want via the carve out for reconciliation. As Sen. Gillibrand said last week, Republicans now get everything they want (which is to defeat Democratic initiatives) BECAUSE of the filibuster. The filibuster is an anti-democratic rule based on a mistake, but used exclusively by Southern senators to prevent the passage of civil rights legislation since the Civil War. It’s time for the filibuster to go. A fair amount Adam Jentleson’s book, “The Kill Switch,” (a history of the filibuster) is available online here. Once the infrastructure bills are passed next week, expect Indivisible to ramp up attention on this issue in the first two weeks of November.
2. Contact our members of Congress and tell them to pass the biggest Build Back Better plan possible. Evidently “moderate” and progressive Democrats have worked out a $1.75 trillion framework (down from Pres. Biden’s original $3.5 trillion and the progressive’s $6 trillion) that (in order of dollar amount, highest to lowest) allocates funds for our climate change response, childcare and universal preschool, Medicaid and ACA expansion, Medicare hearing benefit, in-home care access for the elderly, affordable housing, worker training and higher education, plus $90 billion for other spending. Urge our senators to fight Manchin’s plan to add means testing and work requirements to the child tax credit because these things will bog down the program. (Watch the series “Maid” on Netflix for details on that or click here.) For dollar amounts and details, read more here. Read why child care is so important. Make sure neither infrastructure bill does NOT contain a new incentives for hydrogen produced from fossil fuels. Read about that here.
3. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to join 54 representatives in co-sponsoring H.Res. 25, introduced by Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO). The resolution calls for the House Ethics Committee to investigate whether “actions taken by Members of the 117th Congress seeking to overturn the 2020 Presidential election violated their oath of office.” More info here.
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to join 15 other House members in co-sponsoring H.Res.406, “Congressional Inherent Contempt Resolution,” introduced by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA). The resolution would enable the House to enforce Congressional subpoenas and other Congressional actions by allowing the direct levying of penalties (as high as $100,000) against those refusing to comply with House-issued subpoenas. The resolution would require a simple majority of the House to pass. Lieu originally introduced this resolution a year ago, and the House should have taken action then. Learn more here.
5. Contact our senators and thank them for confirming Myrna Pérez to the U.S. Appeals Court for the Second Circuit. The vote was a party-line 48 to 43. Pérez will be the first Latina judge ever on the Second Circuit. She spent 15 years working on civil rights for the Brennan Center. Here is the first paragraph of what Michael Waldman wrote about Perez: “For 15 years at the Brennan Center, Pérez fought passionately for voting rights. During that time, a fierce litigator, she won protections for the right to vote for hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens. She also documented misguided policies, such as flawed voter purges and harsh voter ID, that make it harder for too many to vote, particularly voters of color. She and her team were deeply involved in the drive to enact automatic voter registration, a breakthrough innovative reform now in place in seventeen states and the District of Columbia.” Read more here.
6.  

10/22/2021

1. Contact our senators and tell them to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass S.2747 Freedom to Vote Act,” as well as H.R.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put S.2747 up for a vote in the Senate this week. The vote failed as expected. It’s obvious now that the filibuster must be eliminated to pass S.2747, H.R.4 (the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which will give the DOJ authority to investigate and bring lawsuits against states that violate voting rights), H.R.5314 to curb presidential power, H.R. 1280 for policing reform, H.R.3755 to protect reproductive rights, immigration reform, campaign finance reform, gun safety and so much more. We believe that Sen. Cantwell now supports a carve out but that she wants to keep the filibuster to protect Democrats when Republicans are in the majority. Remind her times have changed: Republicans have already carved out the filibuster to get the judicial nominees they want. Republicans get the tax cut bills they want via the carve out for reconciliation. As Sen. Gillibrand said this week, Republicans now get everything they want (to defeat Democratic initiatives) BECAUSE of the filibuster. The filibuster is an anti-democratic rule used in the past to prevent civil rights legislation from passing for decades. It’s time for the filibuster to go.
2. Contact our senators and urge them to support Holly Thomas, Pres. Biden’s pick for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit handles appeals from federal district courts in 11 states and territories, including Washington state. Thomas’ hearing was held this week and Republican “senators” used their time to grill Thomas about case in Loudoun County, VA, in which a boy assaulted a girl in a school bathroom. The boy is rumored to have worn a skirt. Thomas had not heard of the case before the hearing and had nothing to do with it. More info here.
3. Contact our senators and urge them to support Rachael Rollins, Pres. Biden’s nominee for U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. At her nomination hearing on Sept. 30, Cruz and Cotton led the opposition, accusing Rollins of having “a radical pro-crime stance.” Since being elected in 2018 as the first woman of color to serve as district attorney for Boston, Rollins has pushed for progressive criminal justice reforms. The Judiciary Committee voted 11-11 on Rollins’ nomination, so Schumer will have to call for a vote of the full Senate to push through Rollins’ nomination. Read more here.
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to support and pass the Justice Against Malicious Algorithms Act, introduced by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-06), along with Reps. Mike Doyle (D-PA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Anna Eshoo (D-CA) (no bill number yet). The bill would end civil immunity for Facebook and other platforms that knowingly or recklessly use algorithms or other technology to recommend content that “materially contributes to physical or severe emotional injury.” The bill would allow people to sue in cases where someone acts on misinformation or damaging content placed in their feed through personalized algorithms — for example, taking their own life. Read more here. Urge our senators to work with Reps. Pallone, Doyle, Schakowsky and Eschoo to introduce and pass this bill in the Senate.
5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for working with Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler to introduce H.R.4651/S.2464 the RECOMPETE Act. Contact our senators and urge them to co-sponsor this bill, which would The RECOMPETE Act would establish a new federal grant program at the Economic Development Agency (EDA) that would empower persistently distressed communities to develop, implement, and carry out 10-year economic development strategies and create jobs. Distressed communities, as identified by the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, are home to almost one-sixth of the U.S. population and have an employment rate of workers ages 25 to 54 significantly below the national average. The Upjohn Institute’s analysis suggests that these communities have largely been left out of the investment, wealth, innovation, and opportunity that has instead been concentrated in a handful of major metro areas in recent decades. Read more here.

10/15/2021

1. Contact our senators and tell them to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass S.2747 Freedom to Vote Act,” introduced by Sens. Joe Manchin, Raphael Warnock and Amy Klobuchar, as well as H.R.4, the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021.” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to put S.2747 up for a vote in the Senate next week. The vote is expected to fail and precipitate a showdown on the filibuster. It’s obvious now that the filibuster must be eliminated to pass S.2747, H.R.4 (the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which will give the DOJ authority to investigate and bring lawsuits against states that violate voting rights), H.R.5314 to curb presidential power, H.R. 1280 for policing reform, H.R.3755 to protect reproductive rights, immigration reform, campaign finance reform and gun safety. Senators who argue that the filibuster must be saved to protect Democratic priorities when Republicans are in the majority must realize that argument is a self-fulling prophecy: Republicans will take the majority for years to come once they’ve suppressed voting rights at the state level, and Mitch McConnell or any other Republican majority leader will eliminate the filibuster himself when he doesn’t need or want it anymore.
2. Contact our members of Congress and urge them to support Pres. Biden’s plan to increase tax revenues collected by the IRS. Media coverage of this plan from the New York Times and others has been abysmal without actually saying what the plan is, leading to hysterical negative reactions. Lawrence O’Donnell interviewed Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo who said exactly what the plan is: have banks (which already report to the IRS the amount of interest paid to an account at the end of every year) also report how much money went into an account and how much money came out of an account. The IRS would use this information to flag returns that report income of more than $400,000 a year and have “wonky” in-and-out numbers  for additional scrutiny that may lead to an audit if warranted. Budget cuts at the IRS over the last decades have reduced auditing for the richest of Americans because their returns are more complicated and take longer to audit. That means the rest of us whose income is reported on a W-2 are more likely to be audited. The United States will lose an estimated $7 trillion over the next decade from people and corporations not paying the taxes they owe. That is twice the $3.5 trillion of investments that Congress is now considering in the budget reconciliation bill. The richest 1 percent of taxpayers alone are responsible for an estimated $163 billion in unpaid taxes each year. Read more here.
3. Contact our senators and tell them to support the nomination of Saule Omarova. Pres. Biden’s nominee to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees banking regulation. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), attacked Omarova as the most “radical choice for any regulatory spot in our federal government” he had ever seen. He pointed to her academic writings in support of providing Americans with bank accounts through the Federal Reserve and authorizing a National Investment Authority to guide a national industrial policy. He insinuated that her birthplace in Kazakhstan (then part of the USSR) is the source of these horrible ideas. “What really drives the hysterical bank lobby opposition is that Omarova is an experienced bank lawyer and policymaker who worked alongside banks and Republican Treasury officials, and she knows where Wall Street buried all the bodies,” Carter Dougherty, communications director for Americans for Financial Reform, said. “She knows its secrets.” Read more here.
4. Contact Rep. Kilmer and urge him to support H.R.5525, the ENABLERS Act, introduced by Rep. Tom Malinowksi (D-NJ) and five other House members of which three are Republicans. The bill was inspired by the revelations of the Pandora Papers. a trove of millions of leaked documents, has raised questions about the business dealings of everyone from the king of Jordan to the billionaire friends and an alleged mistress of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Among the Papers more surprising findings is that South Dakota has become a major haven for people seeking to hide money from tax collectors, creditors and others. The main provision of the ENABLERS Act is that lawyers, investment advisers, art dealers, realtors, accountants, public relations firms and others would be required to engage in some form of “due diligence” to ensure their clients aren’t paying with or trying to move around money of suspicious origin.” Analysts say this requirement is, to a large degree, already standard in most other countries. Read more here.
5. Contact Rep. Kilmer and thank him for working with Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler to introduce H.R.4822, the “Department of Energy Coastal Research Initiative Act,” in July. The bill would authorize the Dept. of Energy to carry out a research program, in consultation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to enhance the understanding of coastal ecosystems of the Great Lakes region, the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as the Arctic. All are threatened by climate change.