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Catch-Up Day! and/or: Contact your Member of Congress and your Senators to complain about Trump’s decision to scrap a pay raise for Federal employees. Having handed out trillions of dollars in tax cuts to his wealthy cronies, Trump says there’s not enough money in the budget to give a decent pay raise to hard-working Federal employees.
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Don’t Fund Guns in Schools Betsy DeVos is considering whether to allow schools to use Title IV federal funds to purchase guns and arm faculty and staff. The wording of the legislation (the Every Student Succeeds Act) which authorized Title IV funding is vague, and Texas and Oklahoma have both asked DeVos for clarification as to whether gun acquisition would be permitted. The solution would be to amend the Every Student Succeeds Act to expressly prohibit this use of funds. Action: 1. Contact the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos and ask her to prohibit the use of Title IV funds for the purpose of acquiring guns: 202-401-3000 2. Contact your Member of Congress and ask them to amend the Every Student Succeeds Act so that the use of Title IV funds for the purchase of weapons is expressly prohibited. No Pardon for Manafort Trump has signaled that he may pardon Manafort, who is not only a criminal but a thoroughly bad guy. A pardon for Manafort by Trump would be an abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Action: Contact your Member of Congress and demand that he/she speak up loudly to condemn any potential pardon before it takes place. Medicare for All CNN has recently reported that 70% of Americans favor a single-payer health care system. The article also describes how Canada has successfully implemented a single-payer system while keeping tax rates at a level similar to those in the U.S.A. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/28/most-americans-now-support-medicare-for-all-and-free-college-tuition.html Action: Read the article and use it to provide one or two talking points in a message to your senators asking them to move us quickly towards some form of universal, single-payer health-care system. If you have time, contact your Member of Congress with a similar message. Violence Against Women The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 is set to expire on September 30 unless it is reauthorized, leaving only 11 legislative days to achieve this. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18) has introduced the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2018, which reauthorizes funding for VAWA’s existing programs and also deals with a wide range of issues, such as the treatment of pregnant women in prison, keeping guns from domestic abusers, and the protection of native women. This bill has been co-sponsored by 136 Democrats, but although the idea of reauthorization has received bipartisan support in the past, no Republicans have co-sponsored Jackson’s bill. Action: If your MoC is a Republican, contact them and ask them why they have not co-sponsored the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2018, H.R. 6545, and urge them to support this bill and make sure it gets passed before September 30. If your MoC is a Democrat, contact them and ask them to talk to their colleagues across the aisle and get support for the legislation. Suspend Kavanaugh Hearings The Senate Judiciary Committee is due to begin hearings on September 4 on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to SCOTUS. Given the crimes and misdemeanors in which Trump is currently implicated, hearings for his nominee for the Supreme Court should not go ahead unless and until he is cleared of all wrongdoing, especially because it is more than likely that Kavanaugh would side with Trump and his minions against Mueller if any challenges came before the Supreme Court. Action: 1. Call the Senate Judiciary Committee and demand that they suspend hearings on Kavanaugh’s nomination until more is known about Trump’s criminal liability: (202) 224-5225 2. If your Senator sits on the Judiciary Committee, contact them with the same message: www.senate.gov Protect Mueller With all that’s going on, it’s important to push again for the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act, H.R. 5505, introduced by Rep. Charles W. Dent (R-PA-15) and co-sponsored by five Democrats and five Republicans. An identical bill, S.2644, has been introduced into the Senate by Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and co-sponsored by two Democrats and a Republican. Action: 1. Contact your Member of Congress and ask them again to prioritize passage of H.R. 5505. Mention that you have already contacted them about this in the past. 2. Contact your Senators and ask them to prioritize passage of S. 2644. Mention that you have already contacted them about this in the past. Deportation to Mauritania Seyni Diagne, a man at risk for imprisonment and abuse in his native Mauritania, is about to be deported. In Mauritania, the country identified by the CIA as having the world’s highest rate of slavery, Black people like Diagne are not considered citizens and and are at risk of enslavement. Black Mauritanians have been allowed to live in the U.S. under supervision for years, but are now being deported back to a very dangerous situation in their homeland, where anti-slavery leader Biram Dah Abeid was recently arrested by the Mauritanian government. Action: 1. The Columbus, Ohio ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) of ICE was responsible for Diagne’s arrest. They are under the jurisdiction of the Detroit ICE field office; contact them to complain: [email protected] 2. Mr. Diagne was due to be deported via Royal Air Maroc - tweet to them, asking them to refuse to be complicit, and/or write on their Facebook page. Cohen Pleads Guilty Trump’s former lawyer, MIchael Cohen, has plead guilty to a bunch of criminal charges and has confirmed that he paid off women on behalf of, and at the direction of, Trump. This admission implicates the president in an impeachable criminal offense, i.e. conspiring to cause an excessive campaign contribution, as the large amounts paid to the women were disbursed expressly for the purpose of influencing the outcome of the election. Action: Contact your Member of Congress and ask them to draw up articles of impeachment. www.house.gov http://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php |
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November 2019
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