Supreme Court, Social Security, USPS Board of Governors, and more!
Contact all members of Congress:
- By phone: (202) 224-3121
- By email: democracy.io
- By US mail: Representatives / Senators
- By fax: Representatives / Senators
- By Resistbot: Resist.bot
Contact White House or other federal agencies:
- A SUPREME COURT FOR THE PEOPLE
We have a Supreme Court majority that has weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, opened the door to dark-money political corruption, ended a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, permitted discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, gutted affirmative action, and more (example). Several of the justices in this majority have secretly accepted massively valuable gifts from radical right-wing Republican businessmen, or seemed to receive special favors, and then failed to recuse themselves when the interests of those businessmen came before the Court. Enough. Let’s tell our Members of Congress to co-sponsor The Judiciary Act of 2023 (S.1616, H.R.3422) which would expand the size of the Court, and the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act (S.359, (H.R.926), which would require the Court to issue a code of conduct for its justices. And let’s also tell our Members of Congress that we want a law passed that implements the Active/Senior Justice Model proposed by NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice. - TELL CONGRESS TO FORCE A VOTE ON RSC’S SOCIAL SECURITY CUTS AND EXTREMIST AGENDA
After endless protests that President Biden was smearing them in describing their desire to cut Social Security and Medicare, the largest bloc of House conservatives offered up a fiscal blueprint that does just that. The Republican Study Committee, which counts 175 House Republicans out of 222 as members, has released a draft budget that raises the age to claim Social Security benefits by two years and adds a “premium support” model for Medicare that would effectively make it a voucher program, siphoning public funds to private insurance companies. Their proposal would also make the Trump tax giveaway to the wealthy permanent, fund the border wall, defund anti-poverty and anti-climate change programs, ban universal free school meals, add work requirements for SNAP, and repeal the health insurance subsidies, lower prescription drug costs and infrastructure investments from the Inflation Reduction Act. Let’s reach out to our members of Congress and tell them this is the wrong direction for our country, and we support them making an effort to force a vote on it to put every House Republican on the record as to whether they support this destructive, anti-working family agenda or not.
- ASK BIDEN TO NOMINATE POSTAL SERVICE BOARD MEMBERS
It’s time for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to go! During the 2020 election period, this Trump appointee removed mailboxes, reduced post office hours and cut overtime for workers, Fortunately much of this was reversed. He also proposed a ten-year plan with longer delivery times and fewer post offices, in a move he claims will make the post office solvent, but critics say will lead to further privatization of mail delivery. Further controversies include awarding contracts to a company he has ties to, reimbursing employees for GOP contributions, and purchasing gas-guzzling delivery trucks. Biden cannot fire DeJoy directly, only the USPS Board of Governors can. While Biden can appoint members that can fire DeJoy, the current Republican board president is a staunch DeJoy supporter, and Biden’s last nominees have not opposed him either. Two positions on the nine-seat board were up in December, but Biden has yet to nominate anyone. The American Postal Workers Union endorses Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence for one of the positions. Postal workers are asking Biden to stop stalling and fill these positions. Let’s tell the President that these two seats on the USPS Board of Governors need to be filled.
- TEXTING TUESDAYS WITH BLACK VOTERS MATTER
Black Voters Matter, an organization that works to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities, is launching a new virtual volunteer event called Texting Tuesdays. Every Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET, starting August 8, volunteers will gather on Zoom for digital organizing to engage and empower residents across the U.S. We can participate in Texting Tuesdays by registering here. (h/t Network NOVA)
- 4TH OF JULY REFLECTIONOn July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass, escaped slave turned activist, gave his now famous “What to The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?” speech at an Independence Day celebration. Not long ago, descendants of Frederick Douglass read parts of that speech that speaks to the long history of denying equal rights to Blacks. Let’s watch this short video and reflect how we can help positive change happen.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
- OH – CHECK VOTER REGISTRATION STATUS BY JULY 10TH
We are already down to the final weeks before the One Person, One Vote initiative comes to the ballot in Ohio. The voter registration deadline for this referendum is July 10th – and that may be important, because Ohio purged another 125,000 people’s registration earlier this year. Let’s make sure we check our voter registration status at voteohio.gov to be sure we’re set to go and send our friends and family there if they need to register. We can also sign up to volunteer to turn out voters here.