March 28, 2024
Baltimore bridge tragedy, state-based universal health care, Project 2025, 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:
- THE BALTIMORE BRIDGE TRAGEDYWe’ll be learning more every day about the destruction of the bridge in that caused at least six deaths and will disrupt the major US Port of Baltimore for the foreseeable future. President Biden wants the federal government to pay for the entire cost of reconstructing the bridge. He’ll need the cooperation of Congress. Let’s tell our Members of Congress that we support the President’s call for footing the entire bill for rebuilding the bridge, and we expect Congress to get this done as soon as possible.
- SUPPORT THE STATE-BASED UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARELast November, Rep. Ro Khanna, introduced HR 6270, the State Based Universal Health Care Act, which would give more power, along with federal resources, to states to implement their own universal health care systems. Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) is prepared to introduce a companion bill in the Senate next week, and the deadline for co-sponsorship is this Friday, March 29th. Let’s contact our Senators now and ask them to co-sponsor this initiative. Action Network has a template here to write to them directly.
- UNPACKING PROJECT 2025 – TONIGHTThe conservative movement is determined not to let the chaos of Trump’s first term that limited their ability to push their agenda be repeated. The Heritage Foundation has laid out a 900-page road map to achieving their goal of dismantling the federal government and making their right-wing vision a reality as part of an effort to have a government-in-waiting ready to go on Day 1: Project 2025. Activists are working to shine the spotlight on this policy and staffing proposal during this campaign season. Tonight, folks from the ACLU, the Center for Popular Democracy, ProPublica, United We Dream, the Center for Fair Housing and other organizations are coming together to host a virtual town hall at 7:00PM EST, doing a deep dive into Project 2025 and its strategies and implications. Let’s sign up to join them and help spread the word with this link. We can also learn more about Project 2025 with these summaries from Media Matters and Carlos Lozada, and share them with our networks.
- SECURING ACCESS TO MEDICATION ABORTION
With Roe overturned and abortion bans proliferating, access to medication abortion has proven crucial – a recent report by the Guttmacher Institute found 63% of all abortions were done via this method in 2023. Naturally, medication abortion is under sustained assault, with ultraconservative Trump-appointed rogue judge Matthew Kacsmaryk invalidating the Food and Drug Administration’s approvals of the abortion pill mifepristone. The FDA has made decisions that allow the medication to be available through telehealth and shipped by mail, even to patients in states where abortion is banned. Kacsmaryk’s decision was stayed, and Supreme Court justices in yesterday’s hearing on the case indicated they were likely to dismiss the lawsuit on standing grounds, but a victory here will not be the end of this fight. Along with future attempts to unwind the FDA’s actions, anti-abortion activists are also trying to apply an 1873 law called the Comstock Act to restrict shipment of even legal, FDA-approved abortion pills through the mail. Senator Tina Smith and Rep. Cori Bush have re-introduced the Protecting Access to Medication Abortion Act, which could ensure the legality of mifepristone and guarantee it will remain available through telehealth and mail-order pharmacies, and multiple Democrats have pushed the Freedom to Decide Act, which would make law the current Justice Department policy that access to medication abortion is legal and the Comstock Act does not apply. Let’s contact our members of Congress and ask them to sign on as co-sponsors to these vital pieces of legislation, and let’s push our candidates to commit to passing these bills and join Rep. Bush in working for a full repeal of the Comstock Act to put this threat to burden reproductive rights down for good.
- ORGANIZE A VOTE FORWARD LETTER-WRITING PARTYVote Forward “empowers grassroots volunteers to send handwritten letters encouraging fellow Americans to vote.” The organization currently has twelve active campaigns targeting people of color, women, youth, and other underrepresented potential voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. We can write and stockpile our letters starting now and mail them in October. Let’s learn about the difference that Vote Forward letters made in getting out the vote in 2020 and in other elections (example, example), and let’s consider organizing a letter-writing party in our communities—download event kit to learn how.
- STOP THE EROSION OF BLACK VOTING POWERSince the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision, the difference in the turnout rate between white and non-white voters has been growing, and has been growing most rapidly in states with a history of racial discrimination in voting, according to a Brennan Center report. Let’s respond to this injustice in one or more of the following ways:· Express our support of S.4 and H.R.14, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2024, to our Members of Congress and tell them to co-sponsor the bill if they have not done so already.· Help re-elect President Biden and work for Democratic majorities in the House and Senate so they can get the John Lewis bill passed.· Help elect Democrats at the state level, where voter suppression laws get passed.· Invest in, and/or volunteer for, organizations fighting voter suppression, like the Movement Voter Project, the Center for Common Ground, and the NAACP.
- STAND UP FOR THE RIGHT TO READ“Public libraries saw 92 percent increase in number of titles targeted for censorship over the previous year,” reads the headline of the American Library Association’s new press release on books targeted for censorship in 2023, with 47% of books targeted in public libraries and schools involving LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC themes. While nearly every state saw book challenges in 2023, the most impacted states were CO, CT, FL, ID, IL, IA, KY, MD, MO, NC, OH, PA, TN, TX, UT, VA, and WI. Let’s tell our Members of Congress to co-sponsor H.R.6592—Fight Book Bans Act, which would authorize the Secretary of Education to provide grants to schools to cover the costs of book challenges, and to co-sponsor H.R.6830—Books Save Lives Act, which would, among other things, “classify discriminatory book bans as violations of civil rights laws” and “require the Government Accountability Office to report on the effect of book bans on underrepresented communities.”
- EQUITY IN CIVIL COURTSPew Charitable Trusts has been looking into the problem of civil court justice in the states for a while now (example), and has recently released a fact sheet of steps for making civil courts more equitable. Let’s read “How to Measure and Address Disparities in Court Experiences and Outcomes.” Then, let’s inform the courts in our state about Pew’s fact sheet and tell them that we want them to take steps to address civil justice disparities across racial, ethnic, disability, income, gender, age, and linguistic populations.
- SUPPORT NAACP STUDENT-ATHLETE BOYCOTT OF FLORIDA PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIESIn a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the NAACP notes that all state-funded Florida colleges and universities are required by state law to dismantle their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The letter calls on all current and prospective college student-athletes to reconsider their decisions to attend and compete at any colleges or universities in Florida. The NAACP’s statement is in response to news that the University of Florida has scrapped its DEI programs. In solidarity, let’s make the college student-athletes in our lives aware of the NAACP’s boycott.
- KEEP CALM AND HOST A BLOCK PARTYThere’s a media drumbeat about dangerous political polarization in America—example—but what are the nuanced contours of it? We can find lots of good answers in “Polarization, Democracy, and Political Violence in the United States: What the Research Says,” a report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In our own corners of America, we can build bridges with our neighbors and humanize one another by organizing and attending block parties together. Ideas for planning block parties can be found on the internet—like this and this—and some municipalities, recognizing the community-building power of block parties, even offer grants and other support: example, example. As we move into milder outdoor weather, let’s consider joining with neighbors to organize a block party and build stronger ties for our communities, cities, states, and country.
