Quote of the Week:“The time is always right to do what is right.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. Take Two Actions Now:It Is Time to Fix the Unfair Filibuster Rules  LAtimes.com showing population: red (GOP) and blue (Dems) and empty land in white. This week, it is highly likely that Senators Manchin and Sinema, refusing to give up their current stranglehold on power, will kill voting rights legislation by refusing to allow any change to the filibuster. And Republicans are pulling out all the stops to protect the filibuster. The Senate filibuster as it is currently being used gives Republicans an unbeatable structural advantage enabling them to rule as a minority. It does not give Senate Democrats the same advantage. You can read more about it here: Filibuster Reform. In this time of Republican extremism, the filibuster is destroying our democracy. The filibuster advantages Republicans in two ways.
With the power of the filibuster, 20 small, largely Republican states (representing only 33 million people, less than the state of California) can block consideration of any legislation favored by the other 300 million Americans. The current filibuster rules give complete legislative control to one tenth of the country. This is NOT Democracy. History has shown us that the filibuster does not promote bipartisanship. On the contrary, it is giving a very small minority of people the power to prevent our country from moving forward with solutions our country desperately needs. Action 1: Contact our Senators Option A: Contact your representatives by telephone or email.
Script: My name is _________, and my zip code is _________. Thank you Senator Murray for making a strong statement supporting a change to the filibuster, and we encourage Senator Cantwell to make an equally strong statement. We encourage both of you to lobby across the aisle. The current Senate filibuster rules must be changed to allow consideration of the voting rights legislation our country desperately needs. All Americans deserve a fair chance at having legislation passed that is urgently needed. Option B: Take this action with one click in Take Action Network (TAN) Fix Unfair Filibuster Rules. Bring Integrity to Capitol Hill Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia introduced a bill this week with fellow Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona called the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, which would require lawmakers, their spouses and dependent children to place their stock portfolios into blind trusts. Ossoff's legislation would have the congressional Ethics Committee oversee the issue Ossoff's legislation would fine the lawmakers from their salaries if they broke the law. A similar bipartisan bill, was introduced on the House side, led by Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, The Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust (TRUST) that would require lawmakers to put their assets into qualified blind trusts when they enter office. Action 2: Contact our Members of Congress Option A: Contact your representatives by telephone or email. Senator Patty Murray, Phone: 253-572-3636 or Contact Form Senator Maria Cantwell, Phone: 253-572-2281 or Contact Form Marilyn Strickland, Phone: 202-225-9740 or Contact Form Email all three MOCs at once using Democracy.io. Script to Senators: My name is ________, my zip code is ________. I'm asking the Senator to co-sponsor the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act to prevent Senators from owning stock and bring some integrity back to Congress. Script to Rep: My name is ________, my zip code is ________. Please ask Rep. Strickland to co-sponsor The Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust (TRUST) in Congress Act to prevent members of Congress from owning stock and bring some integrity back to Capitol Hill. Option B: Take this action with one click in Take Action Network (TAN) Bring Integrity to Capitol Hill. Legislative Action of the Week:Washington Indivisible Legislative Action Please join us in support of important legislative bills in the 60 day session. If you are already a TAN member, watch this video to learn how to filter TAN so you only get the actions of interest to you. Introduction to TAN Activists. If you are not a member of Take Action Network (TAN), sign up for a training session or request a meeting with one of the TAN trainers for a one-on-one session. It takes 15 minutes or less for the basic sign up. Take the following actions and then click the green 'I took this action' button. Sign in “Pro”. Support SB 5688, Keep Our Care Act, giving strong oversight of monopolistic hospital mergers by the Attorney General. Washington has seen recent consolidations restrict access to critical health care services – including reproductive and end-of-life care. Deadline: Jan 18 8:30am Support SB 5584 (RCV for local elections) by Signing in "Pro" to the Senate State Government & Elections' Public Hearing Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is supported by the League of Women Voters. Deadline: January 19 at 7:00am Support Salmon habitat by Signing in "Pro" to the House Rural Development, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Public Hearing The Lorraine Loomis Act is a bold bill that aims to recover salmon stocks, return to harvestable levels of salmon and restore riparian ecosystems. Deadline: January 19 at 9:00am Local Action:Port of Olympia Commission Must Investigate |
To submit topics to the CTA Team use this email: OICTATeam@gmail.com.
Archives
January 2022
At the bottom of the page lick the "<<Previous" link to see older posts.
|
RSS Feed
