Quote of the Week:“When you see important societal actors — be it university presidents, media outlets, C.E.O.s, mayors, governors — changing their behavior in order to avoid the wrath of the government, that’s a sign that we’ve crossed the line into some form of authoritarianism.” –Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard who co-authored 2018’s How Democracies Die. Legislative Actions:The Key to Statewide Activism is Using TAN!  If you're new to Take Action Network (TAN):
Sign in PRO/Support Environment Support SB 5033: Analyzing PFAS (i.e. forever chemicals) in Biosolids DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 9:00am This bill directs the Department of Ecology to establish a PFAS (i.e., forever chemicals) monitoring program for wastewater treatment facilities that generate biosolids. Biosolids are spread in forests and on farms and we are concerned about the impacts of these bioaccumulating toxic chemicals. Support SB 5284: Improve Recycling in Washington (Senate) DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm The Recycling Reform Act will create a producer responsibility program to reduce unnecessary packaging and paper products, while providing all Washington residents with access to equitable recycling. Support HB 1150: Improve Recycling in Washington (House) DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm This bill is the companion bill to the Senate version which 350 WA is advocating for. Both bills will create a producer responsibility program to reduce unnecessary packaging and provide all WA residents with access to equitable recycling. Education Support Support school safety and inclusion. DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm Makes it an official policy to prioritize the protection of every student's safety, access to a free public education, and privacy. Compliance with the policies are required and failure to do so will result in sanctions. Healthcare Support Ensuring easy access to birth control pills (House: On Floor 2nd Reading) DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm Support HB 1090 to ensure easy access to birth control pills Support Increasing access to prescription hormone therapy (House: On Floor 2nd Reading) DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm Help get this to a vote! Support HB1971 to require health plans that cover prescription hormone therapy to reimburse a 12-month refill of prescription hormone therapy at one time. Good Government Email your House Reps: Support the WA VOICES Act DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm Although many places in our state could soon adopt Ranked-Choice Voting, there are no statewide standards to ensure that it will be implemented right. The WA VOICES Act will make sure that all communities can maintain the same high-quality voting experience that we are used to in WA. Email your House Reps: Restore voting rights to incarcerated citizens DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm The right to vote affirms our humanity, our voice, and our identity as Americans. But Washington’s prisons strip more than 14,000 voters of their most fundamental right as citizens. If we pass HB 1196, we can allow every citizen to make their voice heard, even while incarcerated. Email your reps: Make Election Day a State Holiday DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm Make Election Day a state holiday in Washington! Email in support of HB 1916 Amending voter registration challenges and managing voter registration lists. DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm HB 1916 Limits frivolous claims by modifying forms, processes, and methods of adjudication for voter registration challenges. Email in support of HB 1321 Restrictions on out of state military forces. DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm HB 1321 gives the governor authority to limit outside military force activities within the state. Email in support of SB 5225 Providing clarity where candidates for the same office have similar names. DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm SB 5225 attempts to prevent efforts to intentionally confuse voters by recruiting non-serious candidates to file against serious candidates. The key is that there must be intent to deceive. Support HB 1710 Concerning compliance with the Washington voting rights act of 2018. DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm HB 1710 will require that certain local governments that wish to change their voting policies to vet those changes with the Attorney General office or the Thurston County Superior Court to ensure the changes do not impact the ability for anyone to elect candidates of their preference. Support HB 1750 Guidelines for Voting Rights Act claims DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm HB 1750 creates guidelines for voter suppression and vote dilution claims under the Washington voting rights act. Support HB 1339 in Allowing localities to move elections to even-numbered years to increase voter turnout. DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm HB 1339 would allow local governments the ability to move their elections to even-numbered years to increase voter turnout. Sign in PRO in support SB 5077 (Expanding the number of state agencies that can provide voter registration services.) DEADLINE: Mar 14 • 7:00am SB 5077 allows state agencies like the health benefit exchange, naturalization agencies, and the Department of Corrections to provide voter registration since all of those agencies have the ability to confirm citizenship through social security look up or transactional confirmation. Sign in PRO to support SB 5017 (Adopting national standards for uniformed and overseas civilian voting.) DEADLINE: Mar 14 • 7:00am Federal law allows U.S. citizens living abroad or who are active military or uniformed services members, to register and vote absentee in federal elections. The federal law is the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). SB 5017 extends these protections to state elections. Justice Support providing safer body searches of gender-nonconforming individuals in jails or prisons (Senate: On Floor 2nd Reading) DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm This bill would align state law with language in the Prison Rape Elimination Act to make conducting body searches safer for transgender, intersex, or other gender non-conforming individuals in jails or prisons. Support the formation of a Council to help eliminate health disparities. DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm Research shows disparities in health care for people of color and between men and women. This bill will create a council to advise the governor on eliminating these disparities. Support HB 1195: Supportive, Transitional, and Emergency Housing DEADLINE: Mar 12 • 5:00pm Zoning and permitting are often used to prevent the development of supportive, transitional and emergency housing. This bill prevents cities from using their permitting process and development standards (zoning) to deny applications for these important types of housing. A Note About Contacting Our Members of Congress in the Actions BelowAt this time, our Members of Congress have asked that we use their emails (and NOT phone calls) for advocacy on policy, appointments, and bills. They are trying to prioritize their phone lines for receiving calls from constituents who have just lost their jobs, access to service, etc., because of the Trump/Musk attacks on federal agencies. Let’s help our MoCs and fellow citizens by using email for the time being. Federal Actions:Stop Republican Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP  Source: Jacob Bøtter, Wikipedia Commons Background: Cuts Would Take Assistance Away From People in Every State On Medicaid cuts, budget officials tell Republicans what they didn’t want to hear Medicaid and SNAP Save Lives. Health Care and Food are Not Optional! We must urge our Members of Congress to continue to speak out against the devastating House Republican cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, approved by all but one House Republican this week. (It's not over, we still have to hear from the Senate.) Thank the Democrats for their support so far, and urge them to keep going and think creatively of how to block these terrible cuts. The House Democrats opposed this resolution unanimously – the kind of show of resolve we are looking for! Action: Contact our Senators and urge them to continue to publicly speak out against devastating cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
Oppose Trump's Anti-Transgender Passport Order From our friends at ACLU The Trump administration has been fueling cruelty against trans people from day 1 – including an effort to restrict their freedom of movement and control their identities. This is dangerous – which is why we at the ACLU have already filed a federal lawsuit to shut down Trump's order restricting their passports. But while the case proceeds, the State Department is already blocking trans, intersex, and nonbinary people from getting passports that align with their gender – a move that would “out” people when flying, opening bank accounts, enrolling in school, and more, and would subject them to discrimination and violence. Action: The government is receiving public comments on this until March 17 – and it is critical as many of us take action as possible: Tell the State Department to stop these attacks on our rights and reject this dangerous policy change. WA State Actions: Tell State Leaders No Cuts to the Safety Net!  Source: Martin Craft, Wikipedia Commons Background: WA Budget Cuts – Washington State House Democrats Washington state faces a huge budget deficit that threatens vital safety net services like health care, food assistance, and housing. All this while we’re facing MAGA threats to many safety net services on the federal side! At a time of high food and housing prices, we must urge our state legislators and Governor Bob Ferguson to resist cutting the state’s budget to the detriment of our most vulnerable people. This will be difficult, as lawmakers try to balance the social safety net with other vital services like education, environment and natural resources, and public safety. To protect these services, our lawmakers should be creative and look to other solutions, including new revenue, in ways that do not make our state’s tax system even more regressive. See the script below for details on how we are pushing back against Ferguson’s current proposed cuts. Action: Contact our local state Legislators and the Governor’s office and urge them to protect all existing social safety services for the most vulnerable, and consider new, progressive ways to fund these services! Contact State Representatives
Contact Governor Ferguson
Script for Legislators: I urge you to oppose cuts to social safety net services in the state budget: they will hurt the most vulnerable among us when food and housing costs are high and the federal government is threatening cuts. Please preserve health care, TANF, social services for the elderly and people with disabilities, housing and food assistance, and look at creative and non-regressive ways to finance these services. Script for the Governor: In your recent budget recommendations, you preserved funding for Medicaid, TANF, and housing. Thank you! Please keep all existing effective state social service programs, especially food assistance, even if funded with one-time federal funds. Food is just too expensive, and cuts will result in more costs to schools, hospitals, shelters, and jails and prisons. Please work with the Legislature to look at creative and non-regressive ways to finance these services. Local Actions:To Protect Our Health, Quality of Life, and the Environment Port Commissioners Must Delay Vote to Update Olympia Airport’s Master Plan  Source: HACAN/hacan.org.uk Creative Commons with Graphics added by Ronda Larson Kramer The Port of Olympia is scheduled to adopt an Update to its Master Plan for the Olympia Airport at a Commission meeting on March 24. The Update includes the potential of increased flights over our community posing numerous threats. The threats to our health and quality of life include an increase in noise and air pollution, harm to salmon runs in the Deschutes River, and harm to Tumwater’s drinking water. In addition, the current Airport Master Plan Update will threaten endangered species on Airport property and would potentially have negative economic impacts on homeowners near the airport. Click here for details about health risks. An Airport Master Plan Update is required by the Federal Aviation Administration every 5-10 years. In addition, Washington State requires the Port to conduct an environmental review (SEPA) of the updated plan. The Airport Master Plan Update failed to adequately address both direct and indirect impacts on the community and the environment. Community members launched a petition directed to Port Commissioners “to oppose any plan to expand air traffic at the Olympia Regional Airport.” Click here to read a full description of the petition opposing airport expansion. By signing the petition you will receive updates about the community’s response to oppose the Airport Master Plan Update in its current form. More information - watch video “Stop Olympia Airport Growth” recorded in Olympia, November 15, 2022. Action 1: Attend a slide-talk presentation on Saturday, March 22 from 10-11:00 a.m. on Zoom to learn more about the Olympia Airport Master Plan Update and its potential impacts on our community. The speaker is Ronda Larson Kramer, community activist and local attorney. Register for the talk here. Action 2: Send a message to Port Commissioners. Send to: [email protected] Subject: Delay Vote on the Airport Master Plan Update Message: Commissioners, I am a resident of Thurston County. I oppose any plan to expand air traffic at the Olympia Regional Airport. Please protect our county's health, quality of life, endangered species, and the environment by delaying your vote until a more thorough EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) has been completed. The EIS should reflect cumulative health, community, and environmental impacts of the Airport Master Plan Update. Waiting until specific projects are shovel-ready to do an EIS constitutes illegal piecemealing. Sincerely, (Your name) (City) Marches and Rallies News Turn Your Old Yard Signs into New Resistance Signs A creative member of our community has come up with a plan to “repurpose” old yard signs so folks can create their own “new” protest signs (for free) on site at rallies. The drop-off bin location is 2120 State Ave NE (right behind Vic’s Pizza) and is available on Fridays 1-7pm and Sundays 12-3pm. Monday, March 10 from 11am to 1pm: Rally in Centralia Join Centralia pro-democracy activists at a sign wave to protect immigrants and protest Trump’s policies and Elon Musk, at Centralia College (at the center of the Esplanade-Ward Plaza area) Link to the 50501 Group that is coordinating local rallies: Evergreenresistance.org Have You Scheduled These Events? Saturday, March 15, Passport Fair to Be Held at Thurston County Auditor's Office If Congress passes the SAVE act lots of people will need at least a passport card to vote. After May 7, 2025, passengers on domestic flights will be required to have a passport or enhanced driver's license to fly. Obtaining a passport now will ensure smooth travel transitions in the future.  Source: Thurston County Auditor For more information on Passport Services, visit the Thurston County Auditor’s website. -------- Come to the Action Cafe! Every Monday at noon the Action Cafe provides a virtual space where OI members meet, make new friends, and take actions together. Every Cafe comes with a side order of live music and a heapin’ helpin’ of good cheer! Cafe patrons receive an email on Sunday with a sneak-peek at what we'll do at the cafe the next day. On Monday morning, Chef Lisa will send you a pdf "Menu" with links to the actions we'll take together at the Cafe. Action: Register HERE. Department of Good News: Supreme Court Overturns Trump’s Refusal to Pay USAID Services
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court denied a Trump emergency request to freeze $2.0 billion in foreign aid. In a close 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court upheld a trial judge’s order that the Trump administration must pay for services rendered. In coming to this decision, the Supreme Court independently considered the legality of the action of Trump’s to slash government spending previously authorized by Congress. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices to form the majority, while the four other conservative justices dissented. Comments are closed.
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