Long story short: tell your Senators to pass the EQUAL Act, the Keeping Renters Safe Act, the National Security Reforms and Accountability Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, and the Postal Service Reform Act. Use the tools in the upper right-hand corner of this page (or, if you're on a cellphone, the bottom of this page) to find your Congressfolk's phone numbers and/or use the email/petition tools in the following paragraphs.
First things first. Late last week our House passed H.R. 1693, the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law (or EQUAL) Act -- and by an actual bipartisan margin of 361-66! So what would the EQUAL Act do? It would equalize sentences for crack cocaine and powder cocaine -- a gap the Obama Administration narrowed, but didn't close, in 2010 -- and it would allow judges to resentence crack offenders so they can serve powder time. They always said crack cocaine was more addictive, but that was a lie -- a lie designed to put more Black folks in jail, no less! Our Senate has yet to take up this bill, and a phone call from you telling them to pass it might well encourage them to do so. If we keep quiet about it, that'll make them think they can do nothing, and we sure don't want to enable that sort of behavior!
Eviction Moratorium Now helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 5307/S. 2776, the Keeping Renters Safe Act. The Keeping Renters Safe Act would enact the same national eviction moratorium that the Biden Administration had in place, until our Supreme Court struck it down; our Supreme Court would have trouble striking down a moratorium enacted by Congress, though I suppose they're a creative bunch and they're game to try. Why do we still need an eviction moratorium after more than 18 months? Because states have been very, very slow to give out federally-mandated rent assistance; is it fair, really, to put people out on the street because states don't do their job? No, it is not. Don't retort that none of this is "fair to landlords." Landlords can withstand hardship much better than their renters can. And when their renters get paid, they'll get paid. That's how you know the objection is rubbish!
Win Without War helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 5410, the National Security Reforms and Accountability Act. What would H.R. 5410 do? It would make it harder to fight "war on terror"-style unconstitutional wars, declare national emergencies, and sell weapons. We should make these things harder! Making them easy, in the name of "not hamstringing our President's ability to act," has caused most of the problems we've had over the last half-century! And hamstringing our President's ability to act is the whole point of giving Congress the power to declare war! You may scrutinize the bill and decide it doesn't go far enough -- you may even prefer the similar S. 2391, the National Security Powers Act -- but if it passed, it would improve our ability to keep our government from fighting stupid wars in our name, and that's a good work to do.
Common Cause, Public Citizen, and People for the American Way all help you tell your Congressfolk to pass S. 2747, the Freedom to Vote Act. The Freedom to Vote Act is basically the For the People Act without its ethics plank (wonder why Joe Manchin would object to that!), plus the Freedom to Vote Act would clamp down on state legislature power to overrule the will of their voters, which is quite necessary now that several states have given their legislatures that power. The Freedom to Vote Act would still clamp down on gerrymandering and dark money, restore voting rights to ex-felons, provide 15 days of early voting, enact same-day voter registration, and make Election Day a national holiday, so it merits your support, even if Manchinian drama created it.
Moms Rising helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 3110/S. 1658, the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act. This bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (passed in 1938, well before the workforce had many new mothers among its members!) so that women can nurse in private and without being harassed by bosses. The bill would also ensure women can nurse in a workplace better than a closet or a car or a bathroom. Before your right-wing nephew starts wailing about TEH SMALL BIZNIZIZ!!!!!, attend Sec. 2, which exempts businesses employing fewer than 50 people (though you may want to mention the fact that an employer like McDonald's, known to hide behind its "franchises," might try to drive a Mack truck through that loophole). In any case, nursing mothers deserve better than they typically get from their jobs, and the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act will give them better if it passes.
Public Citizen helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 3076/S. 1720, the Postal Service Reform Act. You've heard that our Postal Service has begun charging more and slowing down deliveries, as part of Postmaster General DeJoy's "bold" "plan" to "save" the Postal Service, but we could solve literally all of our Postal Service's financial problems by simply removing the mandate that it pre-pay retiree benefits 85 years in advance, which the Postal Service Reform Act does. I mused earlier today that President Biden might be waiting until Mr. DeJoy's plan falls flat before firing him, but that waiting will hurt people, and the Postal Service Reform Act presents a solution we can implement now, that will bring us better results now. When you can do the right thing right now, you do it, that's what I say.
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