Long story short: tell your Senators to pass voting rights legislation and extend the Child Tax Credit expansion, and tell your Congressfolk to pass the Postal Service Reform Act, the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act, and the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice 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.
Today's as good a day as any to call your Senators and tell them to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Yeah, we know how they're going to vote -- the Penguin and the Joker won't let Democrats modify the filibuster so Republicans can't just stamp their feet and say no, and then Republicans will filibuster the bills -- even though they'll actually vote to keep debate going and then promptly end debate, because that's how the filibuster has worked for over 40 years -- but duty is duty, and putting them on the record as opposing the people's will multiple times has utility. If you can reach a live person at your Senators' offices, you can ask how many calls they've gotten about this matter and how they break down. The results may be interesting!
Citizens for Tax Justice helps you tell your Senators to extend the Child Tax Credit expansion. This'll be a phone call, so you can piggyback this alert onto the back of the voting rights alert above. January 15 just went by with no $250 or $300 checks for working families for the first time in six months, and I can't imagine working families all over America didn't notice. We've got the Penguin to blame for this one -- he didn't want to extend it in the Build Back Better Act, because, according to him -- or, more likely, his CEO pals -- people use those checks to buy drugs. Drugs! Not, you know, food or clothing or back to school supplies. Anyway, what happened to conservatives trusting people? You might conclude that when right-wingers say they "trust people," they actually mean they only trust rich bosses.
Daily Kos helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 3076, the Postal Service Reform Act. You recall how virtually all of our Postal Service's financial troubles stem from a 2006 Congressional mandate to pre-fund its retiree benefits 80 years in advance? When you consider literally no other private or public entity has to follow such a mandate, you might almost think Congress sabotaged our Postal Service -- which meant it was just a matter of time someone like Louis DeJoy came along and said emergency! We have to cut services and raise prices just to stay alive! The Postal Service Reform Act would repeal this mandate, and therefore also the rationale for making our Postal Service run badly. Hey, it's our Postal Service, so we deserve better.
The Union of Concerned Scientists helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 2193/S. 1068, the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act. This bill -- named for a farmworker who died after working 10 hours in 105-degree heat -- would mandate that our Occupational Safety and Health Administration (or OSHA) create a worker safety standard that would protect our workers from heat-related illnesses and injuries, meaning folks who work outside would get access to rest and shade. Don't brook any nonsense about how we don't have to care because it's only Those People who work in conditions like that, not just because that would be cruel, but also because in a few short years it won't even be true if climate change keeps working its will. Welcome to Chapter 244 of "Compassion Is Pragmatic."
Finally, Color of Change helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 2489, the Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act. As you know, big telecoms charge prisoners and their families a lot of money just so they can stay in contact, which means a lot of folks just give up because of the expense, which also means these prisoners are more likely to go back to jail. The Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act would authorize our Federal Communications Commission (or FCC) to cap phone rates for prisoners (more than they're currently doing, surely!) and would also outlaw "site commissions," which are basically kickbacks big telecoms pay to prisons (and which some states actually mandate by law, if you can believe it). And remember: civilized people aren't cruel to the weak, and we certainly don't gouge prisoners.
Comments