Congress

It’s Time For Congress To Fire The FCC Chairman

September 28, 2017 Gigi Sohn, www.theverge.com Create! Congress, FCC, Internet, Net Neutrality

By Gigi Sohn for The Verge - FCC chairman Ajit Pai is genuinely one of the nicest people in Washington. He’s smart, personable, and the kind of guy you’d want to have a beer with. But nice guys don’t always make good policy (I’ve been bipartisan on this), and Pai’s record means real danger for American consumers and the internet itself. If you believe communications networks should be fast, fair, open, and affordable, you need ask your senator to vote against Pai’s reconfirmation. Now. The Senate vote on Pai is imminent. When it happens, it will be a stark referendum on the kind of communications networks and consumer protections we want to see in this country. Senators can choose a toothless FCC that will protect huge companies, allow them to further consolidate, charge higher prices with worsening service, and a create bigger disconnect between broadband haves and have-nots. Or, they can vote for what the FCC is supposed to do: protect consumers, promote competition, and ensure access for all Americans, including the most vulnerable. It shouldn’t be a hard decision, and what we’ve seen over the past eight months makes the stakes clear. Below are just a few of the Pai FCC’s most harmful actions, which should help make your decision to contact your senator clear, too.

‘Team Internet’ Mobilizing Thousands Of Activists Across The Country

September 27, 2017 Mark Stanley, www.demandprogress.org Organize! Activists, Congress, Internet, Net Neutrality

By Mark Stanley for Demand Progress - Across the country, Team Internet volunteers like Platt are meeting with lawmakers, turning up at rallies, attending mass calls and coordinating with other activists in ways they’ve never before been able to do. “There are so many crucial issues people are engaging in right now, from healthcare to advocating for racial justice. At the end of the day, folks know if their free speech is curtailed because we don’t have strong Net Neutrality protections, organizing on these issues will be extremely difficult,” said Demand Progress Director of Operations and Communications Mark Stanley. “We’re seeing an unprecedented number of activists take time out of their busy lives to meet with lawmakers and their staff on this issue. Net Neutrality is vital for our civil discourse, our democracy and organizing on issues that impact people’s daily lives, and people are willing to fight for it now more than ever,” said Stanley. “Wherever you go, you can feel the energy and enthusiasm for Net Neutrality. Students, doctors, software engineers, lawyers and more are volunteering their time because they want a free and open internet. They’re gathering at lawmakers’ offices, protesting outside of speeches by FCC Chairman Pai, taking part in conference calls to learn more about the connections between Net Neutrality and racial justice, and connecting online and off to plan their next steps,” said Free Press Field Director Mary Alice Crim.

Latino Officials Arrested In Dream Act Protest Outside Trump Tower

September 23, 2017 Ilana Novick, www.alternet.org Resist! Congress, DACA, Immigration, Undocumented

By Ilana Novick for AlterNet - While Donald Trump was threatening to destroy North Korea in his first major speech to the United Nations, Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) along with New York City council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito were being arrested outside Trump Tower, according to a statement from immigrant advocacy organization Make the Road New York. The four elected officials were among the large crowd protesting the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and demanding that Congress pass the Dream Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children. A group of 12, including the four officials, blocked traffic in busy midtown Manhattan. Espaillat explained that he participated knowing the risk of arrest. "I do not take civil disobedience lightly," he explained in a statement. "As a member of Congress who was once formerly undocumented, I believe this cause is too monumental to sit idly by." Rep. Gutiérrez, a member of the Judiciary Committee and the chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, emphasized the importance of participating in this action as part of a larger grassroots movement.

Trojan Horse Democrats Pile Into House Of Single-Payer

September 22, 2017 Jim Kavanaugh, www.thepolemicist.net Educate! Congress, Health Care, Single-Payer

By Jim Kavanaugh for The Polemicist - It’s great that more than a third of Democratic senators have signed on to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’s Medicare-for-All bill. It’s a potentially strong bill that’s been welcomed by single-payer activist organizations like Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and National Nurses United (NNU), and it represents a victory for the tireless work of single-payer activists and the popular pressure they stoked. It is also, we must recognize, only possible because of Bernie’s insistent promotion of healthcare as a right, in a campaign that widened the field of American political discourse. Above all, it is a result of continuing disgust with American for-profit health insurance system. It marks the exasperation with Obamacare’s half-assed attempt to patch up that system, and the rejection of the even crueler Republican schemes. At the very least, this bill puts single-payer “on the table” of legislative action and public discussion. The “public discussion” part is perhaps the most important. People will now hear about single-payer, and its advocates will not be completely shut out of media coverage from Fox to PBS, as they are now. Even the Democratic Party will have to talk about it. But please, please, do not be fooled. It does not mean that most, or any, of those co-sponsoring Democratic senators actually support single-payer. Most of those Democrats have signed on because they felt politically forced to, because they knew they could not face their constituents if they didn’t.

Demonstrators Shout Down Pelosi At San Francisco DREAM Act Event

September 19, 2017 Staff, www.sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com Resist! Congress, DACA, Immigration, Undocumented

By Staff of CBS - Pelosi unsuccessfully attempted to calm down the chanting students. “You’ve had your say, and it’s beautiful music to our ears,” Pelosi said. But when they interrupted again, she shouted “Just stop it now!” Moments later, she was forced to leave the news conference. Meanwhile in San Francisco federal court, six immigrants brought to the United States as children who became teachers, graduate students and a lawyer sued the Trump administration on over its decision to end a program shielding them from deportation. The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco alleges the move violated the constitutional rights of immigrants who lack legal status and provided information about themselves to the U.S. government so they could participate in the program. “The consequences are potentially catastrophic,” said Jesse Gabriel, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “These people can very powerfully and very clearly communicate the extent to which they organized their lives around this program.” The lawsuit joins others filed over President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 immigrants to obtain work permits and deportation protection since 2012.

Insurance Industry Pays Senators To Not Support Improved Medicare For All

September 16, 2017 Andrew Perez, www.maplight.org Educate! Congress, Health Care, Insurance, Medicare

By Andrew Perez for MapLight - Democratic senators who haven’t signed on to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” proposal have received twice as much cash from the insurance industry as the bill’s sponsors, MapLight has found. The insurance industry has donated an average of $23,600 since 2010 to senators who have co-sponsored Sanders’ bill, according to a MapLight review of campaign finance data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Democratic senators who have not yet supported his legislation, including Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent, have received an average of $55,500 from the industry. The independent senator from Vermont has been pitching a government-run, single-payer health care system since 1993. But the idea became popular among progressive voters during his 2016 primary campaign against eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and is picking up support. About one-thirdof American adults polled in June said they now support a single-payer health care system. Sanders, who formally proposed his “Medicare for All” plan on Wednesday, has picked up support from 16 of the Senate’s 46 Democrats. Supporters include potential 2020 presidential contenders, such as Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. A majority of House Democrats are backing a similar proposal introduced in January by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.

Health Care Lobbyists Bankrolled Senate Democrats

September 15, 2017 David Sirota and Lydia O'Neal, www.ibtimes.com Educate! Congress, Health Care, Lobbying, Reform

By David Sirota and Lydia O'Neal for IB Times - As Bernie Sanders worked to finalize his Medicare-for-All Act of 2017, corporate lobbyists representing the traditional opponents of single-payer health care — including the nation’s major private insurers and drug companies — poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into Senate Democrats’ fundraising accounts. Now, many of those lawmakers have refused to sign on to the Medicare bill. Sanders has faced questions about whether or not the bill would garner solid support among Senate Democrats. So far, 16 Senate Democrats have said they will sponsor the legislation — which the insurance industry slammed after he announced it. A new study from campaign finance watchdog group MapLight found that since 2010, Democratic senators who have refused to sponsor the bill have, during their careers, raised twice as much insurance industry cash as those who support the legislation. As Republicans took over the White House earlier this year, significant campaign funding for Democratic senators has continued to come from lobbyists. According to federal campaign finance records reviewed by International Business Times, lobbyists, lobbying firms and one other corporate political action committee collectively delivered nearly $2 million in bundled campaign contributions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the first half of 2017.

Trump Administration Urges Congress To Renew FISA

September 14, 2017 Aaron Kesel, www.activistpost.com Educate! Congress, Surveillance, Trump Administration

By Aaron Kesel for Activist Post - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is urging Congress to “promptly” reauthorize section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) scheduled to expire at the end of this year. The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dan Coats also signed the letter, addressed to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Section 702 of FISA “allows the Intelligence Community, under a robust regime of oversight by all three branches of government, to collect vital information about international terrorists, cyber actors, individuals and entities engaged in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and other important foreign intelligence targets located outside the United States,” Sessions and Coats wrote. They added: “Reauthorizing this critical authority is the top legislative priority of the Department of Justice and the Intelligence Community. As publicly reported by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, information collected under one particular section of FAA, Section 702, produces significant foreign intelligence that is vital to protect the nation against international terrorism and other threats.”

Senate Debates Billions For Insurers While Public Demands Medicare For All

September 9, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.healthoverprofit.org Educate! Congress, Health Care, Insurance

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Health Over Profit for Everyone - Senators are back from their long summer recess, and they started off with health care back at the top of the agenda. The Senate HELP committee held its first of four hearings on September 6, and Senator Bernie Sanders is preparing to introduce a Medicare for All bill on September 13. The two efforts are a clear example of the underlying dilemma that we have faced in the United States for the past 100 years: Is health care a commodity or a public good? It can’t be both. The failed efforts to repeal and replace the ACA took up a lot of time and energy this year and left the country in no better position to deal with the ongoing healthcare crisis. Now, time is really short because private health insurers are announcing their rates for 2018, and they are, not surprisingly, screaming for more money because they have to (*gasp*) pay for health care. A group of us attended the first Senate HELP committee hearing to convey the message that the people are ready to undertake the serious work of creating a National Improved Medicare for All. Typically, before and sometimes during a hearing, attendees are allowed to hold signs as long as they are not disruptive.

To Sanders: We Can’t Begin From Position Of Compromise

September 1, 2017 Margaret Flowers, www.healthoverprofit.org Petitions and Online Actions Congress, Health Care

By Margaret Flowers for Health Over Profit for Everyone - At the start of the August congressional recess, Senator Bernie Sanders announced that he will introduce a senate bill this September “to expand Medicare to cover all Americans.” Since the election, the movement for improved Medicare for all, has been urging Sanders to introduce a companion to John Conyers’ HR 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, which currently has a record 117 co-sponsors in the House and is considered the gold standard by the movement. Recent reports are that Sanders’ bill falls far short of HR 676 in fundamental ways. In fact, Sanders’ bill is a multi-payer system not a single payer system. His bill reportedly would allow private insurers to compete with the public system, allow the wealthy to buy their way out of the public system and allow investor-owned health facilities to continue to profit while providing more expensive and lower quality health care. As a leader in the Democratic Party in the Senate, Sanders is trying to walk the line between listening to the concerns of his constituency, which overwhelmingly favors single payer health care, and protecting his fellow Democrats, whose campaigns are financed by the medical industrial complex.

Texas Republicans Helped Chemical Plant That Exploded Lobby Against Safety Rules

September 1, 2017 David Sirota, www.ibtimes.com Educate! Chemicals, Congress, Texas

By David Sirota, Alex Kotch, Jay Cassano, and Josh Keefe for IBT - The French company that says its Houston-area chemical plant is spewing "noxious" smoke — and may explode — successfully pressed federal regulators to delay new regulations designed to improve safety procedures at chemical plants, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times. The rules, which were set to go into effect this year, were halted by the Trump administration after a furious lobbying campaign by plant owner Arkema and its affiliated trade association, the American Chemistry Council, which represents a chemical industry that has poured tens of millions of dollars into federal elections. The effort to stop the chemical plant safety rules was backed by top Texas Republican lawmakers, who have received big campaign donations from chemical industry donors. Representatives from Arkema Americas and the American Chemistry Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In 2013, a West, Texas, chemical plant explosion killed 15 people, prompting the Obama administration to try to raise chemical plant safety standards (investigators later found the explosion was caused deliberately).

Nine Members Of Congress Targeted In Billboards By Net Neutrality Campaign

August 30, 2017 Evan Greer, www.fightforthefuture.org Resist! Congress, Internet, Net Neutrality

By Evan Greer for Fight For The Future - Today digital rights organization Fight for the Future unveiled 3 more crowdfunded billboards targeting Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Bob Latta, and Greg Walden, members of Congress who have publicly supported the FCC’s efforts to gut net neutrality protections that keep the web free from censorship, throttling, and extra fees. The three new billboards are the latest in an ongoing campaign focused on lawmakers who oppose Internet freedom. Earlier this month the group launched an initial round of net neutrality billboards targeting six different lawmakers in states across the country. The move comes just hours before the FCC’s final deadline for public input on their controversial plan to repeal net neutrality. With lawmakers still in their home districts, the billboards - paid for by hundreds of small donations - appear in three different states.

Texas Senators Want Hurricane Harvey Disaster Declaration

August 29, 2017 Larry McShane, www.nydailynews.com Educate! Congress, Hurricane, Natural Disasters, Texas

By Larry McShane for Daily News - In the House, all but one Republican representative from the Lone Star State opposed the aid bills for Sandy. Republican leaders in the House actually delayed a vote on the multi-billion dollar aid program in early 2013, adjourning a January session for weeks as storm victims twisted in the wind. Rep. Peter King (R-L.I.) at the time described the behavior of his GOP colleagues as “disgraceful,” noting most of the opponents came from states that had previously received disaster aid. Cornyn and Cruz were among the 39 Republican senators to oppose the package, along with 179 GOP members of the house. Republican senators further delayed the vote by trying to offset the aid with budget cuts.

Barbara Lee And Tulsi Gabbard Side With War Party On Sanctions

August 11, 2017 Danny Haiphong, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Congress, Ruling Class, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

By Danny Haiphong for Black Agenda Report - The House recently voted to enforce sanctions against Russia, Iran, and the DPRK. Congress included an unprecedented provision in the bill to restrict the President from amending the sanctions without approval from Congress. Despite vocal opposition, the Trump Administration was forced to sign the bill in the face of near unanimous support. All three in Congress who voted against the sanctions were Republicans. Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul were the only Senators to vote down the bill. Also missing from the opposition’s short list was Democratic Party representatives Barbara Lee and Tulsi Gabbard. Lee and Gabbard's absence from Washington's minuscule opposition to sanctions is significant because both representatives have a record of using their vote to curtail US war designs. Lee was the only elected official to vote against the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. She opposed the invasion of Iraq two years later. One of the few Black Congressional Caucus members with a consistent track record against foreign intervention, Lee also opposed President Barack Obama's violation of the War Powers Act when he led the NATO invasion of Libya in 2011.

Tell Your Congressmember To Save The Internet

August 10, 2017 Protect Our Internet, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Congress, FCC, Internet Freedom, Media, Net Neutrality

By Protect Our Internet. Right now your members of Congress are in their Home Districts...And they need to hear YOUR voice demanding they Protect Our Internet! Here's The Scoop: On September 7th, Congress will hold a hearing on Net Neutrality inviting both ISPS and tech companies to testify. Before these CEOs take the stand, we have to make sure the PEOPLE are heard. What You Can Do: Visit the Town Hall Project to find out whether there's a town hall being held in your area. If so, check out some sign and messaging ideas below. If not, pay your member of Congress a visit! Check out messaging and signage below and knock on their office door. Here's a quick one-page primer on how to make the most out of your meeting! Town Hall or Office Visit, check out this list of social media posts and spread the word about #TeamInternet & the fight to #SaveTheInternet

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