Our Freedom to Vote is on the Line

When the people fomenting political violence are more fired up by their made-up pretexts to justify violence than their opponents are by the actual violence, I don’t know how that possibly ends well.
– David Kurtz, Talking Points Memo

Last week the group of eight Democratic senators working on a revision to the For the People Act released their bill, called the “Freedom to Vote Act”. The effort was needed to garner the support of holdout Joe Manchin, who has insisted on trying to win bipartisan support to protect our elections against attacks from – the Republican Party. Manchin isn’t going to get those votes. So the question is: will Democrats create an exception to the filibuster so that the bill can pass? They must.

In many ways the Freedom to Vote Act, happily, is an improvement on the For the People Act, including protections in response to those Republican attacks on our right to vote and our elections that are going on all over the country. It is missing key ethics and campaign financing reforms, but will still protect our elections significantly.

If we want to save our democracy from authoritarian rule, we must get this bill passed, and soon. That means Schumer will need to bring it up for a vote, let the Republicans filibuster it, and then move to modify or eliminate the filibuster for this bill. If he doesn’t take that last step – and if all fifty Democratic senators don’t then vote together to do so – the bill will die. We can’t let that happen.

Please call President Biden, who has finally agreed to pressure Democratic senators to get the job done, and say:

Mr. President, we can’t “out-organize” voter suppression – not when the results of elections can be overturned on false pretexts. We must have legislation and we need your help to get the job done.

Please make getting the Freedom to Vote Act your top priority and do everything in your considerable power to unite Senate Democrats to pass the bill by any means possible, including by abolishing, reforming, or providing an exception to the Senate filibuster.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
(The White House phone number is 202-456-1111, Tues - Thurs, 11-3 EDT.)
At all other times, write to the President: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
(or better yet, use: resistbot.io)

And please call your Senators, who need to keep the pressure on their colleagues to get the job done quickly, and say:

If we lose our democracy, we will lose everything. Please push for the immediate passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and be willing to modify, reform, or abolish the filibuster to get the job done. There is no time to lose! Please get the job done!!

SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN
DC phone: (202) 224-3841
SF phone: (415) 393-0707

SENATOR ALEX PADILLA
DC phone: (202) 224-3553
SF phone: (415) 981–9369

THE INFRASTRUCTURE ‘HOSTAGE EXCHANGE’

OK, this is a little complicated, so please follow along. President Biden’s signature infrastructure legislation, which he is betting Democrats’ electability on, is divided into two parts, essentially a ‘hard’ (eg bridges and roads) and a ‘soft’ (human infrastructure like the ‘Care Economy’, Climate and more) package.

The idea has been to pass the ‘hard’ bill with bipartisan support to win over senators like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (who believe anything bipartisan is inherently good, no matter what’s in it) and to pass the ‘soft’ bill without Republican support using a process called reconciliation to get around the filibuster and a Republican veto. The ‘hard’ bill is usually called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (“BIF”) and the ‘soft’ bill is called the reconciliation, or Build Back Better, bill. With us so far?

The tricky part is that for the plan to succeed, both bills have to be passed together. This is because there are provisions in the BIF that conservative Democrats really want and there are provisions in the reconciliation bill that Biden, centrists, and progressives really want. It’s a trade off. But for the trade off to succeed, both bills have to both survive reasonably intact and they have to be passed together, or one side (which happens to be the conservative side) is in danger of taking their win and stiffing the other bill, to the delight of the Republicans.

So this is a bit like a hostage exchange. It has to be done carefully and right, so that both bills pass. Where we are right now is that the Senate has passed the BIF and a small group of conservative House Dems tried to force a vote on it (so they could kill the reconciliation bill later).

Speaker Pelosi fended them off, but not without promising that she would hold a vote on the BIF by September 27th. However, the reconciliation bill is complex and provisions are being attacked, again by conservative Dems, at the behest of the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. So it may not be either ready or passed by the 27th, in which case,

House Democrats would need to vote down the infrastructure bill until both the Senate and the House has passed the reconciliation bill. That is what the House Progressive Caucus has promised to do and we need to give them our support. If they fail, it could mean the failure to pass, among many other things, essential climate measures like the Clean Energy Standard and Clean Energy Tax Credits. It will also mean a massive failure for the Biden administration, putting next year’s elections in danger.

Please call your Congressman and say:

I’m asking the Congressman to make sure that BOTH PARTS of President Biden’s infrastructure package pass TOGETHER. That means I want him to vote NO on the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill until the Senate and the House have both passed the reconciliation bill. BOTH the reconciliation bill and the Bipartisan bill must pass intact or NEITHER should pass.

CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN
Phone: (Petaluma) 707-981-8967

CONGRESSMAN MIKE THOMPSON
Phone: (Santa Rosa) 707-542-7182

DEMOCRATS MUST REBALANCE THE SUPREME COURT

The illegitimate Supreme Court demonstrated, in its ‘Shadow Docket’ action that let the draconian Texas anti-abortion, bounty hunter law stand, that it will stop at nothing to promote the agenda of the wealthy donors who stacked the Court. It’s time for Democrats to fight back. The Court must be expanded.

Unless the Court is rebalanced, the radical GOP will use their ill-gotten Court to force their anti-majoritarian agenda down Americans’ throats for the coming decades. This cannot be allowed to stand. But (stop us if you’ve heard this before) Democrats are afraid to act. If you care about abortion rights – or gun restrictions, elections, climate, you name it – help us pressure Democrats to finally use the power we worked so hard to give them.

Please call your Members of Congress and say:

I need [the MOC] to co-sponsor the Judiciary Act of 2021 (H.R. 2584 / S. 1141), which will expand the Supreme Court by four justices. Nothing less will protect us against the illegitimately-stacked radical, right wing Court that McConnell has installed. Please co-sponsor the Act and work hard to make it law.

CONGRESSMAN JARED HUFFMAN
Phone: (Petaluma) 707-981-8967

CONGRESSMAN MIKE THOMPSON
Phone: (Santa Rosa) 707-542-7182

SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN
Phone: (San Francisco) 415-393-0707

SENATOR ALEX PADILLA
Phone: (DC) 202-224-3553

CLIMATE ACTION:
FIGHT TO PROTECT ROOFTOP SOLAR IN CALIFORNIA

PG&E and other California utilities are trying to kill rooftop solar by raising fees on those who have installed it, including public schools, hospitals, and others. Local, rooftop solar power undermines their antiquated, fire-causing, climate-killing business model and cuts into their profits. It also hardens our communities against blackouts, gives people more control over their own power, and enables us to fight the climate crisis.

We defeated the utilities in the State Assembly, so now they’ve taken their case to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and found a compliant audience. We must defeat them there, too, to protect rooftop solar and to battle the climate crisis. The members of the CPUC aren’t elected, they’re appointed – by Governor Newsom. So we need to pressure him.

Please call Governor Newsom and say:

Utilities are asking your CPUC to stall rooftop solar installations and harm those financially who have installed solar panels. Local solar power generation is critical to Biden’s goal of decarbonizing our grid by 2035. It protects and hardens our fire-endangered communities. It is an essential tool to slow the climate crisis. Please stand up for rooftop solar and tell the CPUC to reject the utilities’ request.

GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM
(916) 445-2841

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