trump’s 2 nominees to the NLRB earlier this week, ushering in a frightening new era of trump


CREDIT: AP Photo/Steve Helber

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) began the process of confirming the first of Trump’s two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board earlier this week, ushering in a frightening new era — one where workers’ rights, once protected and treated as sacred, are now in clear and imminent danger.

Stand up for the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act now! the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)


 

Millions of Americans struggle to pay rent every month.

I have traveled across Washington state listening to the stories of Americans who work hard day in and day out and yet still struggle to find an affordable home — or worse, face homelessness — due to skyrocketing housing costs.

From Seattle to Walla Walla, the housing crisis is real. All it takes is just one emergency or one illness for a family to lose their home completely.

Friends ~ that’s why I’m leading a bipartisan group of senators to expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). By strengthening and building upon this already successful program, we can provide 1.3 million affordable homes over a 10-year period to families throughout the country — that’s 400,000 more homes than currently possible.

Help me ensure that more families can find affordable housing by signing on as a “citizen co-sponsor” to the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act today.

There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a deep affordable housing crisis.

But Washington state families — and families throughout the country — deserve better. They deserve a safe and decent place to live and call home, at a price they can afford.

I’ve been a staunch supporter of affordable housing in the Senate, and I’ll keep fighting with everything I have. But it’s going to take all of us working together to end our nation’s housing crisis.

Join me, and stand up for the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act now!

Thank you,

Maria Cantwell
U.S. Senator

Mitch McConnell filed cloture on a drug corporation handout


Logo

We may have defeated Trumpcare, but that doesn’t mean Senate Republicans are done trying to exploit the American people. Sen. Mitch McConnell just filed cloture on the OPEN Act, which is an $11.6 billion handout to prescription drug corporations. We’re delivering your signatures to every Senate office this week–we need you behind us!

Stand with Social Security Works to oppose another billion dollar giveaway to drug corporations and say no to big pharma monopolies.

You can read more abut the OPEN Act in our original email below.

Thank you,

Alex Lawson
Social Security Works

********************************************************************

In 1983, Congress passed a law aimed at spurring innovation for drugs that treat rare diseases, offering tax credits and monopolies as incentives. But, as they so often do, pharmaceutical corporations immediately turned the law into yet another way to extract money from the people’s pockets.A year’s treatment can cost people with rare diseases more than a house.

Pharmaceutical corporations’ ravenous hunger for profits leads to Social Security benefits that are increasingly eroded by medical co-pays and out of pocket expenses. And Congress has a new handout on the way.

Stand with Social Security Works to oppose another billion dollar giveaway to drug corporations and say no to big pharma monopolies.

The greed of the drug companies is boundless. Now, their Washington lobbyists are pushing a new bill―the Orphan Product Extensions Now (OPEN) Act―which would grant drug manufacturers six additional months of exclusivity, the monopoly power that allows the companies to charge as much as they like.

It’s estimated that this new law would cost patients and taxpayers up to $11.6 billion over 10 years―padding the pockets of the greedy pharmaceutical industry and ensuring that we continue to pay the highest drug prices in the world!

Former Congressman Henry Waxman of California, the author of the 1982 Orphan Drug Act, had this to say about how drug companies are manipulating the system:

“We’re seeing the Orphan Drug Act used in ways that we never anticipated when the law was adopted. In the way people use the word ‘orphan status,’ it’s almost becoming a synonym for a monopoly price.”

Stand with Social Security Works to oppose the OPEN Act, yet another billion dollar giveaway to big pharma corporations.

If passed, the bill would allow drug companies to repurpose drugs that are already on the market, giving them “orphan” status. For patients this means competing drugs that might lower prices would be kept off the market, leading to budget busting drug prices for even longer for the people. 

Instead of padding the insurance company profits, Congress should be focusing on bills that rein in abuses by drug companies, and make sure people can afford the health care they need.

Together, we’re fighting the greedy pharmaceutical industry and their powerful Washington lobbyists.

Thank you,

Michael Phelan
Social Security Works


H Who We Are
Social Security Works leads the fight every day to expand and protect our Social Security system. Become a member today.
D Social Security Works: The Book
From co-founders Nancy Altman & Eric Kingson, this book makes the powerful case that Social Security isn’t going broke and how expanding it will help us all.

Contact info@socialsecurityworks.org

Nissan Workers in Mississippi want to unionize and they need your support to vote today!


Fair Representation Now!

 

We just started a petition titled Stand with Nissan Workers!

Thousands of Nissan auto workers in Canton, Mississippi—80 percent of whom are African-American—have had enough. They endure dangerous working conditions, bullying by management, punishing production demands, and long hours.

Nissan Workers just started a petition to Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO, Renault-Nissan Alliance

Stand with Nissan Workers now! This campaign of intimidation and pressure from the company must end. Tell Nissan to stop standing in the way of its workers’ right to unionize.

Will you sign the petition to act in solidarity with workers in Mississippi? Workers are set to vote on a union this week, we need your support now!

That’s why Nissan Workers will be voting this week on whether to unionize, despite underhanded interference from management. The company is already waging an incredibly hostile campaign of intimidation and pressure against union supporters. By refusing to allow a fair election with lies and manipulation, Nissan is denying Black workers in Canton the fundamental freedom to vote and to therefore have a say in their workplace.

Join us in pledging to tell Nissan that workers have the right to unionize. Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, needs to know how much support workers in Canton have.

Nissan has union representation at every one of its 45 manufacturing plants around the world, except for the three plants in the American South, which consist mostly of Black workers. Southern workers should not be denied the rights that all other Nissan Workers around the globe can exercise.

This campaign of intimidation and pressure from the company must end. Tell Nissan to stop standing in the way of its workers’ right to unionize!

Will you pledge to join the fight for fair representation for Black workers?

Thank you,

Nissan Workers of Canton, Mississippi

Going solar: Good for the planet, your family, and the Amazon!


Take a brief phone call and receive a custom solar proposal by email, and Amazon Watch will receive a $100 donation!

We can raise $50,000 to install solar energy systems in indigenous communities in the Amazon if only 500 of our supporters take ten minutes to participate in this campaign. carmen, will you help?

Fill out a quick form and you will receive a brief phone call explaining the options for going solar in your neighborhood, and whether you go solar or not, we will receive a $100 donation for our work in the Amazon when you receive a quote by email. And if you decide to go solar after finding out what you can save, we will receive an additional $500. Your personal information will only be shared with one solar education partner who serves your area, and you’ll only be called once.

TURN TEN MINUTES INTO $100 FOR THE AMAZON!

Confronting climate change is one of the most vital issues of our time. It will take both individual and collective action to move past the fossil fuel age and learn to live in way that respects the environment and furthers climate justice.

That’s why Amazon Watch supports our indigenous allies in the Amazon to embrace clean renewable energy, and it’s why we promote actions all of our supporters can take. Today, we’re sharing this awesome opportunity for our supporters – including you – to go solar while directly supporting indigenous communities doing the same thing.

Please take ten minutes to learn about your options for solar energy and to support our work in the Amazon!