URGENT: Tell the Senate to Reject ACA Repeal NOW


Do your part to protect our care. Take action now!

THIS is the moment.

Right now Senate Republican leaders are finalizing the details of their bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—in secret. They’re keeping the bill hidden until they’ve negotiated a deal with other Republicans, one that will very likely strip health care coverage from millions of people, including taking away Medicaid coverage and putting maternity coverage at risk.

We can’t let them reach that deal. We need to flood the Senate phone lines now.

Urge Your Senators to Oppose ACA Repeal
Here are simple steps for calling your Senators.

  • Step 1: Call the Congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to one of your Senators.
  • Step 2: Once you are connected, say:

“As your constituent, I urge you to reject ACA repeal. No one should lose their health coverage, and this repeal bill threatens the health care of millions of people including women, elderly people, children, and people with disabilities. [If you have a personal story to share, adding why the ACA has been important to you is an especially powerful message.]”

  • Step 3: Hang up, call again and ask for your other Senator.
Take Action

We are at a critical point in our fight to protect affordable health care. And yet, we’re hearing news reports that the Senate phones lines have been mostly quiet. There is too much at stake for any of us to stay silent right now. Whether you think your Senators oppose repeal or not, every call matters. Pick up the phone now and do your part to protect our care!

If this repeal bill is similar to the House version like Senate Republican leaders and the Trump administration have promised, it would be devastating for women by:

  • Blocking people from getting preventive health care at Planned Parenthood health centers, including birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment;
  • Radically changing the Medicaid program in ways that will leave low-income women without essential health coverage;
  • Allowing insurance plans to treat being a woman as a preexisting condition; and
  • Penalizing women seeking insurance coverage that includes abortion.

None of us can afford to sit this fight out. We need to call our Senators today – AND tomorrow – to show them that We, the Resistance will not stand for any attacks on our care.

Thank you for fighting and resisting with us.

Sincerely,
Gretchen Borchelt
Vice President for Reproductive Rights and Health
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Do you or your friends or loved ones live in any of these states: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia? The Senators there may be on the fence, so it’s extra important that they hear from their constituents in opposition of ACA repeal. Make sure to forward this email and tell your friends it is crucial that they call their Senators today.

We the Resistance is our fight to protect our rights and freedoms and to defend the most vulnerable among us through powerful collective action. Every conversation you have with a loved one about the issues important to you, every call you make to Congress, every rally you attend is a part of that resistance. Join us — sign on to the We The Resistance manifesto.

BREAKING: Court rules against Dakota Access Pipeline


Earthjustice

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a major victory today in their ongoing battle to protect their drinking water and ancestral lands from the Dakota Access Pipeline. This victory is the result of the Tribe’s inspiring and courageous fight, supported by hundreds of thousands of people like you who spoke up and made your voices heard.

Lucas Zhao / CC BY-NC 2.0

Just days after President Trump’s inauguration, his administration hastily issued federal permits authorizing construction of the pipeline across the Missouri River, just upstream of the Standing Rock Reservation. Today a federal judge ruled that those permits violated the law.

The court ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers did not adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely to be highly controversial. In short, the Trump administration broke one of our nation’s bedrock environmental laws.

Today the federal courts stepped in where our political systems have failed, but the fight is far from over. The oil continues to flow, and we will continue to fight back in court. Thank you for standing with us.

Jan Hasselman
Staff Attorney

Oakland Moves To Divest from Banks Violating Indigenous Sovereignty


 

Oakland Moves To Divest from Banks Violating Indigenous Sovereignty

While President Trump continues to impede progress towards battling climate change, the City of Oakland – Amazon Watch’s hometown – took an important step yesterday toward divesting city funds from banks that fund fossil fuels, violation of indigenous sovereignty, and mass incarceration.

In a unanimous vote, the City Council’s Finance and Management Committee adopted an amendment to the Linked Banking Services Ordinance that will require that any bank seeking to provide depository services to the City of Oakland disclose investments that support the Dakota Access Pipeline, violate indigenous sovereignty, or support mass incarceration. Currently, the city banks with JPMorgan Chase, one of the funders of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The full Council is set to vote on the ordinance at its next meeting, to take place sometime in the next two weeks.

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unemployment ~ Sage, Working Washington


We are Working Washington

Check this out  — unemployment in Washington just hit a record low. In fact it’s the lowest it’s been in the history of state unemployment stats, going back more than 40 years.

WA unemployment hits record low

Do you think this record-low unemployment rate has anything to do with the fact that we just raised the minimum wage?

  • For sure!
    Higher wages lift up the whole economy — when more people have more money, it means more customers for more businesses.
  • Who cares?
    I’m no economist, but jobs are growing and wages are up, so it’s all good.
  • No way.
    Maybe unemployment would have been even lower than the lowest it’s ever been if the minimum wage had been voted down? 

Anyway, just wanted to make sure you heard the good news. And thanks for taking a moment to let us know what you think!

Cheers,
Sage, Working Washington

Source: Washington State Employment Security Department, 6/14/2017

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