This week, there were two major moments with S. 2155, otherwise known as the “Bank Lobbyist Act.”

On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office or “CBO,” (you might remember them as the independent budget scorekeepers from the Trumpcare fight!) analyzed S. 2155 and it was NOT pretty. The CBO determined that the bill was likely to increase the odds that government funding would go to bank bailouts. This. is. not. ok. After the 2008 financial crisis, Congress passed Dodd-Frank to seriously correct the lax oversight that caused it. We cannot let this terrible bill undo that progress and put us at risk of another financial crisis.

Then on Tuesday, the very next day, the Senate voted on a motion to proceed on S. 2155. The final vote on the MTP was 67-32, with 50 Republicans voting yes. They were joined by 17 Democrats who voted yes. This was only the first vote on S. 2155, so there’s still time to hold these senators accountable for their votes and ask them to change course!

Where are we now?

Democratic Senators have filed amendments to the bill, but we can tell you right now that very few will get considered. These are important amendments that would:

• Protect communities of color from discriminatory lending
• Keep seniors safe from financial abuse
• Include consumer protections for student borrowers

There’s a motion to proceed on the updated bill Monday afternoon, and a final vote some time later in the week. Use our resource and call script this week to call your senators and tell them it’s not too late to change their minds and stop this train wreck for the good of our economy!

This week on Capitol Hill

Now, what else is moving in Congress this week? Gun violence prevention is still at the forefront of your minds, and ours too — but it’s not on the Congressional agenda yet. As we prepare to mobilize for gun safety, in Congress and in state legislatures, we must focus on the ways we can create change this week.

Early next week, we need our senators to support S.J. Res. 54: #SandersLeeYemen. Trump is doubling down on an unauthorized war in Yemen. A bipartisan group of senators led by Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Chris Murphy (D-CT), is using a rare procedure to force the Senate to finally take a vote. This bill, S.J. Res. 54, would declare the war unauthorized, and end it (unless Congress chooses to authorize it). Review our resource for more information about the situation in Yemen and use our call script to call both your senators. It only needs a simple majority in the Senate — we can win this.

This week’s Trump Threat Level

• Talks with North Korea are a good step — but we need a fully functional State Department to make them successful. Going to the negotiating table is infinitely preferable to war on the Korean peninsula (which would invariably result in millions of people dying). However, for negotiations to be a success, Trump will need the full support of our expert diplomats and analysts — experts he and Rex Tillerson have spent months running out of the State Department en masse.

• Trump wants to escalate the war in Syria. Trump is considering additional military strikes against the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. This has not been authorized by Congress and is not part of a comprehensive strategy for success — in fact, it’s likely to pull us into an indefinite quagmire that makes things worse.

• Trump is considering John Bolton as his next National Security Advisor. Trump met with John Bolton this week, and is reportedly considering him as a replacement for H.R. McMaster once McMaster departs the administration. Bolton is a warmonger and former Bush administration official who notoriously helped make the Iraq War happen, and now advocates bombing North Korea first.

Visit trumpthreatlevel.indivisible.org for a running list of all the ways Trump makes us less safe and our latest foreign policy resources.

It’s time to March for Our Lives.  

On March 24, we’re taking our MoCs’ thoughts and prayers in the wake of Parkland and turning them into action with March for Our Lives. It’s long past time our lawmakers make students’ lives and safety a priority and pass common-sense gun safety legislation. There will be sibling marches all over the country led by our nation’s youth, and we’re proud to join them and follow their lead.

Take to the streets on March 24! Find an event near you and demand that we end gun violence in our schools and in our communities.

We launched our texting program in PA-18 — chip in to keep it going through GOTV!

Here’s the state of play: Democrat Conor Lamb, a Marine Corps veteran who believes in affordable health care and repairing our nation’s infrastructure is running neck-and-neck with Republican Rick Saccone. Saccone has bragged “he was Trump before Trump was Trump” and has pushed Trump-like policies in Harrisburg for years. And Election Day is Tuesday.

Last weekend, we launched our peer-to-peer texting tool to reach voters in PA-18 and complement the work Indivisible groups are doing on the ground! Volunteers sent 61,757 texts to voters in the district, and filled 2,917 shifts! And during GOTV, our volunteers will make more than 75,000 contacts through our peer-to-peer texting program!

This is the same tool we used in Alabama and Virginia, and allows one Indivisible volunteer to text hundreds or even thousands of voters from their homes. Can you chip in $26 to fund our texting program to turn PA-18 blue?

We’ve identified a group of voters in PA-18 who are likely to sit this election out, people who don’t often vote outside of presidential election years — in a race that could come down to a few hundred votes, these are the people we need to get to secure a victory for Conor Lamb.

When we win this seat, it’ll make 40 seats Democrats have flipped up and down the ballot since Trump’s election. Even better, a victory in PA-18 would mean Democrats only need to win 23 seats to take back the House in November. Donate now to fund our texting program and keep building momentum for the big, blue wave!

Keep it up!!

All of our work this week and next builds to recess returning in 2 weeks(we’re working on getting more resources to you soon!!). By taking action on issues moving through Congress this week, resisting the Trump agenda, tuning into local elections, you’re doing the work necessary to hold your elected officials accountable to you.

In solidarity,
The Indivisible Team