Tell Congress: Pass a Clean Appropriations Bill ~ Anna Chu


Congress is putting child care funding and women’s health at risk. Take action now!

Dear Friend,

Today is International Women’s Day — a holiday that recognizes the fight for women’s equality here and around the world. And how is Congress celebrating? By playing political games with the budget that could hurt women and their families.

Right now, Republican leaders are scheming to use the budget process to try to attack women’s health care, including access to abortion and maternity care — and are putting child care funding at risk at the same time.

We can’t let them get away with it. 
Tell your representatives in Congress to quit playing games with our lives.

Take Action

Last month, leaders in Congress agreed on a bipartisan budget deal that would double funding for child care assistance for working parents. Now Congress needs to execute it by passing a final appropriations bill. But instead, Republicans are attempting to attach dangerous strings to the bill that threaten women’s health care, including provisions that would limit access to abortion and birth control.

By including these ideologically motivated riders, they’re jeopardizing funding for millions of parents who need help paying for child care — and possibly forcing another government shutdown. This is a critical moment in the appropriations process — and they need to hear from all of us before it’s too late.

Tell your Members of Congress to do their jobs. Now.

On a day that recognizes the advances women have made toward equality, Congress shouldn’t be pushing us backward.

Thank you for your activism,
Anna Chu
Vice President for Policy and Strategy
National Women’s Law Center

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.

Thursday 3/8 is the last day of the state legislative session.


We are Working Washington

BossFeed Briefing for March 5, 2018. Last Monday an appeals court affirmed that existing federal civil rights law bars employers from discriminating against LGBTQ people.

Last Wednesday marks the 17th anniversary of the Nisqually earthquake, the most recent major quake in the state.

 Yesterday, Frances McDormand used her Oscar acceptance speech to call on fellow stars to add “inclusion riders” to their contracts, which would require the movie productions they work on to include diverse cast and crew. 

And Thursday is the last day of the state legislative session.


Pull yourself up a chair 

sleeping desk

Three things to know this week:

furniture An employee of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) says she was retaliated against after refusing to “find money” to supplement the $5,000 legally allowed for HUD Secretary Ben Carson to use to redecorate his office. According to her claim, a top official in the department insisted the permitted budget allotment was wildly insufficient, since “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair.”

bus stop Due to understaffing in the prosecutor’s office, King County has decided to drop 1,500 misdemeanor cases for offenses like bus fare evasion and trespassing. County prosecutors have not indicated if they will continue to pursue these kinds charges in the future.

teacher West Virginia teachers went on strike and won a 5% raise and improvements to their healthcare benefits, agreed to by the Governor. In a stirring show of power, they’ve decided to stay on strike until the Legislature actually passes the raises they won and details are resolved about the changes to their health plan.

 

Two things to ask:

bed Do they expect us to just take this lying down?Researchers have repeatedly confirmed that sitting for long periods of time is bad for you. Now there are indications that standing for long periods has similar detrimental impacts on mental & physical health.

biohazard Do paid sick days apply to the State Legislature? State Senator Tim Sheldon has introduced a bill which would require study of the health impacts of the “film of fungus” which has appeared on the capitol dome. It would also require the development of a survey for visitors titled “You likin’ the lichen?”

 

And one thing that’s worth a closer look:

upside down face Debtors prisons were abolished in the US in the 19th century, and yet increasing numbers of people are in fact getting locked up for owing money, as detailed in a disturbing report by Rebecca Burns in The Intercept. The way it works is that after people are issued civil judgments for unpaid debt, they can be issued a warrant for their arrest if they fail to show up for the judgment — and then held if they can’t make the bail. The result: being poor leaves you in debt, your debt gets you in prison, and doing time expands your debt. It sure sounds like we’re living in a Charles Dickens reboot that ought to be canceled.

 

Read this far?

tophat Consider yourself briefed, boss.

 

tell Amazon and Apple: to Dump the NRA


Sign the Petition

While the entire country rallies to break the NRA’s stranglehold on our laws, Amazon and Apple are giving them an even bigger platform — streaming NRA TV. NRA TV is the media mouthpiece of the powerful gun lobby, blocking the regulation we need to keep our children safe. But now, the tech giants are deciding whether to put our children first and dump the NRA. Let’s make sure they do it.

SIGN THE PETITION

I’m a mother of two young children. Alongside the basics of math and reading, their teachers run mass shooting drills. Should the worst happen, one of my girls is the child responsible for locking the classroom door.It doesn’t have to be like this.

Most of us are desperate for gun control, but the NRA blocks it no matter what the cost. Now they’ve got new television network to derail public debate, spread lies, and stop sensible regulation. And it can exist because Amazon and Apple stream it. 

But now the tech giants are deciding whether to dump the NRA. Consumer pressure is already working, with 10 major corporations ditching them in just a week! Now Amazon and Apple are feeling the heat of a nation that’s had enough. Let’s demand they step up and pull the plug.

Click to tell Amazon and Apple: Dump the NRA!

NRA TV is the media arm of the lobby group backed by gun manufacturers. Their goal is to flood our streets, schools, and homes with guns because they profit off of our deaths. 

In the wake of mass gun massacres, they flood the airways with lies (“no new law would have stopped this”) and help inflate gun ownership (“we need more good guys with guns”), introducing crazy concepts like giving teachers guns to carry at school. And it works. Legislators in Florida — the state of the latest school shooting — just advanced a proposal to arm teachers with guns.

It has to stop.

Amazon and Apple make editorial decisions all the time about what programs they will and won’t carry. Let’s demand that they stop putting profits above lives and pull the plug on Gun TV!

Click to tell Amazon and Apple: Dump the NRA!

I couldn’t sleep the night of the Parkland shooting. I lay awake next to my 7 year-old daughter and thought about what we could do. The next morning, the Avaaz team launched 3 Billboards for Marco Rubio  — a message of accountability to the Florida Senator who is in the pocket of the NRA after accepting more than $3 million from them. It went viral across the world, covered everywhere from CNN to Stephen Colbert, and the Senator was even forced to speak about the billboards on a televised interview.

We are powerful when we come together. We move people at the highest level. Let’s come together to do what this moment demands and shut down the NRA.

With hope and appreciation,

Dalia and the rest of the Avaaz team

More Information:

Petitions call on Apple, Amazon, to ditch NRA TV channel (The Hill)
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/375556-groups-call-on-apple-amazon-to-ditch-nra-tv-channel

Anti-NRA activists are calling for a boycott of Amazon, Apple, and Fed Ex – and it could be huge (Business Insider)
http://www.businessinsider.com/nra-boycott-amazon-apple-and-fedex-2018-2?r=UK&IR=T

What’s on the NRA Video Channel? (NY Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000005755274/nra-video-channel-nratv.html

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