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Mitch McConnell filed cloture on a drug corporation handout


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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

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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
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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

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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!

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FDA/USDA ~~ July 2017 Alerts & Safety pg2


  • 07/26/2017 12:01 PM EDT Hy-Vee, Inc. based in West Des Moines, Iowa, is voluntarily recalling eight Hy-Vee brand pizzas that were sold at its six Minneapolis-area stores because they may contain undeclared soy. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to soy run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products.
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the senate August 1-4th **CONGRESS** 2017 the house


Wrap Up 8/3/2017 Roll Call Votes Motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R.2430, FDA Reauthorization Act; agreed to: 96-1. Confirmation of Executive Calendar #103, Dan R. Brouillette, to be Deputy Secretary of Energy; confirmed: 79-17. Passage of H.R.2430, FDA Reauthorization Act; passed: 94-1.   Legislative Business Passed S.581, Jessie’s Law, with Manchin substitute amendment.…

Wrap Up 8/2/2017  Roll Call Votes Motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar #175, Marvin Kaplan, of Kansas, to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board; invoked: 50-48. Confirmation of Marvin Kaplan (NLRB); confirmed: 50-48.   Legislative Business Adopted S.Res.199, designating June 2017 as “Great Outdoors Month”.   Adopted S.Res.225, designating July 22, 2017, as “National…

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House Activity 8/4/2017

1:00:02 P.M. The House convened, starting a new legislative day.
1:00:21 P.M. The Speaker designated the Honorable Andy Harris to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
1:00:51 P.M. Today’s prayer was offered by Rev. Roger L. Story, National Childrens Prayer Congress, Washington, DC.
1:02:23 P.M. SPEAKER’S APPROVAL OF THE JOURNAL – Pursuant to section 3(a) of H. Res. 481, the Journal of the last day’s proceedings was approved.
1:02:39 P.M. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – The Chair led the House in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
1:03:41 P.M. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received the following message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 1, 2017, at 1:37 p.m.: That the Senate agreed to return the papers to the House at their request, H.J. Res. 76.
1:04:43 P.M. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received the following message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 2, 2017, at 12:40 p.m.: That the Senate passed S. 860, S. 190, S. 178, concurred in the House amendments to S. 114, and passed S. 582, S. 717, H.R. 2210, without amendment, H.R. 510, without amendment, H.R. 2288, with an amendment, H.R. 339, with an amendment, and H.R. 601, with amendments.
1:04:57 P.M. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received the following message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 3, 2017, at 9:22 a.m.: That the Senate passed S. 829, S. 81, S. 1282, and H.R. 3218, without amendment. Appointments: Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission.
1:05:15 P.M. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received the following message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 3, 2017, at 2:02 p.m.: That the Senate passed S. 581, S. 1052, S. 204, and H.R. 2430, without amendment.
1:06:20 P.M. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received the following message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 3, 2017, at 4:23 p.m.: That the Senate passed S. 765.
1:06:23 P.M. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received the following message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 3, 2017, at 4:54 p.m.: That the Senate passed S. 1616.
1:07:26 P.M. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received the following message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 4, 2017, at 9:53 a.m.: That the Senate passed S. 19, S. 96, S. 174, S. 134, S. 123, S. 88, S. 1182, S. 756, S. 1617, and agreed to S. Con. Res. 15, and passed S. 1141, S. 810, H.R. 374, without amendment, and H.R. 873, without amendment.
1:07:51 P.M. The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received the following message from the Secretary of the Senate on August 4, 2017, at 12:13 p.m.: That the Senate passed S. 1099.
1:08:56 P.M. H.J. Res. 76 UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST – The Chair directed the Clerk to make changes in the engrossment of H.J. Res. 76 that was placed at the desk. Agreed to without objection.
1:09:26 P.M. The Speaker announced that the House do now adjourn pursuant to section 3(b) of H. Res. 481. The next meeting is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on August 8, 2017

 

House Activity 8/1/2017

11:00:00 A.M.The House convened, starting a new legislative day.11:00:09 A.M.The Speaker designated the Honorable Billy Long to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.11:00:23 A.M.Today’s prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Dan C. Cummins, Skyline Wesleyan Church, San Diego, CA.11:01:41 A.M.SPEAKER’S APPROVAL OF THE JOURNAL – Pursuant to section 3(a) of H. Res. 481, the Journal of the last day’s proceedings was approved.11:01:49 A.M.PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – The Chair led the House in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.11:02:42 A.M.Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress – Pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 2702 and the order of the House of January 3, 2017, the Speaker appointed Ms. Lori Schwartz, Omaha, Nebraska.11:03:02 A.M.Election Assistance Commission Board of Advisors – Pursuant to section 214(a) of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 20944), and the order of the House of January 3, 2017, the Speaker appointed Mr. Elliot Berke, Arlington, Virginia.11:03:14 A.M.Board of Trustees for the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Training and Development – Pursuant to section 114(b) of the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Training and Development Act (2 U.S.C. 1103), and the order of the House of January 3, 2017, the Speaker appointed the following member of the House to the Board of Trustees for the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Training and Development: Mrs. Roby, for a term of 6 years.11:03:54 A.M.Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy – Pursuant to 10 U.S.C. 4355(a), and the order of the House of January 3, 2017, the Speaker reappointed the following member of the House to the Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy: Mr. Womack.11:04:11 A.M.The Speaker announced that the House do now adjourn pursuant to section 3(b) of H. Res. 481. The next meeting is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on August 4, 2017.

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