Tell Congress: Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) Now!
It’s way past due that that we, as a country, say no to employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Please take action right now by adding your name to our message to members of Congress telling them to PASS ENDA without delay.
As they were rushing to board their flights home for the weekend, Senators and members of Congress pushed through a bill to allow the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to reshuffle funding in order to avoid the flight delays caused by FAA furloughs due to the sequester.
Unfortunately for millions of Americans who cannot afford to get on a plane, Congress has yet to repeal the disastrous and devastating cuts to important programs for the poor, mothers, children, and many others.
A flight delay is inconvenient, not being able to receive your cancer treatment is a matter of life and death. Here’s 12 important programs that Congress has so far refused to save from the sequester’s automatic cuts, even though they’ve been in place for nearly 2 months. By contrast, the FAA furloughs caused flight delays for just four days.
1. Long-term unemployment: There are 4.7 million Americans who have been unemployed for longer than six months, but sequestration cut federal long-term unemployment insurance checks by up to 10.7 percent, costing recipients as much as $450 over the rest of the year. Those cuts compound the cuts eightstates have made to their unemployment programs, and 11 states are considering dropping the federal program altogether because of sequestration — even though the long-term unemployed are finding it nearly impossible to return to work.
2. Head Start: Low-income children across the country have been kicked out of Head Start education programs because of the 5-percent cuts mandated by sequestration, as states have cut bus transportation services and started conducting lotteries to determine which kids would no longer have access to the program, even though the preschool program has been proven to have substantial benefits for low-income children. In all, about 70,000 children will lose access to Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
3. Cancer treatment: Budget cuts have forced doctors and cancer clinics to deny chemotherapy treatments to thousands of cancer patients thanks to a 2 percent cut to Medicare. One clinic in New York has refused to see more than 5,000 of its Medicare patients, and many cancer patients have had to travel to other states to receive their treatments, an option that obviously isn’t available to lower-income people. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) proposed restoring the funding, but the legislation so far hasn’t moved in Congress.
4. Health research: The National Institutes of Health lost $1.6 billion thanks to sequestration, jeopardizing important health research into AIDS, cancer, and other diseases. That won’t just impact research and the people who do it, though. It will also hurt the economy, costing the U.S. $860 billion in lost economic growth and at least 500,000 jobs. Budget cuts will also hamper research at colleges and universities.
5. Low-income housing: 140,000 low-income families — primarily seniors with disabilities and families with children — will lose rental assistance thanks to sequestration’s budget cuts. Even worse, the cuts could likely make rent and housing more expensive for those families, as agencies raise costs to offset the pain of budget cuts, and sequestration will also cut from programs that aid the homeless and fund the construction of low-income housing.
6. Student aid: Sequestration is already raising fees on Direct student loans, increasing costs for students who are already buried in debt. The budget cuts reduce funding for federal work study grants by $49 million and for educational opportunity grants by $37 million, and the total cuts will cost 70,000 college students access to grants they depend on.
7. Meals On Wheels: Local Meals on Wheels programs, which help low-income and disabled seniors access food, have faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts, costing tens of thousands of seniors access to the program. Many of those seniors have little access to food without the program, but Congress has made no effort to replace the funding.
8. Disaster relief: The Federal Emergency Management Administration will lose nearly $1 billion in funding thanks to sequestration, jeopardizing aid for families, cities, and states right as the spring storm season begins. The aid package Congress passed for Hurricane Sandy relief will also see more than $1 billion in reductions.
9. Heating assistance: The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) helps nearly 9 million households afford their heating and cooling bills. Sequestration will cut the program by an estimated $180 million, meaning about 400,000 households will no longer receive aid. These cuts come on top of $1.6 billion in reductions since 2010.
10. Workplace safety: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has long suffered from a lack of funds, which means its staff is so stretched that many workplaces go without an inspection for 99 years. The fertilizer plant that exploded in West, Texas, for example, hadn’t had a visit from OSHA since 1985. That will get worse, as sequestration will cut the agency’s budget by $564.8 million, likely leading to 1,200 fewer workplace inspections.
11. Obamacare: Sequestration cuts a number of important programs in the Affordable Care Act: $13 million from the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan Program, or CO-OPs; $57 million from the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control program; $51 million from the Prevention and Public Health Fund; $27 million from the State Grants and Demonstrations program; and $44 million from the Affordable Insurance Exchange Grants program, or the insurance exchanges.
12. Child care: Child care costs can exceed rent payments or college tuition and waiting lists for getting assistance are already long. Yet sequestration will reduce funds even further, meaning that 30,000 children will lose subsidies for care. For example, Arizona will experience a $3 million cut to funding that will force 1,000 out of care.
Mark Zuckerberg’s new political group is spending big on ads supporting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and Arctic drilling.
Florida congressman attacks Washington D.C. residents for wanting to control their own tax money.
GOP members of Congress introduce bill based on fringe conspiracy theory.
Pro-background check Republican sees poll numbers rise, anti-background check Republican sees support drop.
Should the NFL be a tax-exempt organization?
Mark Sanford publishes phone number of people who called his campaign — after he ran newspaper ad telling people to call him.
Kansas prepares to spend $1 MILLION to defend its unconstitutional new law that effectively bans abortion.
President Obama stands up for Planned Parenthood: “You have a president who is right there with you.”
STUDY: Obamacare has given 3.4 MILLION young people access to health care.
Right now, way too many lawmakers in Washington flat-out refuse to face the facts when it comes to climate change.
We’re never going to make real progress on this issue unless members of Congress get serious. Instead, some of them have made a habit of publicly mocking it.
We thought it was time to call them out for denying what’s basic science.
The science matters in this.
That’s the message way too many people in Washington need to hear right now.
In 2011, there were 240 members of Congress who voted to say that climate change is a hoax.
Most of them are still around today, and they’re getting away with it — some of them are actually proud of it. They think the whole debate is pretty funny.
If we want to make progress on climate change, we need everyone in Congress on board for a solution. It’s our job to show them there’s a price to pay for being a climate denier.
Take a look at this video above and join the fight:
Get ready — more on this coming soon.
Thanks,
Jon
Jon Carson
Executive Director
Organizing for Action
@JonCarsonOFA
| Hello –During the State of the Union, President Obama called for a reasonable debate on a set of commonsense measures to help protect our kids by reducing gun violence. That night, Congress stood up and applauded. But now that the cameras are off and they aren’t forced to look the families of Newtown in the face, some in Congress aren’t backing up that show of support with action.
When it matters most, they’re hoping that you’re not paying attention. But I know that’s not the case. In the past week, 17,000 people have told us that they’ll commit to adding their voices to this debate through social media — together, they’ll reach more than 15 million of their friends on Facebook and Twitter. We’re planning to have them speak out today. And we could really use your help. Pledge to speak out about the need to reduce gun violence. If we have a simple vote in Congress, we can get this done. And this afternoon, we’ll begin to understand whether or not that’s possible. The Senate is considering a proposal that would go a long way toward making our country safer and protecting our kids. This afternoon, lawmakers get a chance to offer amendments — some of them aimed at making the legislation better, some aimed at sinking it. One idea, closing loopholes in the background check system, has support from 90 percent of the public. In fact, even a majority of senators support this step. But we still need you to make your voice heard. Vice President Biden will be talking through all of this today at 2:45 p.m. ET. He’ll lead a discussion with a group of mayors from around the country on the steps we can take to reduce gun violence. You can watch that as it happens at whitehouse.gov. And while you’re doing that, take a minute to join the debate. Pledge to speak out, and we’ll work to make sure you’re part of the conversation about guns here in Washington: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/preventing-gun-violence/action Thanks, Dan Dan Pfeiffer Senior Advisor White House |
just another rant …
It’s the middle of April , technically spring, the last day to file taxes, but some Americans are still battling snow or summer like temperature while others hear birds chirping and it feels like spring , though if you live on the left coast …. It still feels like fall.
The weather is like politics …right, seemingly straight forward with designated seasons only to find as the years progress, little bumps appear that turn into malicious masses and in spite of it those who happen to be addicted to politics like so many wait to see when and where the sequester hammer will fall. Though the sequester is only about a month old the media seems to have moved on to sizing up how Hillary will do against the various Republicans wanting to be King; I mean President.
If you did not know better and took what the media spews as the truth, it seemed as if we were closer to 2016 than the beginning of President Obama’s 2nd term. Telling viewers that gun safety legislation was more than impossible and a filibuster was imminent; then President Obama gave a fabulous speech with families of victims of gun violence standing with President Obama in support of better gun safety laws. This led Newtown families to be advocates for their and our futures asking that members of Congress to do their jobs and let the debate on gun reform happen on the floor of the Senate and the first test vote to move forward and debate Gun Reform was taken on the Senate floor and passed 68 -31. Unfortunately, two Democratic Senators decided to side with Republicans and while gun reform seems like a no brainer to me we should give props to anyone for their bipartisan efforts to move gun laws into the 21st Century.
Now, the media focus still seems to want viewers to accept that nothing positive can be done in Congress and we hear all their skepticism they have leaped frogged from 2016 elections to the pushing public cynicism on all that is on the Congressional calendar. Yet, this is the time that voters, people who have friend’s family or co-workers fallen victim to gun violence make calls to a Republican member of the House
This week, in Congress the political games are just about to begin; the so-called debates heated and the word filibuster will probably make its way into even the youngest members of our society’s vocabulary, but as Margaret’s Mead said fits …
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead
Be a Seed for Change 
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