Tag Archives: Congress

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Fundraising … 2012 Gap


DSCC Has Record Breaking Quarter Thanks to Strong Grassroots Support

The first three months of 2012 showed the incredible enthusiasm of Democratic supporters. The DSCC set a first quarter fundraising record by raising almost 20% more than our Republican counterparts.

You played a big role in our success; 97% of the gifts came from grassroots donors.

Thank you for your continuing support!

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Top Action

Critical Vote on Protecting Women Just Days Away

In what is just the latest in a series of Republican attacks on women, Senate Republicans are trying to eliminate the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

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Twice before, VAWA was reauthorized with widespread, bipartisan support from both houses of Congress. But now, Republicans have grown so radical they won’t even commit to protecting women from violence.

Join Democrats and demand Senate Republicans stop trying to eliminate VAWA!

Add your name »

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Enthusiasm Gap Felt in Senate Races Around the Country

The enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans is stretching to Senate races as well. According to Politico, “In the dozen most competitive contests across the country, Democrats once again collected more cash during the first three months of the year than Republicans, who are expected to wage an aggressive battle for the Senate majority.”

Among the strongest performers this quarter were Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, Debbie Stabenow, and Claire McCaskill.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

1872!? … Elijah Zarlin, CREDO Action


Tell Congress: Update the Mining Law of 1872!

Chicago Peak is located in Western Montana‘s Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area, and is a holy place for the Salish and Kootenai native tribes.

In other words: It’s a terrible location for a massive proposed copper and silver mine.1

But under the shockingly antiquated General Mining Law of 1872, the National Forest Service says it has no choice but to approve the mine. Even worse, this relic of a law will hand nearly $20 billion dollars worth of publicly owned minerals to Canadian company Revett Minerals, totally for free.2 We get nothing.

This mine is only one example. Overall, Congress’s failure to update our 140-year-old mining law is one of the most egregious, expensive and destructive failures in federal land management.

Tell Congress: It is long past time to update the General Mining Law of 1872!

The General Mining Law of 1872 is literally an artifact of another era. In 1872, Women could not vote in America. There were only 37 States in the Union. And our government sought to settle the vast Western territories by handing out mining rights to fortune-seeking settlers.

Yet today, this relic continues to govern hard rock mining of metals like copper, uranium, silver and gold. The result is a massive giveaway to giant mining companies that rips off taxpayers to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. Under the law:3

• Mining leases can be purchased at 1872 prices of $2.50 – $5 an acre.
• Companies can mine publicly owned mineral resources without paying any royalties. We just give it away!
• Federal land managers must prioritize mining over all other land uses.
• The law contains NO environmental protections — which has led to the pollution of more than 40% of Western U.S. watershed, and left us holding the bill for an estimated more than $30 billion in mine cleanup and reclamation.

Tell Congress: Update the Mining Law of 1872!

Tell Congress: Update the Mining Law of 1872! Click here to automatically sign the petition.

 In today’s world of giant, international mining conglomerates using massive pieces of equipment and polluting huge volumes of water to rip up the earth — as opposed to Wild West times of risk-taking prospectors and their pack mules seeking fortune – this law should be a page in history books, not our actual law books!

Congress has twice tried and failed to reform the law. But it’s long past time for an updated mining law that allows land managers to protect unique public lands from mining, implements strong environmental standards for mines, collects funds for mining reclamation, and puts a fair royalty on the extraction of these publicly owned resources.4

It is crazy that our mining law pre-dates the invention of the telephone and the light bulb. Tell Congress to update this massive giveaway, the General Mining Law of 1872.

1. “Big Mine. Bigger Trouble,” Rock Creek Aliance
2. “A Sacred Peak With Rich Ore Deposits,” New York Times, April 9, 2012
3. “General Mining Law of 1872,” Earthworks
4. “1872 Mining Law Reform Requirements,” Earthworks

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Jason Rosenbaum, BoldProgressives.org


On Thursday, the Republican-controlled Congress voted for the second year in a row to end Medicare.

That’s what Republicans do when they are in control — vote to end Medicare, wage war on women, and give more tax cuts to the rich. What would a Congress controlled by progressives look like?

Progressive candidates around the country — including Darcy Burner in Washington’s 1st congressional district — answered that question this week. They took the fight directly to their Republican opponents.

Watch the video of Darcy and others in action around the county — and sign their petition holding Republicans accountable for wanting to end Medicare.

Darcy started a petition to her Republican opponent, John Koster, to hold him accountable and to show Republicans in Congress that there is a political price to be paid on the campaign trail.

Darcy collected signatures, and then she worked with Rob Zerban — who is running against Paul Ryan, the author of the plan to end Medicare — to deliver her signatures, along with thousands of others from candidates around the country, to Ryan’s office in Wisconsin!

This is what a progressive Congress in action would look like — activists and organizers like Darcy standing and fighting for the things America believes in, like Medicare and Social Security.

Click here to watch the video of Darcy (and other candidates) in action, and then sign on to their petition — more deliveries are being planned.

Thanks for being a bold progressive.

— Jason Rosenbaum, Adam Green, Stephanie Taylor, and the PCCC team

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Support Jay Inslee for Governor of Seattle, WA


 

On Sunday, Jay Inslee made an exciting announcement.

Effective March 20, Jay Inslee will step down from my seat in Congress to devote myself full-time to my race for governor and to talking to voters throughout Washington about creating jobs and building a new economy for our state.

In the coming years, we have a chance to seize our own destiny, build our own industries, and create our own technological revolutions right here at home.

And because that chance is so important to me, I am going to give everything I have to the cause of building a working Washington, and I am going to hold nothing back.

I am traveling everywhere in our state, and I am going to listen to everybody. If you have an idea, I want to hear it. If you have a problem, I want to know it. If you have a business, I want to help you grow it.

I am getting up every morning, seven days a week, to go out and listen to the people of Washington about their needs, their ideas, and their dreams.

This has not been an easy decision to make. I’ve enjoyed every day of my work representing the people of Washington’s 1st Congressional District. But I have not shied away from hard decisions before.

I did not shy away from the decision to vote against the deregulation of Wall Street. Nor did I shy away from the hard decision to vote against the Iraq war.

I was fully confident in those difficult decisions, and I am fully confident in this one.

THIS is the place where our destiny will be decided. THIS is the place jobs will be created. THIS is the place I can make a real difference getting 290,000 of our neighbors back to work.

I’m excited about what the coming months will bring, and I hope you are too. Thank you to the people of the 1st Congressional District for the honor of representing you all these years. And thank you to all those who have already given so much by helping me in this race.

I’m excited about being able to focus full time on talking to voters. I’m putting it all on the line.

Will you contribute $3 and help us reach as many voters as possible about building a working Washington?

The best is yet to come. Let’s go get ’em!

Jay Inslee

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Don’t let Congress double the student loan interest rate … Murshed Zaheed, CREDO Action


Tell Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: FIGHT to stop Republicans from doubling the interest rate<br /> on student loans
            Clicking here will automatically add your name to this petition to      Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:
            “Do not let the interest rate double on federal student loans. Extend the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, keeping college education affordable for the 99%.”            
      Automatically add your name:     
Take action now!      Learn more about this campaign

CREDO Action | more than a network, a movement.

Stop Republicans from doubling the interest rate on student loans.

Dear Friend,

This is unbelievable. The interest rates on federal student loans will double this summer if Congress doesn’t take action.1

Urge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: FIGHT to stop Republicans from doubling the interest rate on student loans. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Millions of American students from working class families are able to obtain a college education thanks to low-interest federal student loans. But now Congress is putting those loans in serious jeopardy at a time when students and their families can least afford to pay higher interest rates.

Back in 2007, when the Democrats were in charge of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, Congress passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. It reduced the interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans incrementally over four academic years, from 6.8 percent at the time to the current 3.4 percent.2  The current Republican leadership in the House is planning to let this legislation expire on July 1, effectively doubling the interest rates on these loans. This will result in an average of $5,000 in additional payments for students who are scheduled to pay their loans backs in 5 years, and $11,000 for those who are paying back in 10.3

With Republicans in the House poised to double the interest on federal student loans, we need  leadership from the Senate.Specifically, we need Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to stand up and fight on behalf of millions of American students:

Urge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: FIGHT to stop Republicans from doubling the interest rate on student loans.

If Leader Reid leads the Democratic-controlled Senate to move first and take steps to pass legislation that ensures the interest rates remain fixed at 3.4 percent, it will force the hand of Congressional Republicans to either pass the measure or go on the record as the party fighting against the interest of millions of America’s working class students and their families.But we need both the House and the Senate to pass it before July 1, so we need to convey our sense of urgency to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today.

Federal student loans with low interest rates, such as the subsidized Stafford loan, are designed to benefit students whose families make under $40,000 a year — folks who can least afford to see their interest rates jump.4 These loans help the neediest students, who are often not eligible to receive Pell Grants.  Adding further financial stress on these students and their families by letting the interest rates double this July would be devastating, especially given the extremely fragile state of our economy.

Urge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: FIGHT to stop Republicans from doubling the interest rate on student loans. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

As Sarah Jaffe observed in her excellent piece in AlterNet:

“It’s worth noting, as well, that many of the big banks that make a killing on private student loans and still have billions of government-subsidized student debt on their books, are able to borrow money from the government through the Federal Reserve’s discount window at nearly no interest at all. Why, then, are young people, who aren’t guilty of trashing the economy but remain the victims of a rate of unemployment nearly twice that of the rest of the population, expected to pay more?”5

Now is the time for all of us to speak up on behalf of our students. Click here to automatically sign the petition and consider inviting students from your personal network to join the fight.

Click below to automatically sign our petition urging Senator Reid to fight to keep college education affordable and not let the interest rate double on federal student loans.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5541975&id=36922-5440681-yT2lVHx&t=12

Thank you for speaking out to make sure that all students can afford a higher education — including those from working class families.

Murshed Zaheed, Deputy Political Director CREDO Action from Working Assets

PS: This issue is deeply personal for me. Coming from a working class family, I have been able to pursue my own aspirations by working hard and getting a great education from amazing academic institutions. This opportunity would not have been possible for someone like me if I hadn’t had access to affordable federal student loans with low interest rates.  I hope you willjoin this cause on behalf of the students andconsider inviting any students you know in your personal network to join this fight by forwarding them this link:

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5541974&id=36922-5440681-yT2lVHx&t=15

1. Sarah Jaffe, “Is Congress Going to Double the Interest on Your Student Loan?,” AlterNet.org February 22, 2012. 2. Ann Carrns, “Rising Concerns Over Student Loans, Public and Private,” the New York Times Blog, March 14, 2012. 3. Sarah Jaffe, “Is Congress Going to Double the Interest on Your Student Loan?,” AlterNet.org February 22, 2012. 4. Moe Bedard, “Vermont Senators Leahy And Sanders Join Bill To Prevent July Interest Rate Increase On Stafford Student Loans,” LoanSafe.org, February 2, 2012. 5. Sarah Jaffe, “Is Congress Going to Double the Interest on Your Student Loan?,” AlterNet.org February 22, 2012.