Tag Archives: Congress

Speaker Boehner and his allies in the House of Representatives acted shamefully: they passed H.R. 358, a dangerous bill that would undermine women’s health and even put women’s lives at risk. As we told you earlier this week, H.R. 358 is so extreme that some women facing pregnancy complications could die as a result.

The bill is not expected to pass the Senate, and President Obama has promised to veto it even if it does, but this vote was more than symbolic — these provisions are likely to surface again, either as standalone legislation or as amendments to other bills.

Put your Member of Congress on notice. Find out how she or he voted, and let’s express our thanks to those champions who stood up for women’s health and make clear our disappointment with the others.

WWW.NWLC.ORG

It’s obvious that Americans want Congress to work on creating jobs and helping our ailing economy, yet Speaker Boehner and his supporter STILL focus their energies on attacking women’s health. H.R. 358 would:Prevent purchase of health insurance in the new Exchanges that includes abortion care, meaning that millions of women would either be prevented from purchasing insurance plans that cover abortion or would lose the coverage they currently have.
Allow hospitals to refuse to perform emergency abortions, letting them deny emergency abortions to women whose life or health could be saved by the procedure.
Take away existing health insurance coverage, opening an enormous loophole in the new health care law that would allow states to broaden refusal laws so that insurance companies in their state could deny women the access to contraception without co-pays that we secured, with your help, over the summer!
Please thank the leaders who stood against this dangerous piece of legislation, and put the others on notice that we’re watching in case these provisions surface again. With your help, we’ll make sure that H.R. 358’s shameful assault on women’s health does NOT become the law of the land.

Thank you for everything you do to protect women’s access to reproductive health care.

Sincerely,

Judy Waxman
Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Your support allows us to continue our work for women and their families. Support our work today!

Tell Congress: Start Creating Jobs, Not Cutting Them …Joan Entmacher, National Women’s Law Center

10/11/2011 Nativegrl77

It’s about jobs. You know that the most urgent deficit facing this country is the jobs deficit. It’s time for Congress to do its job and pass a plan that creates jobs for the millions of Americans who are desperately looking for work.

We expect the Senate to vote tonight on whether to allow debate to begin on President Obama’s jobs plan. It couldn’t be more timely or important. Last week, we got some news about the job market, and it’s not a pretty picture. Women gained just 4,000 of the 103,000 jobs created last month. The main reason? Cuts in funding for public services are disproportionately eliminating jobs held by women. Since the recession officially ended in June 2009, women have actually lost jobs and their unemployment rate has risen.

President Obama has introduced a plan, the American Jobs Act, to put women and men back to work. Yet some Senators may block the plan from even being considered!

You can help. Tell Congress it is time to stop cutting jobs and start creating them! Please call 1-888-659-9401 TODAY and ask your Senators to support the American Jobs Act.

Please call 1-888-659-9401 today. When connected to your Senators’ offices, please tell them:Your name, where you are from, and that you are a constituent.
That millions of Americans are desperately looking for work and need Congress to act quickly on the American Jobs Act.
That you support paying for the Act’s investments in job creation by making millionaires pay their fair share of taxes and oppose paying for them with further cuts in funding for public services that will destroy more jobs and create greater hardship.
Once you place your call, please call back to be connected to the office of your other Senator.

The American Jobs Act would keep teachers and first responders on the job, invest in rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, provide job training, create incentives to hire the long-term unemployed, provide subsidized employment for disadvantaged workers, extend emergency unemployment benefits, and prohibit discrimination against jobless workers. And it fully funds these urgently needed measures in a progressive way, by levying a surtax on incomes above $1 million.

Please call 1-888-659-9401 today and ask your Senators to support the American Jobs Act. Tell them Americans can’t afford to wait any longer.

Thank you for all you do!

Sincerely,

Joan Entmacher
Vice President, Family Economic Security
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Please help us continue to advocate for policies that protect and improve economic security for women and their families by making a generous donation today.

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AFL – CIO

10/07/2011 Nativegrl77

68,842 bridges across America need work. So do America’s unemployed workers.

Tell Congress: These bridges need work, and so do America’s jobless workers.

In America, 68,842 bridges are deficient—and 282,672,680 vehicles cross
those bridges every day. Meanwhile, 9.1 percent of Americans are
jobless.

With so many people out of work and so many bridges and other pieces of
critical infrastructure in need of work, there’s a simple solution:
Congress must pass legislation putting jobless Americans to work fixing
critical infrastructure—bridges, schools, roads, ports and more.

Tell
your members of Congress: America is ready to get to work on our
bridges, transit, rail, airports, highways, ports, schools and the rest
of our failing infrastructure.

These projects don’t just create good jobs for the people who do the
original work—though that’s a big part of why they are important right
now. They also make our economy perform better in the long term by
increasing productivity. And they make America a better, safer place to
live.

Immediate work on America’s
crumbling infrastructure is a start. But we also need to pass a fully
funded surface transportation reauthorization and start now on even
bigger projects—world-class communications and energy systems,
high-speed rail and other infrastructure we need to be competitive in
the 21st century.

Tell
Congress: We need to fix our broken infrastructure and get started on
even bigger projects, too—the world-class communications and energy
systems, high-speed rail and other infrastructure we need to be
competitive in the 21st century.

I haven’t been to China, though I hope to go soon. But I am told that when you fly to Shanghai,
you land in a brand-new airport, you have high-speed broadband access
from the moment you arrive and you can get on a high-speed train in the
arrival terminal that will take you directly to downtown Shanghai at
speeds faster than 100 miles per hour.

This just isn’t available in any U.S. city. But we can change that. We
can meet these standards—and beat them. But only if our leaders rise to
the challenge.

Thank you for all the work you do.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka

President, AFL-CIO

P.S. In tough times, America has come together and put America back to work by building and rebuilding our infrastructure. But so far, the Republicans won’t do it.
That’s why we’re taking the pressure to every individual member of
Congress today—highlighting just how much work there is to be done and
how many jobless Americans are ready to get to work.

Tell
your members of Congress: America is ready to get to work. Let’s get
started on our bridges, transit, rail, airports, highways, ports,
schools and the rest of our failing infrastructure.

To find out how many bridges need work in your state and your state’s unemployment rate, click here.

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We want the Buffett Rule … Sen. Russ Feingold

10/03/2011 Nativegrl77

President Obama came out swinging last month — presenting a deficit-reduction plan to the American people that would finally make millionaires pay their fair share.

Poll after poll has shown this is exactly what the American people want, but big corporations and the super rich are already fighting back. They’re threatening to kill this plan before it’s even voted on in Congress.

We can’t let that happen.

This is what progressives wanted. This is what we fought for, and we can’t let it go down without a fight. We need to show Congress — and especially the members of this so-called “super committee” — that we’re not going to let big corporations and the super rich call the shots anymore.

The super committee is accepting public comments right now and we need to overwhelm them with the voices of average Americans across the country. That’s why Democracy for America and Progressives United are joining forces to call on progressives across the country to write into the Super Committee and tell them to support President Obama’s “Buffett Rule.”

Join us and submit your comments directly the super committee — tell them to support President Obama’s “Buffett Rule” to make millionaires pay their fair share.

www.ProgressivesUnited.org

The odds of winning this fight are long. Big corporations have a lot of influence in Washington and they’re going to fight us on this every step of the way. But remember that we’ve already won one important battle.

President Obama would never have introduced this plan if it hadn’t been for the hard work of millions of progressive activists and concerned citizens across the country. We built a powerful grassroots campaign to push the president to call for this — and we won.

Now it’s time for another win.

Tell the super committee to make millionaires pay their fair share.

www.ProgressivesUnited.org

The odds are against us, but we have the president on our side. Join us today to help us win.

Thank you for everything you do.

-Russ

Russ Feingold

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AFL – CIO … Have a JOBs Story ?

09/27/2011 Nativegrl77

Have a jobs story?

Have a story to tell? Congress needs to hear it.Rep. George Miller—the most senior Democrat on the House committee that deals with health, education, jobs and pension issues—is sponsoring a fact-finding forum and gathering stories to help Congress understand what life is really like for people struggling with the jobs crisis.You and your friends can help by submitting your stories.

Do you ever feel like the call for jobs is falling on deaf ears in Congress? It’s not. It’s just that obstructionists are blocking progress.Rep. George Miller—the most senior Democrat on the House committee that deals with health, education, jobs and pension issues—wants to stop the political games and pass legislation that gets America back to work. And you can help.

After you submit your story to Congress, please take a quick moment to paste it into the body of an e-mail and send it to us at peoplepower@aflcio.org.Are you struggling to find work or to acquire new skills? Have you or has someone in your family lost a job, particularly in construction or education? Has job loss threatened your home or your family’s health care?Tell Congress your story.

How have budget cuts in education affected your life or work? If you are a parent of a child in public schools, how have those cuts affected your children? Are schools or community colleges in your area in need of repair or modernization? Tell Congress your story.

Do you see a need for construction work in your community that is not being done for lack of funding? Tell Congress your story.

What kind of access do you have to job training or reemployment assistance programs? Is it sufficient? Tell Congress your story.

Outside of Washington, job creation is at the top of everyone’s agenda. Rep. Miller knows that. Let’s help him flood his congressional colleagues with compelling stories to demonstrate that America wants to work and we need good jobs now.

Thanks for doing your part to create jobs.

In Solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. If you know people who have been unemployed for a long time—or who have first-hand experience in the struggling construction or education industries—Also, after you submit your story to Congress, please take a quick moment to paste it into the body of an e-mail and send it to us at peoplepower@aflcio.org.