April 10, 2025 - Budget Stalls, Prices Still Climbing, DOGE at the FDIC?

Budget and tariff updates, billions on deportations, LTEs for libraries, and more

Contact all members of Congress:

• By phone: (202) 224-3121

• By email: Congress.gov

• By US mail: Representatives / Senators

• By fax: Representatives / Senators

• By Resistbot: Resist.bot

Contact White House or other federal agencies:

• usa.gov/federal-agencies

If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!

They want us to feel powerless and alone. But look at how many of us are willing to take to the streets! Check out the size of the crowd in (clockwise from top left) Albuquerque, NM; Glenwood Springs, CO; Sacramento, CA; and Missoula, MT. Courtesy of Rogan's List readers Savannah W, Lori B, Jon R.

DOGE TO DESCEND ON DEPOSIT INSURERS

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was founded during the New Deal to protect our money from bank failures. They supervise banks and savings associations to make sure they’re sound, regulate banks not part of the Federal Reserve System, ensure banks comply with consumer protection laws, and most importantly insure our deposits. In short: not an organization we want messed with, especially during a period of market volatility. Last night, independent journalist Marisa Kabas reported Elon Musk’s DOGE henchmen will arrive at the FDIC today. Based on the kind of destruction they’ve done elsewhere, anyone with money in a bank should be worried. Let’s contact our members of Congress right now with a very simple message: "DOGE is raiding the FDIC. What are you going to do to protect our savings from Musk? Because it can't be nothing."

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SENATE MAGIC TRICK FAILS TO IMPRESS HOUSE

Last night, after days of maneuvering, Speaker Mike Johnson canceled a plan vote to pass the Senate’s magic trick budget, with too many hardliners steadfast in opposition. The GOP plans to gut Medicaid and food assistance to pay for tax cuts for billionaires cannot move forward until the Senate and House pass the same final budget resolution, and their path forward is unclear right now. The House may attempt to amend this Senate version or go straight to negotiations between the leadership of both houses – the conference process.

Either way, we can take advantage of their stall to keep building pressure against their pro-billionaire, anti-worker agenda. Here’s how to help:

• Join a People’s Action phonebank TONIGHT to reach folks in critical districts and encourage them to reach out to their members of Congress to protect Medicaid and food assistance, sign up here

• Join the Working Families Party call team to talk to constituents of potential swing voters about the Medicaid killer budget during the district work period, sign up here

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DUST SETTLES ON A CHAOTIC DAY WITH TRUMP TARIFFS

Donald Trump’s U.S. Trade Representative was literally testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee this morning defending his tariff strategy when Trump announced he was making a significant change – by Truth Social post.

With the stock market cratering and U.S. Treasury bonds being sold off, the White House elected to pause additional penalties on major trade partners for 90 days. This seemed to reassure the markets, but Trump left in place a 10% import on nearly all imports. He also hiked tariffs on Chinese imports to 125%, left import taxes on Canada, Mexico, steel, aluminum, cars and car parts at 25%, and indicated he will soon announce tariffs on copper, lumber, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. In other words, we are still about to see massive price hikes on almost everything we buy.

To top it off, Speaker Mike Johnson put language into the rule for the budget blocking Democrats from forcing a vote on this latest set of tax hikes. This passed 216-215, with all Democrats and three Republicans voting no while the rest of the GOP fell in line with the Trump tariffs.

Let’s once again reach out to our members of Congress. With our senators, we can let them know we have not been fooled by whatever games Trump is attempting to play and we demand they take action to protect our money and stop the Trump tariffs. With our House members, let’s also thank or condemn them for their vote to keep those tariffs in place. We can find scripts and language here.

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REPUBLICANS WANT $45 BILLION FOR NEW DETENTION CAMPS

As Republicans in Congress continue to go after food assistance and health care and target Social Security to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, there’s one thing they want to spend much, much more on. Plans are being formulated to increase ICE’s budget by $45 billion in order to build new detention camps. These will be run privately, allowing even lower standards and limited checks on human rights abuses which have already been documented.

Now is the time to tell Congress that we want our money to go to national parks, Social Security, cancer research, school lunches, food stamps, aid to farmers, libraries, museums and other institutions that benefit Americans. We don’t want our money allocated toward ICE camps. This article from Immigrantjustice.org covers all the talking points, and we can also work off of this Resistbot petition.

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DEFEND LIBRARIES FOR NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK

Across the country—and even in our own communities—libraries are facing funding challenges, threats of censorship, and questions about their role. But we know how essential they are: for access to information, job resources, technology, literacy, and a safe space for all ages. In honor of National Library Week (through April 12th!), let's speak up. One powerful way to show support is by writing a letter to the editor to our local newspaper! We can write and submit our letter here. The American Library Association has us covered with this guide. Lastly, let’s stay informed on this battle by signing up for Book Riot’s Literary Activism newsletter.

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NOT TIRED OF WINNING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL? TWO CALLS TONIGHT, PHONEBANKS THIS MONTH

Thumping Trump and Musk’s handpicked candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court last week will make a huge difference to protecting democracy, reproductive rights and labor organizing in the Badger State and sent a powerful message to MAGA. But we’re still not tired of winning! Here’s a few ways we can get involved in the work of winning elections, starting today:

• TONIGHT at 8PM Eastern, the amazing folks at the Center for Common Ground are holding a Zoom event to teach us how elections are tools for resistance and how we can get involved. Let’s sign up here and invite others to join us!

• ALSO TONIGHT at 8PM Eastern, Swing Left is holding a national strategy update call on “3 to Win,” their data-driven plan to flip the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms. They’re focusing on 25 key swing districts, selected by data and political experts, where our time and donations will have the biggest impact. Let’s sign up here to learn more about this plan and our next steps!

• Finally, we got some clarity this week on one of *this* November’s biggest elections, as Democratic former Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears were the only candidates to qualify for the ballot in the Virginia governor’s race. Let’s get to work to take back Richmond! We can sign up for upcoming phonebanks for Rep. Spanberger here and here and regularly on Mondays here, and a textbank here.

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RECOMMENDED READING: THE INSURRECTION ACT OF 1807

When Trump took office in January, among his earliest moves was an executive order declaring a national emergency at the border and directing the Defense and Justice Departments to provide a report within 90 days on the state of the border to determine whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807. This law gives the President the authority to deploy the U.S. military or National Guard inside our borders to suppress rebellion or civil disorder that local authorities can’t control. That report is due April 20th.

There is no guarantee Trump will put the Insurrection Act to work, and there are a wide range of options as to how exactly he might do so. We need to take this moment to get informed and get prepared.

Some recommended reading for us:

• Indivisible has put out an explainer on the act, how it might be used and how we might respond.

• Daniel Hunter has written an article outlining tactics we might use for Waging Nonviolence.

• The Brennan Center has produced a general explainer and specific recommendations for how the law should be reformed to prevent abuse.

We also have this Resistbot letter from last year urging members of Congress to put guardrails on the Insurrection Act we can consider sending, either directly via the congressional email system or by texting SIGN PRHFET to 50409.

(H/t to subscriber Eileen B for being the first to flag this for us)

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KEEPING AN EYE ON…

• Push local, state education leaders to refuse to comply with Trump hostage situation on funding

• House votes 217-211 to restore predatory bank fees on overdrafts - all Dems and 1 GOP nay

• House votes to pass bill punishing judges for enforcing Constitution 219-213 - all Dems and 1 GOP nay

• “SAVE” Act voter suppression measure for House votes today

• Sign up for updates on ballot curing in North Carolina

• Comment deadline on forced registration of undocumented immigrants TOMORROW

• Comment deadline on protecting access to health care for trans folks TOMORROW

• #TeslaTakedowns this weekend and every weekend

• Recess events with Indivisible

• Detention Watch Network’s Communities Not Cages Day of Action April 17th

• 50501 Movement’s next day of action April 19th to mark 250th anniversary of start of Revolutionary War

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