February 26, 2025
Budget passes House, shutdown countdown begins, new ground for forced birthers, 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:
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
BUDGET BLUEPRINT PASSES FIRST HURDLE (OF MANY)
Last night, Republicans managed to get their budget resolution passed in the House. The final vote was 217-215, almost entirely on party lines – Republican Rep. Thomas Massie voted no and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) did not vote. This is a blow, particularly considering how shaky the prospects of the effort looked even this afternoon. And the consequences of it moving forward are serious – if they see this process all the way through, they’re going to cost millions of people their health care with devastating Medicaid cuts and take food off the table for millions more by gutting SNAP, all while cutting taxes for billionaires and still expanding the deficit. But it’s just the first of a series of hurdles they will need to overcome (check out these explainers by the Center for American Progress’ Bobby Kogan and the Congressional Progressive Caucus), and we have plenty of opportunities to stop them ahead of us. The next step will be for the Senate to pass an identical bill. Let’s take some time to contact our senators and tell them to vote no, along with reaching out to our House members to thank or condemn them for their votes. And let’s be sure to remind them of exactly what they’re voting to do – House Democrats have built this tool that allows us to pull up how many people count on Medicaid and SNAP in our congressional district and state, and we can use those details for our calls. Lastly, if we’re among those at risk from this budget, let’s take some time to start sharing our stories – through short videos and social media content, through the media or directly with congressional Democrats.
SHUTDOWN COUNTDOWN: 16 DAYS
While congressional Republicans managed to force forward a budget blueprint, they have made little progress on actually funding the government. The current appropriations deal expires on March 14th – just 16 days away. This would be a tough negotiation under any circumstances, but this time around there are new elephants in the room. Donald Trump and unelected billionaire Elon Musk are cheerfully breaking the law right and left on government spending – seizing taxpayer money meant for crucial services and illegally firing federal workers and shutting down whole departments so that they can redirect the savings to billionaires in tax breaks and giveaways. They’re likely to go even further in the months to come, with aggressive use of “impoundment.” Whatever government spending deal Congress reaches, Trump and Musk have made it clear they’ll throw it in the trash and do whatever they want. Until the administrative coup and the civil service purge are ended, Trump demonstrably abandons the funding freeze and legislators secure protections against impoundment, our members of Congress must oppose any long-term government funding bill. Let’s contact them and tell them not to back anything beyond a clean, short continuing resolution while the crisis continues. We can send this Resistbot petition by texting SIGN PZOBQT to 50409, or use these call scripts and sample language to reach out.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BY A CONGRESSMAN, ABUSE OF POWER BY A PROSECUTOR
Trump has quickly turned the Justice Department into the exact kind of tyrannical weapon he always whined about. His abuse of power to protect his friends and punish those who disagree with him has been especially stark in the Washington D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office. Interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin, who is also Trump’s nominee for the job long term, has opened inquiries into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and California Rep. Robert Garcia, ridiculously claiming comments they made about the Supreme Court justices after Dobbs and about Elon Musk and his DOGE henchmen were threats. He also attempted to use DoJ power to stop taxpayer funds from going to environmental grants, claiming there was criminal activity in how it was allocated – causing a veteran prosecutor to resign rather than open an investigation based on zero evidence of wrongdoing. These are clear attempts to intimidate political opponents into silence and use prosecutorial power to help Trump and Musk steal money they’re supposed to spend for the American people, classic authoritarian tactics. Now we’ve learned Martin may literally be covering for domestic violence by a Republican. Last week D.C. police were called to the luxury apartment of Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL). According to a police report, Mills manhandled his affair partner of over a year hard enough to cause bruises on her arms, was overheard by law enforcement instructing her to lie about it, and then admitted to the cops that he had harmed her. The victim subsequently recanted, and two later police reports were made with far less details – but MPD still sent an arrest warrant to the U.S. attorney. This warrant was never signed and referred back to the office for further investigation. This raises serious questions about whether Martin’s decision not to pursue Mills was about his status as a political ally of the White House. This is far too powerful a position to allow this to go on unchecked. Rep. Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, has announced a probe into Martin’s targeting of Democratic politicians, but without Republican support his powers to pursue it are limited. Let’s start pushing Congress to take a stand. We can:
Ask our MoCs to back a congressional investigation into Mills’ alleged assault
Ask our MoCs to publicly demand Ed Martin explain his decision not to sign the police’s warrant against Mills
Ask our MoCs, especially if they’re on the House Oversight Committee, to support congressional efforts to investigate Martin’s threats to prosecute political opponents and his abuses of power
Ask our MoCs to request the Department of Justice inspector general look into the many scandals in Martin’s office
Ask our U.S. senators, especially if they’re on the Judiciary Committee, to use Martin’s confirmation process to get him on the record about how he handled the Mills domestic violence case, his threats to prosecute political opponents, and his misuse of power to seize taxpayer funds
Ask our U.S. senators to oppose Martin’s confirmation
Ask our U.S. senators to put a hold on Martin and all of Trump’s U.S. attorney nominations until they end the weaponization of the Justice Department
#TESLATAKEDOWN MOVEMENT KEEPS GROWING
Elon Musk is spending his days trolling federal workers and threatening to wreck their lives, accessing our personal data and making our food, water and national parks dirtier and less safe, while the Republican Party busily tries to cut his taxes and spend more money on defense contracts for his companies. This is an unelected billionaire who has seized a massive amount of power over our lives, is using our government to enrich himself and laughs at us while he does it. But the movement to strike back continues to grow. As Evan Sutton explains here and Hamilton Nolan explores here, Tesla Motors is a house of cards, wildly overvalued and a key source of Elon’s net worth – we may not be able to hold him legally accountable, but we can mess with his beloved wealth. We’re heading into a third weekend of #TeslaTakedown protests, picketing Tesla locations nationwide and even internationally to encourage a boycott and tank the brand, and folks are hitting the streets every day now. Some activists are beginning to build towards a national day of action on April 5th. Let’s check out this list of scheduled protests to find one near us we can attend in the next few days – and sign up for a virtual planning meeting for the day of action TONIGHT at 8PM Eastern here.
WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR ON THIS UNPRECEDENTED ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY
The new Trump administration, backed by figures like Elon Musk, is rapidly dismantling essential government functions. Federal employees are being fired without a thought to the consequences, critical funding for disaster relief and health care is being slashed and frozen, and vulnerable communities are under attack. Immigrants face mass deportations, transgender children are losing protections, and environmental safeguards are being rolled back. This is not normal—it’s an assault on democracy, and everyone needs to understand just how unprecedented and dangerous this moment is. If we’ve lived through past political turmoil, then we know the cost of silence. That’s why Third Act has created The Legacy Project, making it easy to take action. They provide simple tools to help us draft and submit a letter to the editor, ensuring our voices reach our local communities. We must speak out—loudly and clearly—so the next generation knows what’s at stake and joins us in fighting for a future built on justice, compassion, and democracy. We can use this link to write our letter to the editor today.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
MT – FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND ATTACK ON RIGHT TO TRAVEL FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Forced birthers are opening a new front on their attacks on reproductive rights. Montana Republicans have introduced a first-in-the-nation bill that would criminalize adult women leaving the state for certain abortions – accusing them of trafficking their own fetuses. HB 609 would apply to anyone seeking an abortion outside Montana that is illegal in the state – currently, any beyond “viability” – meaning they’d face years in prison. The bill will be heard in the House Judiciary Committee this morning. We need to respond sharply, making it clear this is ground we will defend. Let’s reach out to our legislators and let them know Montana just voted to protect the right to choose in our state constitution and they cannot defy the will of the people and try to imprison women for exercising it. Let’s also contact the bill sponsors – Reps. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, Jane Gillette, Lukas Schubert and Braxton Mitchell – and tell them to stop attacking our freedom and leave pregnant people alone. Finally, both Montanans and supporters from out of state should be sure to subscribe to ’s which first reported on this legislation, for more updates.
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
Phonebank and postcard to hold our majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court… economic blackout on Friday, economic action every day… 50501 protests March 4th, Stand Up For Science marches March 7th… keep distributing Know Your Rights cards, training with United We Dream tomorrow…
What the hell are MoCs?