February 5, 2025

Government funding in a crime spree, consumer watchdog under attack, know your rights and make sure others do too, 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!

• NO SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT FUNDING TRUMP WON’T SPEND

  It feels like we’re being pummeled with multiple crises right now: Trump has shut down the agencies that protect workers from employers and discrimination; Trump has unilaterally cut off support Americans depend on every day and despite court orders seems to still be defunding early childhood education and nonprofits helping folks get to their dialysis appointments; Senate Republicans are forcing through Russ Vought to be director of the Office of Management and Budget so he can go even further to strip taxpayer dollars from Medicaid and green jobs; Elon Musk is seizing control of the Treasury Department systems that pay Social Security and the government’s bills and threatening to shut them off. But they all have one thing in common: breaking the law to steal money they’re supposed to spend for the American people, so they can hand it over to billionaires with tax cuts and giveaways. It’s corruption, and it’s a crime spree. Even as they do it, Congress is facing a deadline on government funding, with the current deal set to expire March 14th. It would be ridiculous, under these circumstances, for Democrats – or any member of Congress – to support a new appropriations bill knowing full well the White House will throw it in the trash and rip off the taxpayers if they choose. Let’s contact our representatives and senators and tell them to vote against ANY government funding bill until the administrative coup is ended, Trump demonstrably abandons the funding freeze and the threat of future impoundments is removed. If Trump wants to steal from the American people, he can do it without our reps’ rubber stamp. We can use language from this Resistbot petition. (We can also thank those members of Congress who yesterday were blocked from entering the Department of the Treasury to investigate what Elon is up to, and urge them to insist on being able to enter these federal buildings to do oversight instead of being turned away - they’re the public’s, not Musk’s.)

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• THE OLIGARCHS DON’T WANT CONSUMERS PROTECTED AND THEY’RE GETTING THEIR WAY

  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is America’s consumer watchdog, taking on financial industry abuses, predatory lenders, debt collectors, and those who put our financial data at risk. They also get cash back for folks who’ve been ripped off. Under Biden-appointed director Rohit Chopra, CFPB efforts returned $6 billion to ordinary Americans and taken on everyone from Wells Fargo to Walmart to CashApp. This has naturally made the bureau a number one target for big banks and billionaires – including Marc Andreesen, Mark Zuckerberg, and Musk, who promised to “delete it.” Naturally, under Trump the oligarchs are getting their way. Trump fired Chopra over the weekend, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has reportedly shut down all CFPB operations “pending a review.” This is yet another egregious power grab by the wealthy and already powerful, and anyone who is truly on the side of regular Americans needs to fight back. Let’s contact our senators and tell them the kneecapping of the CFPB also demands freezing the Senate, and they should be engaging in blanket opposition, quorum calls, objecting to unanimous consent and holds on Treasury Department nominees until these civil servants are allowed to get back to work for the American people. We should further request that they make a point of publicizing the CFPB’s successes and naming the corporate crooks who will benefit from them being neutered. We can also take this opportunity to tell both our senators and our representatives that we object to any effort by Republicans to use the Congressional Review Act to roll back CFPB rules like the cap on banking overdraft fees, the ban on including medical debt on credit reports, and heightened scrutiny on non-banks with digital payment platforms, and we expect them to vote against it.

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• PATH TO STOP TRUMP’S WORST NOMINEES CLOSING FAST

  We’ve had multiple critical votes for Trump nominees this week – and time and again, Republican senators have chosen loyalty to Trump over our kids’ safety, national security and programs Americans depend on every day. On Monday, as expected every present Republican senator voted to move forward Vought’s nomination as director of the OMB in spite of the risk of further unilateral cuts to programs like Medicaid. On Tuesday, potential GOP opposition to RFK Jr for Health and Human Services Secretary and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence shamefully folded, with key vote Bill Cassidy of Louisiana helping Kennedy pass the Senate Finance Committee 14-13 and Susan Collins among the Gabbard skeptics who fell in line to usher Gabbard through the Intelligence Committee. All these nominees are now likely to pass a full floor vote - as Pam Bondi did last night, winning confirmation for attorney general with every Republican and John Fetterman on board. Still we should leave no stone unturned until the final votes are in. We can:

  • Continue calling our senators to urge them to vote no on the Senate floor on these nominees, with scripts and language here – and let them know we will hold them accountable for the consequences if they’re confirmed.

  • Join activists for a protest at our local senate offices pushing them to #FreezeTheSenate. We can find those already registered here and a toolkit for setting up our own here.

  • Encourage our friends and family to rally against RFK Jr by sending them to StopRFKJr.com, a simple link that makes it easy for them to call their senators, too.

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• SPREAD “KNOW YOUR RIGHTS” INFORMATION TO VULNERABLE IMMIGRANTS
  As ICE unleashes its deportation machine, we must make sure that the members of our communities know their legal rights. Trump’s deporter-in-chief Tom Homan has admitted that immigrants knowing their rights has stymied his forces. Let’s make sure to get educated and spread this knowledge to others.

  • In order for ICE to make an arrest, they need a judicial warrant signed by a judge, but often the warrant they will show lacks legal standing. This graphic shows the difference between a judicial warrant and the type of warrant ICE will sometimes show to short-circuit the process.

  • The ACLU has a comprehensive page on immigrant rights, translated into many different languages, which we should circulate widely to members of our community who need it.

  • The Immigrant Legal Resource Center has made a template for pocket-sized “red cards” with our rights listed on them in multiple language. We can order some or print off copies ourselves here.

  • The National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) has now built a Know Your Rights app that is available in 16 languages with resources and the power to read your rights out loud to law enforcement and send a message to an emergency contact. It can be downloaded at this link for Apple and here for Android.

  • Those who are already in the ICE system should consult this document on what rights they have during ICE check-ins.

    Never Again Action has put together important tips on what we can do as witnesses if ICE comes to our area, and we can find even more guidance on monitoring ICE here.

  • United We Dream is mobilizing volunteers to host Know Your Rights trainings across the country. We can learn more and get involved by joining their orientation call tomorrow at 7PM Eastern here.

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• DEFEND LIBRARIES
  With the expected attempts to enact the plans defined in Project 2025, librarians must act strategically within their schools, communities, and local and state legislation to ensure the future of libraries. Experts have come up with tactics and advice for the upcoming fight. A great primer on the issue, with concrete ideas for how libraries, schools, and communities can fight back together cane be found here.

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STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS

• MA – DETAINEES IN PLYMOUTH SUFFERING FROM COLD

  It was a brutally cold weekend in New England, and some immigrants currently being detained in the Plymouth County Correctional Facility may have borne the brunt of it. Activists and lawmakers have received continued reports of folks held there receiving inadequate clothing and dealing with excessively cold in-cell temperatures. While we successfully pushed the Division of Environmental Health Regulations and Standards for a site visit in January and some have said there have been improvements, others of the detainees are still suffering through extreme cold. A coalition including the Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network is organizing folks to call their state legislators, the Plymouth Board of Health, the state Department of Health and the Attorney General’s office for further action. Let’s join them in making these calls – we can find scripts here. (The same groups are also rallying calls to legislators and doing an event at the State House THURSDAY in support of giving the shelter system the funding it needs to provide for all families. We can find details and join in here.)

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KEEPING AN EYE ON…

Wisconsin state supreme court election less than two months away… Los Angeles wildfires contained, need for relief remains… keep eyes out for denied funding from the “freeze”… Starbucks, Amazon workers need help organizing…

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