February 6, 2025
Last chance on Vought, day of action to protect Medicaid, stepping up for immigrants in the states, 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!
LAST PUSH ON RUSS VOUGHT
Senate Democrats are making one last stand to try to stop Russ Vought’s confirmation to head the Office of Management and Budget. At least three dozen senators are taking part in a 30-hour talkathon that started at 2 PM yesterday and will run through this evening to ring the alarm bells about “the architect of the dismantling of our federal government.” Let’s make sure they and their colleagues across the aisle know we’re paying attention - he will likely get his confirmation vote tonight. Let’s call to thank those who are making this push and urge them all to vote no on Vought. Click on this link from Indivisible for more info, including a script and a direct call back to the senators' offices. Let’s also urge them to use all the procedural options they have available as the Senate minority, as described here.
DAY OF ACTION TO PROTECT MEDICAID
While Congressional Republicans are still trying to nail down exactly what social programs they aim to cut to pay for billionaire tax breaks, it is clear Medicaid is on the chopping block. The House Budget Committee included slashing $2.3 trillion from Medicaid in their “menu” of possible cuts, They’ve frequently tried to frame these as “work requirements,” but the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated 36 million people would be in danger of losing their coverage under their proposals, and Economic Policy Institute research has established these “requirements” will create more paperwork without actually putting more people to work. Health care advocacy groups including Families USA and Community Catalyst are holding a day of action to protect Medicaid TODAY, and they’re encouraging folks to call in to Congress to urge them to vote down Medicaid cuts. Let’s do our part and tell our representatives and senators to protect Medicaid. We can find scripts and details here, along with this fact sheet from Families USA on the importance of this program to regular people’s lives. (h/t Deborah Stein)
ONLINE HARASSMENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST BLACK FEDERAL WORKERS
Commentators including Elie Mystal flagged from the beginning that the Trump-Musk agenda of purging “DEIA” from the federal government was going to mean purging anyone who looked “like they might be” DEIA – pushing Black people, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities and others from marginalized groups out of civil service work. We continue to see evidence this was correct, in what Jamelle Bouie compared to “a repeat of Wilson’s segregationist purge of the federal government.” Having been stymied by lawsuits, skepticism about buyout offers and resistance from patriotic public servants, right wingers are turning to an old favorite tactic: harassment. A website called the “DEI Watch List” has published the photos, names and public information of multiple workers from health agencies, describing them as “targets” who committed “DEI offenses.” The workers are mainly Black employees of the Department of Health and Human Services. Since it is unlikely that the U.S. attorney’s office will be as aggressive against these conservative scare tactics as they are with those who “impede DOGE”, we will need to step up in support. One simple action we can take is spamming the “tip line” of this website, much as we did with the official DEIA and ICE snitch lines. Let’s do our part by creating burner email accounts using Proton and joining in sending this website fake reports, copypastas, memes, or whatever we can think of.
RAMP UP STATE LEVEL PROTECTIONS FOR IMMIGRANTS
While working with the federal government might feel hopeless as Republicans cheer on the blatant corruption and overstepping of power taken on by the Trump administration, several states are fighting back, especially in the area of immigrant protection. This article from The Guardian outlines a number of things that states are doing, from funding legal aid for immigrants, “expanding healthcare and higher education for immigrants, restricting landlords from inquiring about immigration status and blocking government agreements to open new immigrant-detention centers.” In Oregon, a bill has been proposed that would provide grants to non-profits who can help non-citizens change their immigration status to become lawful permanent residents. California has planned to set aside $50 million to fight the Trump agenda, with $25 million is for ”robust affirmative litigation” on protecting the environment, abortion access, and the LGBTQ community and $25 million for legal aid resources for immigration defense, evictions, wage theft and workplace protections. Let’s propose these ideas to our state legislators and governors. If there’s pushback, let’s remind them that while many support deporting undocumented people who have been convicted of violent crimes, only 40% of Americans are in favor of deporting all people who don’t have documentation.
COLORADO SUPERMARKET WORKERS ON STRIKE
Today will see big developments for multiple labor actions. In Oregon, striking health care workers will begin voting on a tentative agreement they reached with Providence for pay increases, investigating improvements to their health insurance and enshrining language from the state’s mandate on nurse-to-patient ratios in their contract. They’ve been on the picket line for 28 days. Meanwhile in Colorado a new strike is beginning, with 10,000 grocery workers at 77 King Soopers stores launching a two-week unfair labor practices walkout. The corporation has engaged in bad-faith negotiating, union-busting and gutting retiree health benefits. Workers are currently without a contract, with the last one having expired in January. We can show our support with a donation to their hardship fund here. In addition, if we are local we can join one of their picket lines in solidarity, and respect their request for customers not to cross them.
HOW IT’S GOING ON CAPITOL HILL
(h/t Robinson Meyer)
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”… keep distributing Know Your Rights cards… Starbucks, Amazon workers need help organizing…
According to the ACLU, any sort of electronic communication gets ignored. Calling and in-person contact are the only effective avenues.