January 10, 2025
A corrupt and compliant AG nominee, avoiding skyrocketing health insurance premiums, bystander intervention training, 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:
PAM BONDI: CORRUPTION AND UNDERMINING THE RULE OF LAW
The Senate Judiciary Committee is in a hurry to move forward with Trump’s nominee for attorney general, former Florida state AG Pam Bondi, whose confirmation hearings start Wednesday. While Bondi has not been accused of sex trafficking and statutory rape like Trump’s last designee, there is a lot to be troubled about in her record. She led the legal fight against marriage equality until the bitter end, sued to overturn the Affordable Care Act and the legalization of marijuana, and pushed to protect restrictive forced birth laws. As a private citizen she has represented Qatar, Amazon, Uber, General Motors, polluters, private prisons, tech companies accused of violating children’s privacy, and numerous clients with the potential to be scrutinized by the Justice Department. Of particular concern for a Trump attorney general: she has a record of covering for those who back her financially, sidelining and firing prosecutors investigating some of her donors for mortgage fraud against regular Floridians and dropping a suit against Trump University shortly after receiving a $25,000 donation from Trump. She is also an election denier and voting rights opponent who backed Trump’s threats to target his political opponents and those who worked to hold him accountable for his own crimes, saying after Trump’s indictment in Georgia “the prosecutors will be prosecuted… the investigators will be investigated” – a serious threat to the rule of law. The American public needs to know what they’re in for if Pam Bondi leads the Justice Department. Let’s contact our senators, especially if they’re on the Judiciary Committee, and tell them we want them to vote no on Bondi. Let’s also ask them to:
hit her hard on her record of corruption on behalf of her donors
nail her down on whether she intends to enforce the Comstock Act against medication abortion, target those crossing state lines for reproductive care, and other anti-abortion planks in Project 2025
push her for answers on Trump’s promises to target his political opponents for prosecution
MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WILL SEE HEALTH INSURANCE COSTS SPIKE WITHOUT ACTION
The American Rescue Plan Act, pushed through by Democrats and President Biden without a single Republican vote, expanded subsidies under the Affordable Care Act – providing new financial assistance to 20 million people buying coverage through the federal or state marketplaces in 2024. This program, an enhanced and advanced payment of the premium tax credit, has contributed to a record decline in the number of Americans without health insurance and has brought down costs by hundreds if not thousands of dollars for working folks – eligible enrollees saved an average of $705 a year. After being extended through the Inflation Reduction Act, it is set to expire on December 31st without action. Democrats are planning to put up a fight, with Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Lauren Underwood reintroducing the Health Care Affordability Act yesterday to make this assistance permanent. This will not be an easy sell, but we have to try for the sake of everyone who will have to pay much more or lose coverage altogether if nothing gets done – in 12 states people would see their premium payments literally double, and 4 million people would likely become uninsured. Let’s reach out to our members of Congress and let them know we endorse this bill and extending these subsidies permanently, and we want them to pass it as quickly as possible before insurers start finalizing their 2026 rates this summer. We can do so directly or send this message via Resistbot by texting PXFVBW to 50409. (And if we have Republicans representing us, let’s make sure they know that if our costs spike, we are going to hold them accountable for it.)
DEMAND HOSPITAL COMPLIANCE WITH LIFE-SAVING EMERGENCY ABORTION CARE REQUIRED BY FEDERAL LAW
A Senate Finance Committee report has found that hospitals in abortion-ban states with criminal penalties for doctors often fail to comply with EMTALA, a life-saving federal law that requires hospitals “to stabilize any patients who show up to their emergency rooms, even if that means doing so with an abortion procedure that conflicts with state abortion law. If they can’t…they must transfer the patient to a hospital that can.” The failure of hospital lawyers and administrators to provide guidance to doctors when state abortion bans appear to conflict with the EMTALA has led to deaths and serious patient injuries. If we live in one of these twelve abortion-ban states, let’s share the report with our state legislators and governor, and tell them to implement its recommendations. (We can also reach to doctor and hospital associations with the same ask.)
START THE NEW YEAR WITH BYSTANDER INTERVENTION TRAINING
If we are looking for positive, effective ways to stand up to harassment, we can check out Right To Be’s free Bystander Intervention Training classes offered this month. The trainings offer us practical tools to address harassment in our daily lives and to create positive change within organizations, institutions, and businesses. Classes include free and tailored training on topics such as Bystander Intervention, Responding to Harassment, Conflict De-Escalation, and Resilience. With over 250,000 people directly trained to intervene, respond, and de-escalate harassment, these methods have reached an additional 500,000 participants. Impressively, 76% of attendees who witnessed harassment after completing the training reported taking action to intervene. We find out more and sign up for bystander training with Right to Be here.
TIPS FOR AND FROM PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
We are in a period where the government may seek to silence its employees - and where it’s more important than ever that those employees are able to speak out. Let’s review this guide from the ACLU on how to keep safe while exercising our First Amendment rights and share with anyone we think might need it. We can also spread the word about this tipline for federal workers from ProPublica and how we can reach their reporters securely.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
CO – NEW EFFORT ON ASSAULT WEAPONS
With more sweeping assault weapons bans blocked in Denver in recent years, gun safety advocates are planning a new approach in our state legislature. They will introduce a bill that specifically prohibits the sale, manufacture or purchase of semiautomatic weapons that use detachable magazines, along with rapid-fire trigger activators and bump stocks – and would allow criminal penalties as well as loss of licensure for sellers who violated it. The legislation will be led by Democratic Reps. Andrew Boesenecker and Meg Froelich and State Senator Tom Sullivan, who has opposed a full ban – and whose son Alex was murdered in the Aurora mass shooting in 2012. Let’s reach out to our legislators and Governor Polis and encourage them to make this law.
Pam Bondi would be a DISASTER for the independence of the Justice Department—she has acted as a stooge for two terms for WORST FL former governor Rick Scott! She was a vocal proponent of Trump’s Big Lie that he “won” the 2020 election, a disgrace for a former Attorney General to peddle!