March 14, 2025 - Deadline Day for Government Funding
Schumer caves on cloture, ready for recess, rapid response to public service cuts, and more
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SHUTDOWN UPDATE: SCHUMER CAVES
Last night, Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced he will vote for cloture on the continuing resolution, providing a huge boost for the Republicans to get their power grab through. This came just hours after Fox News reported the Trump Administration is already working on plans to impound some of the funding – reminding us all the bill Schumer is allowing to proceed is a charade. The White House will rip off the taxpayers however they choose, stealing our money and smashing our services. (That’s why the leaders of the largest federal workers union, representing folks who will be furloughed or work without pay during a shutdown, are saying a shutdown would be preferable to giving Trump a blank check.)
This is a major leverage point that Schumer is abandoning, the kind a minority party rarely gets, and abandoning a fight they might well be able to win – new polling released yesterday suggested 53% of voters would blame either congressional Republicans or Trump for a shutdown against 32% who would blame Democrats. It is an unacceptable surrender.
The cloture vote should come early this afternoon, and the whip count is still unsettled - we can see where our senators stand here. Let’s make one final push to stop this resolution – and to make sure anyone who votes to let it through knows we consider them complicit in what comes next. Let’s contact our senators against Trump’s blank check. We can find scripts and language here.
GETTING TO WORK THIS RECESS
Once they’ve finished with the blank check for Trump and Musk, Congress is heading out of Washington for a recess. We’ll be waiting, and they owe us some answers. They may try to hide from us, but we’re not going anywhere. Here’s some steps we can take to make them work for us during this “district work period”:
Let’s contact our members of Congress and urge them to hold a town hall during this week where constituents can talk with them directly – and warn them there will be consequences if they don’t. Indivisible has scripts you can use for Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, House Democrats and House Republicans, along with a guide for how to make the most of the event once it’s on the books.
If they refuse, let’s start without them using this guide to hosting an empty chair town hall.
We can also deal with a chicken member of Congress by inviting an elected official who is taking on MAGA to come into our district and meet with constituents in their place – or if our members of Congress are fully engaged in the fight, urge them to take it across district lines, as Governor Walz and members like Reps. Mark Pocan and Ro Khanna are doing. Friends of the First Branch has built a guide with advice on which reps we can reach out to and scripts for the ask!
If we’re willing to go to the next level, let’s find out where our members of Congress are hiding – nail down the rest of their schedule and show up at non-town hall events to birddog, do visibility, or try to get them to answer our questions on camera.
Regardless of what our members of Congress are up to, most of them don’t approach the power of unelected billionaire Elon Musk, so we need to show up where he operates, too. Indivisible has a guide for holding a #MuskOrUs Tesla town hall in our community we can use here.
TRUMP SET TO INVOKE ALIEN ENEMIES ACT – FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PEACETIME
Trump has long promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed up his mass deportations, and multiple outlets are reporting he will do so as soon as today.
The Alien Enemies Act, as reviewed in this explainer from the Brennan Center, is a wartime tool that allows for the summary detention and removal of immigrants with little to no due process required, based solely on their national origin. It was last put to use to intern Italian, German and Japanese immigrants during World War Two and has never been invoked during peacetime. Nor is it written to be – doing so is an inherently abusive power grab and is guaranteed to lead to injustices. Moreover it’s totally unnecessary for public safety. Where Trump insists it will help him stop violent gangsters, they can’t be identified based on where they’re from, and the government should be able to provide evidence of their crimes if they’re criminals.
We are certain to see legal challenges, but their success is not guaranteed and we are likely to see some horror stories in the near future. Let’s take this moment to recommit to taking on immigration enforcement in our own communities, working with local advocacy and rapid response groups, encouraging sensitive locations to do what they can to protect people, spreading information about what rights we have in dealing with ICE and helping monitor them.
We can also reach out to our members of Congress and ask them to condemn Trump’s abuses and support the Neighbors Not Enemies Act (S.193/H.R. 630), legislation introduced by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) to fully repeal the Alien Enemies Act. We can find a one-pager here and scripts and a tool from Win Without War to call here and message here.
RAPID RESPONSE NETWORK TO #SAVEOURSERVICES
Trump and Musk’s chainsawing of our federal workers and public services is rolling on, with the gutting of the Department of Education and weather forecasters leading the headlines this week and more expected soon. They are destroying our government so big corporations can profit off filling the gaps and they can redirect the “savings” to tax cuts for billionaires. We wont’t stand for it, and federal workers are leading the fight to #SaveOurServices.
The Federal Unionists Network is organizing a rapid response network they can call on to have folks hit the streets in protest as soon as we learn of cuts to essential public services in our community. Current and former federal workers and all community members are welcome to sign up. Let’s join at savepublicservices.com.
WILL ELON MUSK BUY THE WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT?
Judge Susan Crawford, the Democratic pick for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, isn’t just up against former Republican state attorney general Brad Schimel in the April 1st election. She’s also fighting against Elon Musk, whose organizations have put more than $11 million into attacking her and even created a fake progressive group to run ads lying about her record pretending to support her. She put it plainly in Wednesday night’s debate: “Elon Schimel is trying to buy this race.”
The stakes are high: this vote will swing the majority of the court as they’re set to contemplate a pre-Civil War abortion ban and a Scott Walker-era attack on collective bargaining rights, along with voting rights and fair district cases. And for Elon, there’s also profits hanging in the balance – Tesla is currently suing the state over a decision that prevented them from opening dealerships in Wisconsin, and their fight may eventually come before the exact judge he’s trying to rig the race for.
We’re taking down Tesla in the streets and in the markets, and we’ll do it at the ballot box too. Let’s volunteer to help Judge Crawford win this race – we can find ways to phonebank, textbank, door-knock, postcard and boost on social media here (now with added Indivisible phonebanks, a Thursday textbank with VoteRiders, and opportunities to door knock from Chicago).
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS:
MI - HOLD DEMOCRATS ACCOUNTABLE FOR ATTACKING TRANS YOUTH
On Wednesday, eight Michigan House Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans on a resolution (H.R. 40) demanding that the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) ban trans girls from participating in girls' sports. Rather than promoting legislation to improve the lives of Michiganders, these Democrats chose to join the GOP in attacking one of our most vulnerable communities.
The MHSAA is facing a lot of pressure to fall in line like the NCAA and comply with Trump's transphobic executive order. Currently, MHSAA is instead abiding by Michigan's Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and expression, but that could change at any moment.
Let's stand up for trans youth. First, let's contact the MHSAA and tell them that we support trans youth and we want them to continue abiding by Michigan's Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act. We can fill out this contact form, or email MHSAA Director Mark Uyl directly at muyl@mhsaa.com. Then, let's contact these Democratic representatives and tell them exactly how we feel about their attack on civil rights:
Tullio Liberati (HD 2): (517) 373-1776
Alabas Farhat (HD 3): (517) 373-0144
Mai Xiong (HD 13): (517) 373-0845
Peter Herzberg (HD 25): (517) 373-2275
Reggie Miller (HD 31): (517) 373-0159
Denise Mentzer (HD 61): (517) 373-1774
Angela Witwer (HD 76): (517) 373-0822
Will Snyder (HD 87): (517) 373-0842.
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
50501 Movement Remove/Reverse/Reclaims Days of Action tomorrow, April 5th
Tesla Takedowns this weekend and every weekend, national day of action April 5th
Target Fast boycott in effect through April 17th, Latino Freeze boycotts on resegregation supporters continuing
We must stop the CR as it gives the President new powers to steal legally and to tax citizens in a way that puts the funds under Executive branch unilateral control. Give the purse to a felon? We must stop the CR. It gives the President new powers. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/fraud?r=3m1bs
What's worse than voting yes on the CR is voting no. If you vote to shutdown, the only way the country can reopen is if the executive branch allows it. The legislative and the judicial are shut out. The judicial branch has power currently that they flexed against Trump last evening. As bad as the continuing CR would be, the shutdown would be far, far worse. He could be President for life. That's why Schumer "caved".