March 28, 2024
Baltimore bridge tragedy, state-based universal health care, Project 2025, and more!
Contact all members of Congress:
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: democracy.io
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By fax: Representatives / Senators
By Resistbot: Resist.bot
Contact White House or other federal agencies:
THE BALTIMORE BRIDGE TRAGEDY
We’ll be learning more every day about the destruction of the bridge in that caused at least six deaths and will disrupt the major US Port of Baltimore for the foreseeable future. President Biden wants the federal government to pay for the entire cost of reconstructing the bridge. He’ll need the cooperation of Congress. Let’s tell our Members of Congress that we support the President’s call for footing the entire bill for rebuilding the bridge, and we expect Congress to get this done as soon as possible.
SUPPORT THE STATE-BASED UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
Last November, Rep. Ro Khanna, introduced HR 6270, the State Based Universal Health Care Act, which would give more power, along with federal resources, to states to implement their own universal health care systems. Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) is prepared to introduce a companion bill in the Senate next week, and the deadline for co-sponsorship is this Friday, March 29th. Let’s contact our Senators now and ask them to co-sponsor this initiative. Action Network has a template here to write to them directly.
UNPACKING PROJECT 2025 - TONIGHT
The conservative movement is determined not to let the chaos of Trump’s first term that limited their ability to push their agenda be repeated. The Heritage Foundation has laid out a 900-page road map to achieving their goal of dismantling the federal government and making their right-wing vision a reality as part of an effort to have a government-in-waiting ready to go on Day 1: Project 2025. Activists are working to shine the spotlight on this policy and staffing proposal during this campaign season. Tonight, folks from the ACLU, the Center for Popular Democracy, ProPublica, United We Dream, the Center for Fair Housing and other organizations are coming together to host a virtual town hall at 7:00PM EST, doing a deep dive into Project 2025 and its strategies and implications. Let’s sign up to join them and help spread the word with this link. We can also learn more about Project 2025 with these summaries from Media Matters and Carlos Lozada, and share them with our networks.
SECURING ACCESS TO MEDICATION ABORTION
With Roe overturned and abortion bans proliferating, access to medication abortion has proven crucial – a recent report by the Guttmacher Institute found 63% of all abortions were done via this method in 2023. Naturally, medication abortion is under sustained assault, with ultraconservative Trump-appointed rogue judge Matthew Kacsmaryk invalidating the Food and Drug Administration’s approvals of the abortion pill mifepristone. The FDA has made decisions that allow the medication to be available through telehealth and shipped by mail, even to patients in states where abortion is banned. Kacsmaryk’s decision was stayed, and Supreme Court justices in yesterday’s hearing on the case indicated they were likely to dismiss the lawsuit on standing grounds, but a victory here will not be the end of this fight. Along with future attempts to unwind the FDA’s actions, anti-abortion activists are also trying to apply an 1873 law called the Comstock Act to restrict shipment of even legal, FDA-approved abortion pills through the mail. Senator Tina Smith and Rep. Cori Bush have re-introduced the Protecting Access to Medication Abortion Act, which could ensure the legality of mifepristone and guarantee it will remain available through telehealth and mail-order pharmacies, and multiple Democrats have pushed the Freedom to Decide Act, which would make law the current Justice Department policy that access to medication abortion is legal and the Comstock Act does not apply. Let’s contact our members of Congress and ask them to sign on as co-sponsors to these vital pieces of legislation, and let’s push our candidates to commit to passing these bills and join Rep. Bush in working for a full repeal of the Comstock Act to put this threat to burden reproductive rights down for good.
ORGANIZE A VOTE FORWARD LETTER-WRITING PARTY
Vote Forward “empowers grassroots volunteers to send handwritten letters encouraging fellow Americans to vote.” The organization currently has twelve active campaigns targeting people of color, women, youth, and other underrepresented potential voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. We can write and stockpile our letters starting now and mail them in October. Let’s learn about the difference that Vote Forward letters made in getting out the vote in 2020 and in other elections (example, example), and let’s consider organizing a letter-writing party in our communities—download event kit to learn how.
Visit BuildingBridgesforAmerica.com for grassroots training and volunteer activities - All welcome!