May 8, 2025 - Blocking Medicaid And SNAP Cuts
Plus Republicans attempt to break Senate rules to kill climate standards, more on posse comitatus, turning Every State Blue, and more!
Contact all members of Congress:
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: Congress.gov
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By Resistbot: Resist.bot
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
☎️ FORCING A VOTE ON STOPPING MEDICAID, SNAP CUTS ☎️
1 in 5 Americans count on Medicaid for health care, including 40% of our children and 60% of all nursing home residents. More than 42 million of us, including 1 in 5 kids, can put food on the table thanks to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Right now Republicans are behind closed doors working on their reconciliation bill, trying to figure out exactly how they’re going to slash them to pay for tax giveaways to billionaires – and lying to us that these programs are safe.
House Democrats are turning up the pressure. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) has introduced a discharge petition that would force a vote on legislation blocking cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in reconciliation. They need 218 signatures to get to the floor. This is obviously unlikely to produce direct results, but it’s also a valuable opportunity to force everyone in the House on the record as to where they really stand on these crucial safety net programs and for us to continue to emphasize to our lawmakers what’s at stake for regular people in this fight.
Let’s reach out to our House members and demand they sign the discharge petition and commit to opposing cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. We can find scripts and language to work from here, or send them this Resistbot message by texting SIGN PGARGA to 50409. (We can see if our members have signed here and thank them if they have.)
(We can find talking points, details on how Medicaid and SNAP supports people in our district, and more ways to help here.)
☎️ REPUBLICANS SET TO BREAK SENATE RULES FOR CORPORATE PROFITS ☎️
Under the Clean Air Act, California can ask the EPA for a waiver to pass stricter air and climate pollution rules than the federal government. California got this permission from Joe Biden and put tough new protections on auto emissions into place. Now, Republicans are attempting to use the Congressional Review Act to roll them back, which allows them to force a simple majority vote that can’t be filibustered. The CRA is not written to target these sorts of executive actions, but MAGA is trying to go for it anyways.
This would be a devastating blow to state-level efforts against climate change – stopping California and the dozen states that adopted their standards from pushing zero-emission trucks (H.Res. 87), blocking them from phasing out gasoline-powered cars (H. Res. 88) and forbidding them from tightening emission standards on nitrous oxide (H.Res. 89). It’s also a clear abuse of the law and a radical undermining of Senate rules that were seen as sacred when Democrats held the majority.
The House has passed all three resolutions (with 36 Democrats voting in favor of at least one), and auto and fossil fuel industry-backed senators are urging them forward in spite of the Senate parliamentarian ruling the waiver doesn’t qualify for expedited consideration under the CRA. GOP leadership has not made a final decision on whether to bring it up yet.
Let’s reach out to our senators and tell them not to break the rules for corporate profits and to oppose H.Res. 87, H. Res 88 and H. Res. 89. We can find sample language we can use from Climate Hawks Vote here.
☎️ DEMOCRACY DEMANDS THE MILITARY NOT BE A DOMESTIC POLICE FORCE ☎️
Between Trump’s eight-figure plan to throw himself a military parade with our soldiers and his abuse of emergency declarations to turn the Armed Forces into a de facto border patrol, alarm bells are ringing about the potential for the tyrannical deployment of military forces domestically against citizens of the United States.
A law known as the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal troops from being used as a domestic police force—with exceptions. Some of these exceptions amount to loopholes which Trump took advantage of in his first term, and which any power-thirsty president can abuse to threaten our constitutional rights. Let’s read this article from the Brennan Center (deeper dive into these issue here), and let’s tell our Members of Congress that we want legislation passed to enact the following reforms (quoting in part):
Transfer control of the D.C. National Guard from the president to the mayor of Washington, D.C.
Clarify that governors may not deploy their Guard units into other states or territories without those jurisdictions’ consent.
In cases where control of the National Guard is transferred from a governor to the president, the president is still bound to the general legal rule that federal troops are not to be deployed as a domestic police force.
We can find sample language to use here.
🌳 SAVE OUR NATIONAL PARKS (STAFF) 🌳
An estimated "5,000 employees working for public lands ...have lost their jobs since February 14. About 1,000 of these were with the National Park Service—another 700 NPS employees reportedly took buyouts and went into early retirement." This will likely make for a very chaotic experience at national parks this summer and create long-term damage to these amazing public lands. The Association of National Park Rangers is our one-stop shop to both protest these cuts and to support our park rangers. We can find out more here.
🗳️ EXPAND DEMOCRATIC ELECTORAL POWER, START NOW 🗳️
At least two interesting efforts are underway to run Democratic candidates in elections where Republicans currently hold power.
One is called Every State Blue, which seeks to support Democratic candidates running in red, rural, and gerrymandered races (led by our friend
of ). Before we say, why bother? They’ll just lose!, remember this: there are Democratic voters living in these districts, and their voices need representation. The Republican voters in these districts are being hurt by MAGA policies and they need to hear about a different vision. And contesting these elections means that the Republican party must spend resources on them, draining money for elections they didn’t expect they’d have to invest in.The other effort is called The Purple Project. As described in
, TPP seeks to take back the U.S. House by supporting Democratic candidates in the 15 congressional districts where Republicans won by slim margins. TPP works with county Democratic parties not only to identify and elect good Democratic candidates, but also to build a powerful local party infrastructure going forward. Let’s:Read about Every State Blue, and let’s consider making a donation. No amount is too small.
Read about The Purple Project here and here, and let’s contact Steve Schear, steveschear@gmail.com, and ask how we can help. Schear is a lawyer and activist in Oakland, California.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
📞 CO – PUSH GOVERNOR TO REMOVE OBSTACLES FOR UNION ORGANIZING 📞
Colorado has long been in a unique position between protecting labor organizing rights and “right to work for less.” After winning the standard 50%+1 vote in the workplace to form a union, organizers then have to win a *second* election with 75% of the vote to negotiate full representation and requiring dues. This added burden opens them up to even more aggressive union-busting, and since 2000 unions of won just 62% of those second elections. Progressives have passed the Worker Protection Act (SB 25-5) through both our House and Senate to eliminate the second election requirement, sending it to Governor Polis’ desk. Polis has threatened the bill – he has four weeks to make a final decision. Let’s reach out to him and urge him to stand with labor and sign this measure into law. We can find talking points and call tools from the Colorado AFL-CIO here. (H/t )
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
UPDATE: Republican concedes, steal stopped in North Carolina Supreme Court
UPDATE: Lehigh County, Pennsylvania becomes US pension fund to pull the plug on Tesla, join the divestment movement here
Caring Across Generations 24-hour Medicaid vigil in D.C. continues, watch the livestream here
Solidarity Pledge Immigrants Rights Day of Action organizing call TONIGHT at 6PM ET and volunteer signup here
How about calling our representatives of how Kari Lake is now going to tap the VOA to broadcast OAN:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/voice-of-america-one-america-news-coverage-kari-lake-1235334198/