The Biggest Congressional Fight on Iran Will Be Over Supplemental Appropriations (3/11/26)
Plus laying the groundwork to flip a seat in PA, an Oregon forest in trouble, getting salty with anti-union bosses, and more
TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
TRUMP’S GONNA BOMB IRAN AND OUR HEALTH CARE’S GONNA PAY FOR IT
The most meaningful leverage point Congress will have against Trump’s war in the near future is on the question of how to pay for it. We’re anticipating the White House will ask for $50 billion in supplemental appropriations to fund our attacks on Iran. Current estimates are they’re already spending $1 billion a day, enough to fully restore ACA tax credits and what they cut from Medicaid in Trumps budget. We lost the equivalent of 60 million school lunches just to Kuwaiti friendly fire alone.
This bill will be subject to a filibuster, so it’s impossible to pass without significant Democratic support. At this point, it’s unclear whether that’s possible. A handful of Dems have refused to rule out backing supplemental appropriations, even as they demand a real strategy from Trump first, and Minority Leader Jeffries has refused to commit to blocking it. The GOP is also considering attaching “sweeteners” such as much-needed and long-delayed wildfire aid to make it more palatable. There’s also obvious awareness in DC that a yes vote here would count as a backdoor authorization for a war the overwhelming majority of the caucus rejects. This is a fight we can win.
Let’s reach out to our members of Congress and tell them we don’t support Trump’s war and they shouldn’t spend a single extra penny on it. 🗣️ We can find call scripts and language here and here, or send this message directly by texting SIGN PLSIDJ to 50409. 🗣️
Defend America Action has put together a terrific tracker on how much money Trump is spending on this war and what else we could get for it (h/t Jess Craven). Let’s share it widely with our networks.
KICK-START FLIPPING A SWING DISTRICT IN PENNSYLVANIA
Ryan Mackenzie is not a name we hear much when we discuss the damage MAGA Republicans are doing this country. He is, however, someone we need to beat to stop them. He represents the Pennsylvania Seventh District, one of the swingiest in the country, and is running for his second term after unseating Susan Wild by just 4,062 votes in 2024. He brands himself as a moderate while providing crucial votes to pass the MAGA murder budget to slash Medicaid and pour billions into ICE, hijack our voting systems, and defund USAID, NPR and PBS. He’s drawn a large group of Democratic challengers as a result.
Swing Blue Alliance is laying the groundwork to defeat him starting right now. They’re working with Swing Left’s Ground Truth program to contact persuadable Republicans and independents and non-voting Democratic leaners to listen and find out the issues they really care about, gathering information that will be shared with whoever wins the May 19th primary. It’s an experiment in a new kind of phonebanking. ☎️ They’ll have shifts open Tuesdays 6PM-8PM starting next week. Let’s sign up to join their efforts here. ☎️
These weekly calls will be added to our midterms action page - check it out for more ways to help!
SAVE OUR VOTES FROM THE SAVE ACT
Republicans claim that the SAVE Act will increase election integrity. In no surprise to anyone who’s paid attention to the GOP recently, it’s actually an effective poll tax that makes it harder for millions of Americans to register to vote. The SAVE Act would force us to show a passport or birth certificate with our current legal name on it, in person, to an election official in order to vote. Because we’d would need to present their documents face-to-face and many people don’t have them at all, the voter registration methods that more than 90 percent of us use would be upended overnight.
The legislation has passed the House twice and seemed dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate. But right wingers have been demanding the GOP leadership end or gut the filibuster to push it through, and now Trump is raising the stakes by refusing to sign any legislation until they do. We need to keep pushing our reps to hold firm. 🗣️ Let’s use language or this email tool from the League of Women Voters to tell them to oppose the SAVE Act. 🗣️
TRUMP REGIME PLANS CORPORATE GIVEAWAY AT EXPENSE OF ENVIRONMENT, WILDFIRE RISK IN OREGON
Today’s featured Trump giveaway to corporate interests comes to us from the Bureau of Land Management. They’re proposing gutting the management plans governing nearly 2.5 million acres of forest in Western Oregon to give the timber industry free rein. They intend to return logging levels back to where they were before the EPA and the Endangered Species Act. If they get their way, it will increase the risk of wildfires, threaten multiple at-risk species, pollute our water and stomach-punch the local recreation business.
They’re accepting comments on this proposal through March 23rd. 📝 Let’s weigh in with our opposition here (hit participate now at the top of the page). We can find talking points via More Than Just Parks here. (Thanks to Rogan’s List reader Natasha Y for flagging this issue!) 📝
SALTING: BUILDING WORKER POWER AS A JOB
Looking for a high-commitment way to change the country, fight the billionaires *and* pay the bills? The Democratic Socialists of America have launched a new initiative aimed at recruiting folks for salting workplaces. Salting is an age-old labor tactic in which someone takes a job at a specific location with the explicit intention of organizing it into a union. It’s hard, thankless work that’s desperately needed, and can help us answer the question about how we make a living and live a meaningful life at the same time. The Workers Organizing Workers program matches applicants with a mentor and assigns them to a strategic target. 🔨 Let’s find out more here and consider joining or spreading the word to folks in our lives who might be interested. 🔨
👀 KEEPING AN EYE ON… 👀
Join a power hour phonebank to build pressure to free Leqaa Kordia from ICE detention TODAY at 3PM ET
Get trained on how to run a know your rights workplace canvass in your community TOMORROW at 8PMET
Big Oil is demanding immunity for their role in climate change - join the fight to push back in an organizing call TOMORROW at 3PM, more ways to help here
25 days of shutdown and the fight to stop ICE terror continues - call, email Congress to demand real restraints, encourage folks in key states to do the same, and tell senators not to confirm a new DHS secretary until we get them
Tell MoCs we want to see Trump testify on his Epstein ties and cover-up
Get to work on winning the midterms, including joining the Ossoff Outreach Network in trainings this week
17 days to No Kings… let’s get 10 million Americans on the street
The US military, all volunteers, has about 1,300,000 enlisted troops, each of whom has a “blue star family” praying for their safety. Not one is on Forbes’ list of billionaires.
The National Gold Star Family Registry reports approximately 472,050 Gold Star families, covering all conflicts since World War I. According to Google AI, not a single Gold Star family belongs to the billionaire class.
When will Barron enlist to support his father’s actions? 47 looks weak when his own family isn’t behind his actions, imho.
https://nationaltoday.com/gold-star-mothers-and-family-day/
https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/