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THE PEOPLE'S CALENDAR 2.0: RESISTANCE MADE EASY
 We’d like to announce a major update with the RISE People’s Calendar! We've added a new feature that lets you sync the RISE Calendar with your Google Calendar, and allows you to get event information based on your preferences and location automatically sent to your personal calendar. No more need to search through websites digging for town halls, protest, rallies, and meetings. All you have to do is check your google calendar and RISE People’s Calendar events will already be there.
Set up is quick and easy, and can be done by visiting www.risestronger.org/events and clicking "My Calendar".
WHAT THEY SAID
It’s a tie this week between two bombshell quotes from Jason Chaffetz and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
When asked if Carbon Dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming, Pruitt said, “I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”
Utah Representative Chaffetz, a regular competitor for Quote of the Week, said “You know what, Americans have choices. And they've got to make a choice. So maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care.”
RESISTANCE SPOTLIGHT: RESIST REPEAL
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) launched a new website yesterday called ResistRepeal.org. The new site wants to give the American people a place to get their voices heard with leaders on the Hill as House Republicans try to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
BLOCK THE ROAD SHOW
Vice President Pence will be in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, March 11, to sell the health care legislation. People of Kentucky just announced a major protest. Details here.
Nashville Protests are being planned for Trump’s March 15 visit from 3-8pm at the Metro Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
SAVE THE DATE FOR THE RESISTANCE: SUNDAY, MARCH 11
The ACLU is holding a Resistance Training on Sunday, March 11 at 4:30pm EST. This event will launch People Power, the ACLU’s new effort to engage grassroots volunteers across the country and take the fight against Donald Trump’s policies not just into the courts, but into the streets.
Sister District is hosting a Town Hall on Facebook with their Founder and Board. Join them Sunday, March 11 at 1PM PST to learn how they got started, their goals, and how they will work together to turn #RedtoBlue.
The People’s Climate March is planning a coordinated outreach effort Sunday, March 11. All of the information and resources you need to support them can be found here.
LESSER KNOWN BILLS THAT NEED YOUR ATTENTION
Support Implementation of Fiduciary ‘Conflict of Interest’ Rule. The Department of Labor wants to delay implementation of the Fiduciary Rule, which would require financial advisers to provide advice in their clients' best interest. They have asked for comment on whether they should rescind the rule entirely. We need you to send an email right now, using this form letter, and tell them you support the implementation of the Department of Labor conflict of interest rule and oppose any delay of the rule.
Demand your Senator oppose harmful 'regulatory reform' bills. Please call your U.S. Senators, especially Democratic Senators up for reelection in 2018. Find your Senator at WhoIsMyRepresentative.com.
Suggested Script: My name is _____________ and I am a constituent. I strongly oppose so-called "regulatory reform" bills that would effectively paralyze the EPA and other federal agencies from passing regulations to protect my health, safety and welfare. Koch Industries and other corporate interests support these bills because they would further delay a rule making process that already takes years to complete, and make it easier for special interest groups to block regulations in court before they take effect. Does Senator _____ intend to stand with other Democratic Senators in filibustering against these harmful bills? {More information on these bills.}
THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT IS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK, AND THE ALTERNATIVE IS AWFUL
Suit up as the health care fight just got real. Millions of lives are on the line. Trump is taking the fight to the streets. In five days, Trump will show up in Nashville to try and sell his broken health care plan. Are we ready to stand up? Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell are trying to force a vote on their plan that will put millions of lives at risk. As of now, the House Floor Vote is scheduled for March 23, and the Senate floor vote could be the following week. The next three weeks will shape millions of lives and years to come. Let’s get to work.
We now know why the Republicans left the word “affordable” out of the name of their health care legislation. This week, the GOP released the American Health Care Act (AHCA), more fittingly called TrumpCare, that will send the cost of health care through the roof.
You must act now to call your representatives and Senators, and tell them you strongly oppose the bill.
Key Facts and Talking Points to Use when Calling your MOC:
- The plan will cost Obamacare enrollees on average $1,542 MORE a year.
- For low-income families, costs will increase by $6,228, essentially pricing them out of the insurance market.
- Upper middle class households who don't get subsidies under the ACA would under the GOP plan.
- The bill strips $20 billion from the Prevention and Public Health Fund.
- The bill repeals almost all the Obamacare taxes next year, a $600 billion tax cut largely benefiting the top 1 percent, without having a plan to replace them.
- The bill defunds Planned Parenthood by stating that Medicaid cannot directly or indirectly fund any health-care organization that “provides for abortions."
Every major professional medical group has come out against all or part of the AHCA, including the American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, American Hospital Association, Federation of American Hospital. In addition, the AARP has come out against the bill, calling it the “special interest health care bill.” (Source)
If you live in Alaska, Arizona, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, or West Virginia, we have in depth analysis of the impact the current Affordable Care Act has on your state. These are available here.
Additional Resources:
- An interactive look at the difference in tax credits under the Affordable Care Act and the GOPs proposed AHCA bill.
- The cost of repealing the Affordable Care Act in your state.
- The parts of Obamacare the Republicans will keep, change or disregard.
MUSLIM BAN 2.0 SIGNED; FIRST LAWSUIT FILED
This week, Trump signed the second executive order related to the Muslim/Travel ban. Here is what it does:
- Bans nationals from six countries: Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen for a period of 90 days.
- Requests that the Secretary of Homeland Security in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence provide reports recommending possible continuation of the bans, as well as authorizing them to recommend additional countries of concern.
- Suspends the refugee admissions program for 90 days, 120 days for refugees from Syria, effective March 16, 2017.
- Reduces the total number of refugee arrivals in FY17 from 100,000 to 50,000.
- Requires a review of the vetting process for refugee admissions and implementation of more rigorous vetting.
What You Might Have Missed About the Ban: This Fiscal Year (Oct 2016-present), the US has welcomed 37,000 refugees. This is on pace with how many we should be welcoming based on the original cap of 110,000 refugees this year. The harm from Trump's ban is more far reaching then the now of that order. The harm from the executive order reaches into the future of the FY. He capped refugees at 50,000, which means we have room only for another 12,000 to come into our country. It will take us only 2 months, and then our country's doors will be closed
Lawsuits: Washington State is asking a federal judge to apply the restraining order that temporarily halted President Trump's initial travel ban to the revised ban he signed Monday. (Source)
CAN'T MISS MEDIA
Watch Rep. Joe Kennedy of MA speak out against the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. He says, “There is is no mercy in a system that makes health care a luxury. There is no mercy in a country that turns their back on those most in need of protection: the elderly, the poor, the sick, and the suffering. There is no mercy in a cold shoulder to the mentally ill. This is not an ‘act of mercy.’ It is an act of malice.”
Just in time for International Women’s Day and the Women’s
March Day Without A Woman, the world's third-largest asset manager installed a bronze statue of a defiant girl in front of Wall Street's iconic charging bull statue on Tuesday morning as part of its new campaign to pressure companies to add more women to their boards. The photo went viral, and rightfully so.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED THIS WEEK?
More than 400 Officials have been deployed across the government by Trump. According to ProPublica, they include dozens of former lobbyists, Trump campaign staffers and some affiliated with the online far-right.
The Department of Homeland Security is actually considering separating undocumented children from their parents at the border. In an effort to “deter the dangerous network,” Sec. of Homeland Security John Kelly announced this week that they may separate children from their parents, rather than keeping the family unit intact in a detention center.
Who is going to pay for Trump’s wall? The Trump administration, searching for money to build the president’s planned multibillion-dollar border wall and crack down on illegal immigration, is weighing significant cuts to the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and other agencies focused on national security threats, according to a draft plan.
Last weekend, Trump went rogue (again), tweeting “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” The aftermath: Everyone, and we mean everyone, from Obama to FBI Director Comey to former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. insisted that Trump's claim was without merit, that no wiretap of Trump Tower had ever been approved by the Obama administration.
The Trump administration is considering more than $6 billion in cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to reports, the plan would squeeze public housing support and end most federally funded community development grants, which provide services such as meal assistance and cleaning up abandoned properties in low-income neighborhoods.
POLICY FOCUS: EDUCATION
Care about issues around education policy but unsure how to engage? Our policy working groups put together weekly summaries reflecting on the past week and looking forward to the week ahead. Read RISE's Education Policy Weekly Summary. (From a RISE Stronger policy working group.) Want more policy updates on the environment, trade, education, infrastructure and more? We have teams putting out weekly content, including actions to take and questions for your members of Congress. All are available right here.
What to Read:
Read some of the recent research about the impact of vouchers in schools, including a summary of the research and a few powerful briefs from research studies. Recent research has found that voucher programs have negative results for students in both reading and math achievement.
Read the newly published report from the Center for American Progress which details how, due to size, 85 percent of the regular school districts in the United States are either entirely or more than likely to be unworkable when it comes to vouchers.
What to Do
Call your Congressional representatives and ask them to vote no on H.R. 610. H.R. 610, Choices in Education Act of 2017, would repeal the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and establish a rule that the Department of Education is only authorized to distribute block grants to states that establish education voucher programs. It also repeals a rule that established critical nutrition standards for the national school lunch and breakfast programs.
Call your local school board and demand that they create or strengthen their guidelines protecting the civil rights of transgender students.
What to Ask
- Access to a free, appropriate public education is one of the cornerstones of democracy. Will you vote no on H.R. 610, which transfers critical federal aid from public schools to private schools?
- What actions are you taking to ensure transgender students have access to bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity?
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