Vital bills will die in the Senate if Sen. Feinstein doesn’t end the filibuster. Ask Senator Feinstein to stop the Senate Deathwatch.
Led by Mitch McConnell, Senate Republicans have made it crystal clear they intend to use the filibuster to kill everything passed by Democrats in the House. Only two or three bills can be rescued from filibuster-death through parliamentary maneuvers such as “reconciliation”—all the rest are doomed to die in the Senate unless the filibuster is ended or reformed.
The filibuster is not—and never was—part of the Constitution. It was created by accident when the Senate revised its rules in 1805 and inadvertently eliminated the procedures for ending debate and forcing a vote on the matter at hand. No one realized the filibuster existed or tried to use it for more than thirty years—until southern senators discovered its power to block legislation that might limit slavery. After the Civil War it was used to preserve Jim Crow segregation, deny voting rights to nonwhites, block economic justice and environmental protection measures, and retain the Electoral College.
Where once Senate filibusters were rare, now they are so routine that almost every piece of legislation is subject to the filibuster's sixty-vote supermajority, rather than the simple majority that House bills require. But through use of the “nuclear option” parliamentary maneuver, the filibuster rule can be revoked or altered by a simple majority of senators voting.
For the first time in decades, public support is building to end the filibuster and so too is congressional momentum. Now is the time to maintain a constant drumbeat of constituent input to our senators on this issue.
Senator Padilla is already with us, but Feinstein is on the fence. She needs to hear from us day in and day out. This week’s San Francisco Chronicle urged Senator Feinstein to pick a side, and seventy Indivisible chapters and allied groups in California representing over 80,000 constituents signed a letter to Senator Feinstein asking her to commit to voting to end the filibuster.
This week’s list of the good and necessary bills that have been passed by the House but now face filibuster-death in the Senate are:
- HR.1, now S.1: For the People Act, which protects ballot access and election integrity, requires ethics in government, monitors campaign (passed the House 3/3/2021)
- HR.5: Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity (passed the House 2/25/2021)
- HR.8: Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which increases background check for private gun sales (passed the House 3/11/2021)
- HR.842: Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO), which expands and defends workers’ rights to organize unions (passed the House 3/9/2021)
- HR.1280: George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which holds law enforcement accountable for misconduct in court, improves transparency, and reforms police training and policies (passed the House 3/3/2021)
As the House passes new bills that serve the interests of We the People and they are sent to the Senate for action, they will be added to our Senate Deathwatch list.
Each day that you can, please pick one bill from that list and—using your own words— send a brief one- or two-sentence message to your senators linking that bill to ending or reforming the filibuster.
Call Senator Feinstein and tell her: end or reform the Filibuster to protect vital bills from the Senate Deathwatch!
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NOTE: We’re switching our General Meetings from biweekly to monthly—and we’re also planning more fun, creative events throughout the month. We hope this will give more of our members more chances to get involved and hold their Members of Congress accountable! We’ll announce the date for April’s meeting in a couple of weeks.
ISF State and Local Working Group meeting: Friday, March 19, 7:30–8:30 PM. Register here to help us plan to propose legislation to our state legislators and support progressive initiatives on the state and local level.
ISF Federal Working Group meeting: Thursday, March 25, 7:00–9:00 PM. Register here to help us develop strategies to influence our Members of Congress and the Biden administration to enact a progressive agenda. Zoom room opens at 7:00 PM for discussion and orientation, and the meeting agenda starts promptly at 7:30 PM.
Indivisible National THRIVE 101 Training: Tuesday, March 23, 12–1:30 PM. Join Indivisible to learn about the THRIVE agenda, which outlines the policies Indivisible wants to support going forward. RSVP here.
Anti-Disinformation Training: Tuesday, March 23, 5–6 PM. Learn how to identify and respond to disinformation in daily life! The anti-choice movement has played a key role in building the right-wing disinformation ecosystem, but NARAL Pro-Choice America’s Opposition Research Department has been there to push back at every step. Join this webinar hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice California and co-sponsored by Indivisible SF and Indivisible OC 48 to discover what they’ve learned about fighting disinformation—and how we can apply those lessons to a wide range of issues. RSVP here.
Indivisible National THRIVE 101 Training: Saturday, March 27, 10–11:30 AM. Join Indivisible to learn about the THRIVE agenda, which outlines the policies Indivisible wants to support going forward. RSVP here.
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Keep Fighting,
The Indivisible SF Team
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