Interested in these emails?
Do us a favor and click on one of the links (any one will do). That’ll tell us you’d like to keep getting updates.

Hi Indivisibles,

Leah here. You know that when it comes to legislative strategy, we try to
give it to you straight. Our goal is to demystify what’s going on in D.C.
so you can best strategize on the ground for impact. Well, we’ve gotten
new intel that’s changing our analysis and shifting timelines, so we
wanted to loop you in now. 

The major takeaway is this: due to some Congressional shenanigans last
week, there’s now a scramble to finish and pass Biden’s big recovery
package by September 27. That means two things for us:

 1. Grassroots advocacy over the next month is going to be absolutely
critical in winning an inclusive recovery package that fights climate
change and makes peoples’ lives better;
 2. The showdown on democracy and filibuster reform that we’ve been
preparing for is likely going to be delayed until after the
reconciliation package is done.

The remainder of this email goes into the specifics of what the recovery
bill is, why this shift occurred, what’s at stake, and what our role is in
the coming weeks to increase the likelihood of success so we can head into
October and November with the wind at our backs for democracy reform.

What is the recovery bill?

House Democrats are currently working on what could be a truly
transformational bill. It’s called different things -- reconciliation,
recovery, Build Back Better, and more (all those things refer to the same
bill). It’s structured as a “Budget Reconciliation” bill, which means that
it’s not subject to the filibuster and can pass the Senate with just 50
Democratic votes. 

This trifecta is a generational opportunity for progressive policies. And
so far, because House Progressives have stuck together and demanded it,
the outlines of the legislation look really good. Among other things, it
includes:

* Dramatic climate action, including a transition to clean energy
* Lower prescription drug prices
* Expanded Medicare
* A pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and essential workers
* Paid family leave and childcare
* Major support for affordable housing

No matter who you are, there’s something in this bill that could make a
big difference in your life. And that’s what Democratic governance should
be about -- passing bold policies that make peoples’ lives better.

But that’s only if it passes in its current, bold form. Right now, House
Democrats are working to decide the details of what’s in the
reconciliation package. Most of that work will happen in committees. This
is the period when conservative Democrats will try to undermine the
biggest and boldest parts of the bill, and we can’t let that happen.

How and when is this getting done?

The plan to pass this reconciliation package depends on another piece of
legislation: the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (BIF), which has passed
the Senate and is currently sitting in the House.

Why is September 27 important? Because conservative Democrats love the
BIF. They’re desperate to pass it. And they’re, at best, lukewarm on the
reconciliation package. So our best leverage to pass the reconciliation
package is to demand that it passes together with the BIF. If the BIF
passes before the reconciliation package, there’s a real risk that
conservative Democrats in the House and Senate will declare themselves
satisfied, start fretting about “the deficit,” and refuse to move on a big
reconciliation package. And that would be very, very bad.

Last week, a revolt by ten conservative Democrats forced a commitment by
leadership to an up-or-down vote on the BIF on September 27. That means we
need the reconciliation bill ready to go on the same timeline.

What does this mean for our fight for democracy?

We don’t like it, but the showdown for democracy is getting pushed back
because the new deadline for recovery is going to suck up most of the
oxygen on Capitol Hill for September. We expect that sometime in
September, Sen. Schumer will bring Sen. Manchin’s compromise version of
S.1 (the For the People Act) to the floor, and Republicans will once again
filibuster it. This is designed to demonstrate to Manchin that there’s no
room for compromise here -- the only way forward is filibuster reform. At
that point, Senate negotiators will return to their talks about how to
actually get to filibuster reform and pass S.1 in October.

Why doesn’t Congress take care of democracy before the recovery? Here’s
the problem: Sen. Sinema and Sen. Manchin are the key waffling votes for
both recovery and S.1. What we’ve seen so far is that the White House
overwhelmingly prioritizes securing their support for this package over
twisting their arms on S.1 and the filibuster. We don’t like that -- we
think it’s terribly shortsighted. Every day that passes without S.1 is a
day that gerrymandering is moving forward in Republican states, and that’s
really bad. But that’s the political reality we face right now -- we think
our best chance of winning involves Biden getting in the game to twist
arms, and that’s unlikely to happen until after the recovery bill is done.

Our commitment is to tell you how you can have the greatest impact for
justice at any moment -- and right now, there’s a huge amount at stake on
recovery and democracy reform won’t be moving until after. So our plan is
to fight like hell for recovery in September, and push Biden to join this
fight for democracy once his top priority, the recovery package, is done.

OK, so how do we win a strong recovery bill?

Here’s what we have to do to ensure the recovery bill actually passes in
its strongest form:

 1. Support House progressives to hold the line. We’ve gotten this far
because progressive members of Congress have negotiated as a bloc.
They’ve been clear that they will only vote for a bill that’s
genuinely transformational -- and that they won’t vote to pass
conservative Democrats’ top priority, BIF, until the recovery package
is agreed upon and passes. That might mean going against leadership,
if necessary -- which makes it even more crucial that they know
they’ve got the support of the grassroots. In short, progressives are
flexing their power -- and they need us to have their backs. [ [link removed]- ]If you
have a Democratic member of Congress, click here to call them and tell
them you support the progressive bloc, and expect them to support an
inclusive recovery package, and to pass it before voting on the
bipartisan infrastructure bill.
 2. Put the heat on conservative Democrats. You might be wondering why
those ten conservative Democrats staged an internal revolt focused on
delinking the BIF from the reconciliation package. It’s because their
corporate and private equity donors want to kill the reconciliation
package, especially its provisions that raise taxes on the rich. So
it’s going to be crucial to hold them accountable for their
obstruction and make sure they get in line for the final bill -- and
from Hawaii to New Jersey to Oregon, Indivisible groups have been
doing just that.

Here’s the list of Democrats obstructing this bill: Rep. Josh
Gottheimer (NJ-05), Rep. Vincente Gonzalez (TX-15), Rep. Filemon Vela
(TX-34), Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Rep. Jared Golden (ME-02), Rep.
Ed Case (HI-01), Rep. Kurt Schrader (OR-05), Rep. Jim Costa (CA-16),
Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (GA-07), Rep. Stephanie Murphy (FL-07). [ [link removed]- ]If
your representative is one of the conservative Democrats we’re worried
about (list above), click here to call and tell them to stop their
obstructionism and vote to pass the reconciliation bill.
 3. Work the committee process to protect our priorities. We’re going to
be bringing together Indivisible groups whose members of Congress sit
on key committees that have the power to determine what’s in the
reconciliation package (Ways & Means, Energy & Commerce, and Education
& Labor, for the congressional nerds among you). On all of the issues
we’re fighting on -- climate investments, a clean energy standard,
affordable childcare, Medicare expansion, lowering prescription drug
prices, tax fairness, pathway to citizenship and more, we’ll fight off
threats in committee to make sure that the bill that goes to the floor
is as strong as possible. We need all the help we can get on moving
this bill forward. [ [link removed]- ]Join us on September 9 at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT for a
special combined Climate, Healthcare, and Econ Justice Working Group
focusing on our strategy for passing this all-important recovery
bill. 

If we do these things -- protect the bill through the committee process,
scare the obstructionist conservative Democrats into backing off, and hold
strong as progressives -- then we can get the kinds of change we need. 

We built a trifecta so our electeds could unrig the rules and deliver
policies that would change lives. This fall -- if we keep the heat up --
we can do both.

In solidarity,
Leah

[ [link removed]- ][IMG]

[ [link removed]- ][IMG]

[ [link removed]- ][IMG]



You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]-