In 2020, 81 million Americans voted for Joe Biden to get relief from his predecessor’s botched pandemic response, more effective economic policies, urgent action on climate, and an end to Trump’s corruption. Unfortunately, voters didn’t hold Republican legislators equally responsible for enabling those things, so Democrats had to fight hard to get President Biden the 50/50 Senate we now have. We will continue proudly proclaiming that #BidenDelivers, because he has achieved great results in spite of concerted Republican sabotage. We know he needs more Democratic Senators in 2022 to achieve the full scope of his progressive Build Back Better agenda. But here’s the deal: if voters saw President Biden making more progress on clearing out the institutional corruption created by Trump and Republicans, that would inspire even higher turnout.
So this week, we begin with the easy one: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, poster boy of Republican crony capitalism, protected by the current USPS Board of Governors. We know President Biden cannot directly replace him, but he can nominate new Board members who share our desire to remove those who have undermined the performance of our USPS. His two nominees are stalled in a Senate committee right now. Join us in telling President Biden to withdraw one of them: Derek Kan, a Republican who worked for the OMB in the Trump administration and was a policy adviser for Senator McConnell.
In the meantime, we are asking our Senators to fully support the Postal Service Reform Act just passed by the House. It would repeal the 2006 law that’s drained billions from USPS, require all mail to be delivered in no more than 6 days, and add extra transparency requirements to ensure that our mail moves as quickly as possible.
Tell President Biden and our Senators to save our USPS!
No Surrender to Republican Blackmail! Fund Democratic Priorities!
Republicans have blocked passage of every single one of the 12 federal appropriations bills that were supposed to have been passed no later than October 1 of last year. So we once again face a possible government shutdown on February 19. When you cut through Republican obfuscation and outright lies, the truth is that they are determined to destroy the Biden presidency, prevent funding of Democratic priorities and programs, and ram through their extreme right-wing agenda, regardless of the will of the voters. This is blackmail and economic terrorism, pure and simple. History teaches us that giving in to terrorists and paying off blackmailers inevitably leads to more terrorism and more blackmail.
While Congress continues its secret negotiations on an Omnibus Appropriations Bill that combines all 12 bills into one or more humongous pieces of legislation, the Senate has just THREE more days to pass the Continuing Resolution (CR) that the House sent them last week. If they fail to pass it by midnight on Friday, large segments of the federal government will have to stop spending money for salaries, purchases, domestic social programs, and so on. Since the CR is subject to filibuster, Republicans can block it and hold the nation hostage – as they’ve done in the past, to their political cost. We need to tell President Biden and our Senators, “No surrender to blackmail or economic terrorism.”
Tell the President and our Senators: Don’t surrender to Republican blackmail. Fund our Democratic priorities!
Did you vote in the SF municipal election? Track your ballot!
Thank you for voting! Now that you’ve cast your ballot, track its status through the city’s Voter Portal. Counting takes time, but keep an eye on the SF Elections website for the results.
|
|
If you’re interested in participating in activities like drafting letters to our Members of Congress and developing our strategy for influencing them, the Indivisible SF Federal Working Group is where it happens. Join us at our next meeting on Thursday, February 24. Details on how to register below.
ISF Federal Working Group meeting: Thursday, February 24, 7:30–9 PM. Register here to join our regular Zoom meeting, where we work together to develop strategies for influencing our Members of Congress and the Biden administration to support a progressive agenda. All are welcome to participate and contribute, even if you’ve never attended an ISF meeting before.
About this week’s photo
If you’ve seen our newsletter posts on Twitter and Facebook, you might have noticed that we include a photo or graphic with each issue. Today’s image is a cropped version of a photo of a letter carrier sorting through mail at a makeshift post office in New York set up by USPS employees in 2012 after Hurricane Sandy damaged the local post office. The photo is by Jocelyn Augustino for FEMA.
|
|
|
Keep Fighting,
The Indivisible SF Team
If you'd like to support our all-volunteer team:
|
|
|
|
