Fri – 2/1: MORE positive actions! Bears Ears, Social Security, and voting reforms!

If you missed yesterday’s positive actions: legislatively protecting Title IX, getting government contractors back pay and stopping these destructive and expensive #TrumpShutdowns…go here. Or do them again!

Action #1 – Take back Bears Ears!

(From Jim Hines, Team Member, Sierra Club Protect Wild Utah Team)

Greetings Public Lands Activists:

Now is our chance…our legislation to restore the beautiful landscape and natural ecosystems of Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah has just been introduced into the U.S. Hose of Representatives by our great legislative friends Congressman Gallego (D-AZ) and Congresswoman Haaland (D-NM).

HR 871 would expand the current national monument from 200,000 acres to the original designation of 1.9 million acres. After several years of hard work we were able to have President Obama designate and protect the lands of Bears Ears NM in 2019, then in 2017 President Trump reduced the size of the national monument to its present size.

HR 871 would not only protect the fragile landcapes within the monument but also add lands which are sacred to native Americans.

We are on a roll in congress this year, lots more national public lands protection bills coming.

But right now we need your help, please contact your member of the U.S. House of Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor HR 871.

The House Committee on Natural Resources will hold hearings on the bill in a few weeks.

for wild Utah,

Jim Hines

Team Member

Sierra Club Protect Wild Utah Team

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Rep. [___] to cosponsor HR 871 – “To expand the boundaries of the Bears Ears Nationl Monument”.

((Check here to see if your representative is already onboard! We get to THANK Carbajal for already being a cosponsor and tell Brownley that we’re waiting…)

Contact info at bottom of post.

Action #2 – Make Social Security better for America!

Rep. John Larson (D-CT-1) has introduced H.R. 860 – Social Security 2100 Act, which would improve benefits paid out by Social Security. (The Senate appears to have a matching one. S.269). these improvements would be paid for by adding new payroll taxes to wages over $400,000 (currently, tax collection stops at $132,900 of annual income) and by gradually increasing the payroll tax rate from 6.2% to 7.4% over the course of 23 years. More benefits here:

small across-the-board bump in benefits 9equivalent to 2 percent of the average benefit, about $30 per month)
a more generous annual cost-of-living adjustment more sensitive to medical inflation and other costs disproportionately affecting seniors.
higher minimum benefit for low-income workers.
higher-income seniors would get a tax cut by raising of the adjusted gross income brackets.
puts Social Security back into balance over the next 75 years

Minimal script to reps: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Rep. [___] for cosponsoring H.R. 860 – Social Security 2100 Act.

(Over 200 representatives, including Brownley and Carbajal, have already signed on to cosponsor. Check here for yours.)

Minimal script to senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Rep. [___] for cosponsoring S.269 – Social Security 2100 Act.

Contact info at bottom of post.

Action #3 – Make voting a nation holiday AND Mitch sad!

This is a total two-fer of an action – support HR 1, the amazing House bill of anti- corruption and election reforms and thwart Mitch McConnell, who is trying so hard to argue against making voting easier, while not sounding irredeemably shady.

Ummm, no, still a fail.

Americans have indicated that they are tired of suppression-as-usual voting tactics. According to recent surveys, more than 2/3rds of Americans support automatic voter registration, 6 in 10 support same day registration (including 3/4’s of young Republicans), and supermajorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents want non-partisan redistricting and the elimination of gerrymandering.

Not convinced that the GOP’s main strategy for winning is voter suppression? Check out this snapshot of election legislation wars in 6 states.

Minimal script (or email) for representatives: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Rep. [___] for cosponsoring H.R.- 1 -“For the People Act”.

Minimal script for senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to encourage Senator [___] to cosponsor Sen. Tom Udall’s Senate companion version of H.R.- 1 -“For the People Act”.

Contact Information

Rep. Julia Brownley: email, (CA-26): DC (202) 225-5811, Oxnard (805) 379-1779, T.O. (805) 379-1779
or Rep. Salud Carbajal: email. (CA-24): DC (202) 225-3601, SB (805) 730-1710 SLO (805) 546-8348
Senator Feinstein: email, DC (202) 224-3841, LA (310) 914-7300, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430
and Senator Harris: email, DC (202) 224-3553, LA (213) 894-5000, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 355-9041, SD (619) 239-3884
Who is my representative/senator?: hq-salsa.wiredforchange.com