Tues 6/4: H.R. 1/S.949 – “For the People Act” is a litmus test for corruption. Ask your senators to stand up and fight for a country to be proud of.

Video and top graphic from equalcitizens.us 

Today’s action on protecting our right to vote is to ask our Senators to push through H.R.1/ S.949,  historic bills to strengthen democracy. H.R.1 passed the House on March 8th, on a 234-193 vote. Now the Senate version – S.949, is in the Senate and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a shamelessly partisan operative, has vowed to stop it, calling it “radical” and “socialist“. This would be a surprise to the non-partisan League of Women Voters, who’ve endorsed H.R.1 as “an important step forward in repairing our broken political system and our destructive campaign finance system.”

These bills will:

• Change the way campaigns get funded
• End partisan gerrymandering
• Establish automatic voter registration
• Restore the Voting Rights Act
• Impose strong new ethics rules on members of Congress.

Action – Call your senator and remind them that we want this brought to the Senate floor now.

All the Democratic senators have already signed on. Get your family and friends in red states to pick up their phones too. We need GOP senators to get this done.

Minimal Script for Democratic Senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Sen. [___]  for [his/her] support of S.949 and to tell Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that his constituents aren’t accepting corruption-as-usual nonsense anymore and to bring S.949 – “For the People Act” to the floor for a vote.

Minimal Script for Republican Senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to Sen. [___]  to support S.949 “For the People Act“. Tell Mitch McConnell that we want a lawmakers that are accountable to us, not just large corporations and lobbyists. S.949 starts the kind of change we want to see in campaign finance laws, voting rights. ethics and transparency.

Sen-check for S.949 here. (THANK Senators Feinstein and Harris!)

Contacts
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 

(If you have a moment today, you can thank Representatives Carbajal (email) and Brownley (email) for being cosponsors of the House version of this amazing piece of legislation!

Notes and Resources.

Quick overview of H.R.1 here, an easy-to-read section-by-section breakdown and the bill’s full text here.

The House bill H.R.1 and Senate version S.949 are almost but not exactly identical. Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN) added a measure to require disclosures for political ads that run on social media platforms. For donations up to $200, H.R.1 requires House candidates to forgo donations in excess of $1,000 to participate in a 6-to-1 public matching program, while S.949 sets up a state-determined cap for matching funds, with $200 being the maximum donation to Senate candidates. Both stop the corruption of Citizens United.