Update 12/16/2020: The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) announced they will use the power of a voting bloc to force these necessary benefits — extended UI benefits and $1200 cash assistance — to be included in the relief bill. They’re wielding their progressive power and we’ve got to have their backs. Make calls now to your representative and demand that the relief bill include direct cash assistance.
Right now the GOP is trying to flip the script, saying that House Democrats are responsible for the hold up of stimulus funding.. But the same Senate that gave $1.7 trillion in tax breaks to our richest, proposes crumbs for us, and MORE COVID liability protection for their corporate funders. (See: “Tyson Managers Suspended After Allegedly Betting If Workers Would Contract COVID” and this article from the ACLU. Time to start “skinnying” things up for the 1%!
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to immediately pass the HEROES Act, along with improvements shown to be necessary as this national emergency deepens. While the Senate has been malingering in their duty to “promote the general Welfare,” 20% of Americans now face food insecurity, a level equivalent to the Great Depression and 40 million people are in danger of being evicted into the twin dangers of the pandemic and winter. At the same time, states are having to cut back on essential services, which will harm the most vulnerable, including children. Here are basic minimums the Senate should secure to put us on the track to recovery. First, DIRECT CASH RELIEF including $1200 cash assistance for adults and $500 for dependents, like under the CARES ACT. THEN:
- Put money into the system!:
- Restart and backdate the $600 per week unemployment compensation program, which expired on July 31st
- Restart small business loans and prioritize those for Black/minority-owned small businesses in the next round of PPP (paycheck protection program.) Fix the problems of the first round of loans.
- Remove payday lenders, churches, multi-location franchises, companies without hardship issues from all assistance.
- Banks prioritized existing clients and made over $10 billlion dollars in fees. Equalize access.
- Fund essential services provided by state, local, tribal, and territorial governments
- Expand nutrition, heating and food assistance programs, and housing assistance
- Stop the damage!:
- Suspend all consumer and small business credit payments (including mortgages, and personal loans. Suspend all related negative consumer credit reporting.
- Cancel rent, mortgages, and evictions along with public utilities and internet costs.
- Fund safe housing options for victims of domestic violence and at-risk family members of essential workers
- Fund and protect the US Postal Service. Remove the pre-paid retirement cost burden.
- Deal with COVID like adults.
- Offer free testing and coverage of Covid-19 treatments for everyone, including vaccination, regardless of immigration and incarceration status
- Increase testing sites in underserved and rural communities
- Fund COVID-19 testing and contact tracing
- Create mandatory race, gender, and class specific data collection
- Expand of paid sick days, family and medical leave
- Censor all legislators who negligently imply that this national emergency is a “hoax,” leading to dangerous behavior that stresses our first response network.
- Invest in America’s future:
- Fund education and schools that do not require schools to reopen for in-person classes
- Completely cancel student loan payments.
- Provide free education for those studying for first-responder professions.
- Give DACA recipients a path to citizenship.
I will be closely watching the senator’s vote on this bill and I hope they do the right thing by strengthening it and calling for its immediate passage. Thank you.
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 (310) 231-4494, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 981-9369, SD (619) 239-3884
- Other Rep Contacts: http://www.phoneyourrep.com
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 