Oppose the Hawkish “Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act”
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi
SF Office: (415) 556-4862
DC Office: (202) 225-4965
Call the SF office first, but try the DC office if you can’t get through. If you get voicemail, hang up and try a few more times to talk to a real person. Don’t give up! Short direct messages are most effective.
Rep. Jackie Speier
San Mateo Office: (650) 342-0300
DC Office: (202) 225-3531
Keep calling if you don’t get through. Voicemails are logged daily into a central report across offices.
Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______.
If S.1, the “Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act,” comes before the House I urge you to oppose it. This hawkish and extremist bill will make it far more difficult to negotiate peaceful diplomatic resolutions to the long and bloody conflicts that continue to roil the region.
I support a prompt and orderly withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria in a manner that protects our Kurdish allies.
And along with the ACLU and other civil-liberty organizations I strongly condemn the unconstitutional “Combating BDS” section because it violates our own First Amendment rights of free speech, political association, and collective action to bring about political, social, and economic change.
Context
Senate bill S.1 includes highly-partisan, poison-pill sections designed to make withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria a practical impossibility and to subvert the 1st Amendment free speech rights of people, organizations, and businesses who advocate nonviolent boycotts, disinvestment, and sanctions as a way of influencing Israel-Palestinian issues.
Background
S.1 is a collection of four hard-line, right-wing bills submitted by Senator Rubio (R-FL) that McConnell & company were unable to get the previous senate to pass. Now that they have a larger majority they are making it their first priority in the hope they can ram them through.
S.1 is an “omnibus” bill that combines four separate foreign-policy agenda bills:
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN US-ISRAEL SECURITY ASSISTANCE AUTHORIZATION ACT
US-JORDAN DEFENSE COOPERATION EXTENSION ACT
CAESAR SYRIA CIVILIAN PROTECTION ACT
COMBATING BDS ACT
S.1 will make it far more difficult to negotiate peaceful diplomatic settlements to the long and bloody conflicts that continue to roil the Middle East region.
Sources and Further Information:
Piling On Syria Sanctions Undermines Diplomacy, Friends Committee on National Legislation, 1/15/2019
Border wall fight foreshadows Washington gridlock, Defense News. 1/7/2019
ACLU STATEMENT ON S. 1 CLOTURE VOTE AND LANGUAGE TO CONDONE UNCONSTITUTIONAL ANTI-BDS LAWS, ACLU, 1/7/2019
SENATE GOP’S OUTRAGEOUS ATTEMPT TO PASS “COMBATING BDS ACT” DURING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN MUST BE STOPPED, J Street Press, 1/7/2019
Tell your Senators to Oppose Rubio’s Attack on the First Amendment, Arab American Institute, 1/7/2019
Letter from Sen. Sanders and Sen. Feinstein on the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Washington Post, 12/19/2018