Tell your House Representatives - We Need Fair & Effective Emergency Legislation for COVID-19

Note: only one of the following two Congresswomen represents you. To find out which one, click here.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Email Contact: https://pelosi.house.gov/contact-me/email-me

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. Hate the phone? Resistbot is your friend.

Rep. Jackie Speier

San Mateo Office: (650) 342-0300

DC Office: (202) 225-3531

Email Contact: https://speier.house.gov/email-jackie

Keep calling if you don’t get through. Voicemails are logged daily into a central report across offices. Hate the phone? Resistbot is your friend.

Note: Due to shelter-in-place orders during the Covid-19 emergency, it may be more effective to use email or Resistbot to contact the MoC’s office. It is important to use your own words in emails to elected officials, but feel free to use our sample script below as a guide.

Call Script

My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.

I’m calling to ask [your Representative] to please NOT vote for the Interim relief bill passed by the Senate until it is amended. At a minimum the deal must include:

1. A public commitment from McConnell that follow-on legislation will be voted on by the Senate

2. Funds and policies to protect and secure the November election

3. Emergency funds to sustain state and local governments.

Republicans only care about corporations, once they get money for business they will stonewall all other needs, so don't vote for the Interim bailout that fails to include these minimum provisions.

Background

While the "Interim" small business relief bill ("phase 3.5") passed by the Senate on Tuesday contains greatly-needed funds for struggling businesses (including minority and women-owned) and also additional money for hospitals and COVID-19 testing, it completely ignores many issues crucial to fighting the pandemic and addressing mass economic misery. Therefore, we need the House to demand improvements on it before they pass it, and we want the Senate to begin drafting a follow-on legislative package (CARES-2) that covers the necessities omitted from the "Interim" bill.

Pelosi & Schumer have made a deal with Republicans for an "Interim" small business relief bill (AKA "phase 3.5" or "Stimulus 3.5") that includes:

$310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) including $60 billion specifically for community banks and smaller lenders
$75 billion for hospitals
$25 billion for testing (and some vague language on testing plans & strategy)
$60 billion for emergency disaster loans and grants

But the deal fails to cover many issues crucial to fighting the pandemic and addressing mass economic misery. As the pandemic spreads and the economic crisis deepens, the list of legislation that We the People need (and demand) grows longer and ever more urgent.

ISF believes that the Interim bill and follow-on emergency legislation and policy must adhere to two basic principles:

Well-Up not Trickle-Down benefits. Financial aid must flow to people who have lost their jobs, are homeless, or who are following public-health guidelines to stay at home rather than continuing to work at a nonessential job.

Equal Treatment. All emergency-related provisions and benefits must be made equally available to all people residing in the U.S. and its territories regardless of race, gender, immigration status, lifestyle, or their residence in territories rather than states.

Emergency legislation and policies that need to be enacted now include:

Funds and policies to protect and secure the November election
Financial assistance to ensure survival of the Post Office (USPS)
Emergency financial aid for states and local governments
Financial aid not be conditional on acceptance White House mandated "reopen" demands
Financial aid to sustain non-governmental social-services (food banks, homeless shelters, senior centers etc)
Expanded funding for FEMA and the EPA to ensure access to emergency care and clean air and water.
Emergency economic aid coupled with increased health/safety oversight for nursing homes
On-going income rather than one-time checks for those unemployed because of pandemic
Emergency income for the long-term unemployed and those not covered by PPP
Free emergency healthcare coverage for those who don’t have insurance
Paid illness and family-leave coverage for all employees
Prohibiting financial institutions and debt collectors from seizing peoples' emergency financial aid
Foreclosure, eviction, and utility shutoff freezes for the duration of the emergency
Essential-worker hazard-pay and Bill of Rights covering health and safety
National OSHA standards on social distancing and PPE in the workplace
Large companies receiving bailout funds must maintain employees on payroll
Transparency on political spending, caps on executive pay, and no stock-buybacks by corporations receiving bailouts
Fair, transparent, non-partisan distribution of aid, supplies, and equipment
Acceptance by White House of congressional oversight of fund expenditures
Non-exclusive patents & licenses and fair-pricing for all COVID-19 tests, vaccines, and treatments developed with the aid of government funding.

While the above list is far too long for a constituent phone-call or email message to a Member of Congress, we plan to develop it further into a legislative letter that we will send in ISF's name to our Members of Congress. Would you be willing to also personally add your name to such a letter as we've done with some of our previous letters?

This Week's US Congressional Call Scripts:

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