Tell your Members of Congress: Fight for Real Emergency Relief Now!
Senator Dianne Feinstein
SF Office: (415) 393-0707
DC Office: (202) 224-3841
LA Office: (310) 914-7300
Fresno Office: (559) 485-7430
San Diego Office: (619) 231-9712
If you can't get through to one office, try another. There is no benefit to calling one office over another. Leaving a voicemail is as good as reaching a live person. Hate the phone? Resistbot is your friend.
Senator Kamala Harris
SF Office: (415) 981-9369
DC Office: (202) 224-3553
Sacramento Office: (916) 448-2787
LA Office: (213) 894-5000
San Diego Office: (619) 239-3884
Call the SF office first, but try the other offices if you can’t get through. If you can’t get a live person, leave a voicemail and also send a follow-up email written in your own words. Hate the phone? Resistbot is your friend.
Note: only one of the following two Congresswomen represents you. To find out which one, click here.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
SF Office: (415) 556-4862
DC Office: (202) 225-4965
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.
Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
The Pandemic, the Trump regime, and the Republican Party have inflicted upon America the greatest crisis we have faced since World War II. Left without adequate funds, the healthcare system and local governments are being overwhelmed. There is massive unemployment and small-business bankruptcies. There is growing hunger, and the threat of widespread foreclosures and evictions.
Congress needs to act, and act now. Continuation of the status quo is not acceptable. The [Senator/Representative] must enact appropriation bills or Continuing Resolutions that provide the emergency relief we need -- NOW! Not after the elections -- NOW!
Do not surrender to the Republican's government-shutdown blackmail. Stand up to them. Use your negotiating leverage to enact provisions that America needs now. If they shut down portions of the government because they refuse to provide aid to people, small businesses, and local governments, then that's on them.
We need:
Sufficient funds for hospitals, COVID testing, and COVID treatment.
Adequate financial support for the unemployed
National moratorium on evictions/foreclosures
Enough aid to state/local governments and Medicaid to keep them afloat
Hazard pay & adequate Personal Protective Equipment for essential workers
Funds, requirements, and polices to ensure fair and free elections
Protecting and restoring the postal service
Aggressive oversight of Trump regime corruption
Do not accept Republican poison pills such as:
Blanket liability immunity for businesses that disregard health and safety
Schemes to suspend payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare
Background
The Pandemic, the Trump regime, and the Republican Party, have created the greatest crisis that Americana have faced since World War II. The number of new COVID cases in the U.S. is two-and-a-half times those in the European Union which has a larger population. Seven months after the pandemic hit us, we still do not have adequate testing capability to control and contain the virus. The economy is reeling, small businesses are being driven under, state and local governments are facing bankruptcy, there is hunger in the land, and millions may made homeless by a potential wave of evictions/foreclosures.
But since large corporations are thriving and the stock market is soaring, the only thing Republicans care about is protecting their business donors from lawsuits when they endanger workers and customers by flagrantly violating health and safety guidelines. Driven by their libertarian, social-darwinist, "strong devour weak," ideology, they are proposing a "skinny," corporate-friendly aid-bill that provides less than a quarter of the emergency-relief funds that the Democratic HEROES Act called for. .
Meanwhile, federal-spending authority expires at midnight on September 30. The Democratic House has passed 10 of the 12 required appropriations bills, but the Republican Senate has not even begun work on them. So that means that one or more Continuing Resolutions (CR) will be needed to prevent a government shutdown. No CR can be passed without Democratic votes in both the House and the Senate, but instead of using their negotiating leverage to force Republicans to provide at least some of the emergency relief we need, Pelosi is promising a "clean" CR -- meaning one that does not include ANY of the essential provisions that Republicans oppose. That's not “clean,” that's caving in to political blackmail.
It's time for us to demand that our Members of Congress (MoC) act NOW to fight for the emergency relief that America needs.
The CDC Eviction Moratorium. As an emergency public-health matter, the CDC has ordered a moratorium on evicting tenants who cannot pay their rent due to Covid-related financial hardship. Unlike the Democratic HEROES Act, foreclosures on home-owners who are unable to meet their mortgage payments is not included in the CDC moratorium. The CDC moratorium runs until the end of the year. When it ends, tenants will be responsible for paying their back-rent plus accrued interest, late-fees, or other penalties as stipulated by their rental agreement. The moratorium requirements are subjective and subject to being challenged in court by landlords. Conservatives question the legality of the moratorium and it will probably be challenged in court (if it hasn't already). Therefore, while better than nothing, the CDC moratorium is inadequate.
Trump's Payroll Tax Suspension: Trump's executive order temporarily suspending payment of the employees share payroll taxes does absolutely nothing for the vast number of unemployed because the only people who pay it are those who still have their jobs. And as currently written, they'll be hit with a big tax-repayment bill in January. Trump intends to run on a promise to make the payroll tax cut permanent. But the taxes he suspended (and wants to cut permanently) fund half of Social Security and Medicare -- two government programs that Republicans hate and that they want to cripple and privatize. Cutting half their funding is just the way to do it.
Republican COVID Liability Scheme: The proposed Republican Senate “Skinny” relief bill includes blanket Covid-lawsuit immunity for businesses. They claim it's to prevent a wave of frivolous, nuisance, and harassment lawsuits by customers and workers falsely claiming that they caught the virus at the business location. But the actual language they are pushing makes it impossible to sue for damages even in cases of flagrant negligence, failure to obey public health orders, or refusing to provide basic safety provisions to prevent people from falling ill. They do this in a disguised way through legal language requiring that in order to sue you must conclusively prove that you didn't catch COVID anywhere else, which is impossible because you can't prove a negative.
Republican Unemployment Proposal: Senate Republicans say that their “Skinny” relief bill will include an additional $300/week federal unemployment benefit which is half what the Democratic HEROES Act called for. They haven't revealed the language, but if it's the same proposal as their HEALS Act scam or Trump's executive order, no one will get the federal $300 until after they first qualify for additional state aid which many states cannot afford to pay. And for those who do qualify for the federal $300, the money will be taken from the FEMA federal natural disasters fund in the middle of hurricane and fire season. This is a sham and a scam.
Republicans Float a Scaled-Back Stimulus Bill, NY Times 8/18
McConnell unveils slimmed-down coronavirus relief bill in Senate, announces vote for later this week, Washington Post, 9/8
Senate GOP unveils slimmed-down coronavirus relief bill, TheHill, 9/8
$300 Unemployment Benefit: Who Will Get It and When? NY Times 9/4
Mnuchin says Trump administration, Pelosi have agreed on plan to avoid government shutdown Oct. 1, Washington Post 9/6
Pelosi expresses confidence lawmakers will avoid government shutdown, The Hill 9/8
Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of COVID-19, Federal Register 9/4
The New Eviction Moratorium: What You Need to Know, NY Times 9/3
Sanders attacks 'corporate welfare' to coal industry included in relief package, TheHill, 9/8