Potential Government Shutdown: No Money for Trumpism!
Call BOTH of your Senators.
Call ONE of the Representatives. Note: only one of these Congressmembers represents you. Find out which one here.
Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
You must oppose the MAGA Regime's unconstitutional power-grabs with actions on the floor of Congress – not just words spoken at press conferences. Even if it means a government shutdown.
Vote "NO" on all appropriations bills and Continuing Resolutions (CR), that fail to include ironclad requirements that the MAGA Regime must obey and execute the laws as adopted by Congress. As a member of Congress, your Power of the Purse is your most important power – but if you don't defend it you will certainly lose it.
Strongly oppose every single bill or CR provision that enriches corporations and the wealthy to the economic detriment of everyone else. What Congress enacts now will shape the economy for the mid-term elections of next year. Force Republicans to vote on the record so we can hold them accountable.
Oppose increased funding for ICE, military occupation of Blue cities, and overall increases in the Pentagon budget.
Insist on restoration of the funds that were cut from Medicaid, Obamacare, and Medicare.
Stand firm against all MAGA culture-war poison pills.
Background
Congress has returned from their summer vacation. By law, all 12 of the Appropriation Bills that fund our government must be passed by midnight September 30. If the bills are not enacted, major portions of the federal government shut down – unless a Continuing Resolution (CR) is passed to extend funding for a specified time at the current levels.
Most of the 12 bills have not even been reported out of House/Senate committees, much less debated, so details are lacking. But given the Budget Resolutions that Republicans passed earlier this year, we know they will be larded with provisions to enrich the wealthy at the expense of all the rest of us, gut social spending while enlarging the military, police, and ICE, enact yet more un-Constitutional power-grabs, and contain as many bigoted and vicious MAGA culture war poison poison pills as they can jam in.
Since the MAGA Regime took office in January, their actions have amounted to an ongoing anti-Constitutional coup through executive action and legislative malfeasance. Our Constitution established three co-equal branches of government, and Congress is supposed to hold the Power of the Purse – the power to allocate funds and determine what they are spent for. But the Trump administration is illegally asserting a false power to over-ride and ignore congressional spending authorizations and amounts. If Congress allows the MAGA Regime to get away with that, they surrender their most essential power.
Only the bold and courageous exercise of democratic power can halt a coup. In the coming weeks, we must demand that our Members of Congress (MoC) refuse to vote for – and do everything they can to block – any appropriation bill or CR that does not contain clear, unambiguous language assuring that funds authorized by Congress will be spent for the specified purposes.
Even if that means a shutdown.
Republicans now completely control all three branches of the federal government. If their unconstitutional power-grab and poison pills force a shutdown, that's on them. And it's on us to protest and make clear to the public who is responsible.
References
Government shutdown looms as Congress returns after monthlong August recess, KQED/PBS. 9/1/2
Schumer warns of growing chance of government shutdown, The Hill, 9/2/25
US Congress returns, with one month to avert government shutdown, Reuters, 9/2/25
This Week's US Congressional Call Scripts:
