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.
I’m calling to express concern about planned closures of US Forest Service offices and facilities. The staff at these facilities run programs that provide essential research, funding, and support for our forests and communities. I urge the Congressmember to oppose these closures and support full funding for the Forest Service.
I also urge the Congressmember to ask Representative Josh Harder and other Appropriations subcommittee members to enforce the laws Congress passed to fund the USDA and prevent Forest Service closures.”
Background
Why Is This Happening Now?
A major goal of the MAGA movement is to establish a “unitary executive” which invests all executive power in the presidency under article II of the Constitution and prohibits Congress from attaching conditions to its appropriations. As this explainer details, this theory would void “every appropriations rider, every reprogramming restriction, every spending condition Congress has ever attached to any bill. The power of the purse becomes a suggestion. The constitutional architecture that gives the Legislature control over federal spending completely collapses.” The separation of powers and checks and balances would disappear.
What We Can Do to Fight Back
We must demand accountability for this lawlessness. At minimum, we can ask our members of congress to hold hearings on how the USDA Secretary can implement a reorganization of the US Forest Service in direct contravention of legislation that both houses of Congress passed and the President signed into law. We need to know how the General Counsel is allowed to declare a duly enacted law unconstitutional by internal memo and face no consequences. If necessary, our MoC’s should subpoena USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, and General Counsel Tyler Clarkson, to require them to appear. We can ask our MoCs to go on the record supporting those investigations and to make a public statement in support of getting them started. We need to fight back against this blatant assault on checks and balances and save the US Forest Service.
References
This Week's US Congressional Call Scripts:
