As we move into a new year and a new Administration there’s much to feel hopeful about. More Americans are getting vaccinated every day.  We can work for an end to medical racism that has caused COVID to ravage Black communities. A COVID relief bill was finally passed. At the same time, Trump is pardoning criminals who lied and obstructed justice on his behalf.  He is encouraging violence, and his seditious supporters are attempting a coup. We can demand a more robust relief bill and accountability.  

The policy team will be taking a much-needed rest from December 25th through January 1st. During this interlude Indivisible Oregon will continue to provide opportunities for election work in GA to flip the Senate blue. And Indivisible maintains a website where you can record your COVID-19 stories and our MoCs can listen to how their constituents have been affected.

Trump’s been assaulting our system of government for years. His efforts to overturn the election have become ever more egregious. The next Congress must reclaim its oversight role, investigating Trump’s abuses. This Congress must ensure a peaceful transfer of power by impeaching and removing him.

Congress’s Covid-19 relief bill will certainly help, but it’s late and far too limited to stop the damage sweeping across the country. We need to thank Democrats for the best parts of the bill, and ask them to keep fighting for more generous relief.

The battle over coronavirus relief shows who cares for us. House Democrats passed comprehensive COVID relief months ago - which Senate Democrats support. McConnell and his GOP refuse to help us, instead rushing through judges and bargaining our lives away for corporate liability shields and for changes to federal lending programs so Biden won’t be able to help us.

We deserve a government that protects us and uses our tax dollars to help us. Yet at the 11th hour, Mitch inserted a poison pill into the COVID relief and government funding bill, hoping to blame Dems for no COVID relief and a government shut-down if they don't support his attempt to undermine Biden's ability to help our local and state governments collect the trash, distribute vaccines, pay first responders, etc.

Trump’s war on the Constitution, our laws, and democracy itself, which he began while running for President, continued during his presidency, abetted by a GOP that feared his wrath, and became even more toxic after American voters rejected him. While reconstructing and buttressing our democratic institutions against future assaults will be long and hard, we must make clear that GOP’s seditious behavior intolerable.

It appears Majority Leader McConnell finally caved and pulled the corporate liability shield from the COVID relief package. We made our voices heard, and Democrats saved us from GOP greed. If he remains majority leader after the GA run-offs, he will likely try again to pass the liability shield.

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment states: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress … who … having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same[.]" Yet 126 House Republicans signed onto a case brought by a Trump sycophant in Texas asking the US Supreme Court to overthrow fair and certified elections in four other states, even though the Constitution specifies that each state will set its own election rules. 

Building upon decades of research, scientists have produced a safe and effective vaccine that will help end this pandemic. Public health officials are ecstatic about how well it works. To make sure that everyone gets the vaccine Congress must act. They must pass a COVID relief package with: public health money for vaccine distribution; stimulus checks; unemployment insurance; eviction moratoriums.

Biden handily won the fairly conducted election. Yet Trump and his GOP collaborators continue to assault our democracy and threaten local officials for doing their jobs. His GOP ignores his dangerous rhetoric and legitimizes it, with 106 House Republicans joining a suit to overturn the election. Trump's GOP has declared warfare against democracy and especially Black voters. 

Government is supposed to use our taxes to make our lives better and keep us safe. Mitch McConnell and his GOP are holding our lives and tax dollars hostage, denying us meaningful COVID relief, so their donors can be shielded from legal liability for pushing us to work until we get sick and putting our lives at risk.

We voted for leaders who protect us from the pandemic no matter our ZIP code or skin color. McConnell and Trump want us to fend for ourselves. We voted for an executive branch that decides policy based on evidence, not gain for the wealthy few. McConnell and Trump want to fire civil servants who stand up for evidence.

We deserve input from Biden and his team on how the government spends our money.  The budget should reflect his and our goals: To rejoin the world community, effectively address the health and financial impact of the pandemic, and enact anti-racist, environmental, progressive financial policies. We respectfully request that our Members of Congress delay the budget process and instead pass a 3-month Continuing Resolution and a strong COVID relief bill in both Houses..

Progressive ideas enjoy greater support than Democratic candidates. Congress must move quickly to enact policies to improve the lives of working people and minority communities. A progressive COVID bill is a great place to start. Our MoCs should help struggling families and state, local, and tribal governments and oppose liability shields to protect businesses that don’t protect their workers.